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Violence among teenagers
Peer pressure and teen violence
Violence among teenagers
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There are many contributing factors that lead up to the senseless act of violence, which might have been prevented if Kip's parents had recognized how disturbed their son was. Should parents be more involved with their children's everyday lives in order to maintain healthy relationships?
The very first time when parents bring home a new born a bonding starts. A child is nurtured and raised with love and praise, but in some cases children do not live up to parents' expectations. This seemed to be the case with Kipland Kinkel, Kip didn't live up the standards his parents had set for him. They expected him to be like his sister, but having a learning disability made it nearly impossible to be everything his parents wanted him to be.(The Killer, video)
His parents sought a variety of solutions. One of the many solutions was that his parents kept Kip back in first grade. Kip then stumbled through the third grade where he would study for spelling test, but not pass them. So his parents made him study harder at home. Kip showed no sign of improvement , but he was compelled not to be a disappointment to his parents. The parents tried to show him they didn't compare him to his sister. It was hard for them to do that because, even in the home videos, his sister would do something thing and then Kip would try and not succeed. (The Killer, video)
Kip's parents didn't take the right action to Kip's interest in violent weapons. When Kip was young, his parents wouldn't let him play with violent toys or things on that order. This may have led to Kip's obsession with guns, knives and bombs. He didn't get the need for this items out of his system when he was young . Kip started asking his father for a rifle around the age of twelve, and his father was a little weary about the idea
of him having a gun. So then came along Kip's twelfth birthday and being the good father he is and wanting to help cope with his son, he gave him a rifle.(The Young Kill) Some rules were applied to this gift like it had to be locked up at all times and Kip can only shoot it when his father was around. This only whet Kip's appetite for fire arms and other violent weapons. Secretly Kip would build a small arsenal of weapons.
These two men, both coming from different backgrounds, joined together and carried out a terrible choice that rendered consequences far worse than they imagined. Living under abuse, Perry Smith never obtained the necessary integrity to be able to pause and consider how his actions might affect other people. He matured into a man who acts before he thinks, all due to the suffering he endured as a child. Exposed to a violent father who did not instill basic teachings of life, Smith knew nothing but anger and misconduct as a means of responding to the world. He knew no other life. Without exposure to proper behavior or responsible conduct, he turned into a monster capable of killing an entire family without a blink of remorse. In the heat of the moment, Perry Smith slaughtered the Clutter family and barely stopped to take a breath. What could drive a man to do this in such cold blood? The answer lies within his upbringing, and how his childhood experiences shaped him to become the murderer of a small family in Holcomb, Kansas. ¨The hypothesis of unconscious motivation explains why the murderers perceived innocuous and relatively unknown victims as provocative and thereby suitable targets for aggression.¨ (Capote 191). ¨But it is Dr. Statten´s contention that only the first murder matters psychologically, and that when
On May 20th of 1998 Kip Kinkel was suspended from Thurston High for possession of a gun in his locker. He purchased the gun from a classmate, however another student that had heard about the sale taking place, notified employees of the school who then contacted the police and had them investigate. Kip was taken into custody to the police station and then sent home with his father. No-one can be exactly sure what transpired between Kip and his father on the ride home or after getting to the house. After getting back, he took one of his guns, shot his father in the back of the head, killing him on the spot. He moved his father’s body into the bathroom and then covered him with a sheet. He waited throughout the day for his mother to come home. When his mother finally pulled into the driveway and began walking into the house, he killed her as well. He shot her five times in the head, and once in the heart.
In this case, Brown decided that the benefit of having his own room was worth the risk of committing murder. The choice to cover the murder weapon with a blanket indicates that rationale was used in planning the attack. This is important to note because Brown considered that concealing the weapon under a blanket would enable him to commit his crime undetected. Furthermore, Brown’s attempt to throw the shotgun shell into the grass on the way to the school bus demonstrates his understanding of what he was doing and his intent to hide the evidence. Due to this, it can be established that Brown weighed his options and knew that what he was doing was something that should be hidden and was less than forthright. As the theory claims that adolescent offenders are self-centered, Brown’s case reflects this through his inability to consider the needs or feelings of the others in his family (Siegel & Welsh,
It is the parents’ responsibility to guide their children in all of their activities. If parents fail to guide their children, or even go so far as to arm them, then parents are just as liable for the tragic end results as the video game developer who ‘taught’ the child to shoot a gun or a musician who told the child to “go kill yourself,” in a song lyric. Parents must realize that they are the most influential people in their child’s life from the day the child is born. It is up to the parents to try to teach their child the difference between fantasy and reality; how to interpret theatrics meant to sell tickets; how to interpret the true meaning behind seemingly violent content in their entertainment.
In Columbine, Dave Cullen says, “You can’t really teach a child anything: you can only show him the way and motivate him to learn it himself.” Raising a child has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. Through long days and nights, parenting does not have a step-by-step plan. A parent can only show and teach their child how to act, but it is the child’s job to decide how they want to act and live. The Harris’ and Klebolds’ are two great examples of how parenting can be a blessing, then take a turn for the worse. Dylan and Eric fails their parents in ways such as lying, hiding, and being selfish.
Subsequently, the parenting responsibilities in his home fell on his maternal grandparents. Furthermore, his mother lacked the appropriate nurturing skills and maturity needed to raise Kevin and his siblings. In turn, physical, emotional and verbal abuse was her answers to everything. As Kevin indicated, the abuse “Goes back as far as I can remember” and his mother would beat him with “Whatever she got her hands on.” The abuse was often unprovoked and out of nowhere. Painfully, he recalled how is mother would bind Hot-Wheel’s race tracks together with rubber bands and make him strip nude and utter the phrase, “Take you clothes off because I am beating you, not them.” Kevin was not the only sibling subjected to his mother wrath. His brother Kerry liked to play with matches and after being told by his mother to stop, Kevin recalled how his mother punished him by placing his hand over the open flame on the stove. These painful memories are still ripe in Kevin’s mind. The abuse inside the home would only end when his grandmother intervened. Despite this grandmother’s best efforts, she could not stop all the abuse, and his mother’s verbal abuse was just as
Family environment and the press are two major influences resulting in the recent tragic school shootings. As much as society continues to focus the killing rampages on factors such as television and music, what children are exposed to in reality contributes to the violence. The most recent school shooting in Michigan involved a six-year-old first grader who killed a classmate with a .22 caliber pistol. The news coverage had vanished after two or three days, and I was left wondering what had happened. Considering the fact that the media wore the Columbine incident out, I wanted to know why they did not pay more attention to this school shooting. As evidence did arrive, it was discovered that the child lived in a household where cocaine, heroin, and many other illegal drugs were commonplace. Also in this “home” guns were easily accessible to the child. Children growing up in this type of environment certainly are likely to be held accountable for future violence. Even though I am against the news media presenting too much school violence, Americans should have been deeply disturbed by this shooting because of the child’s young age. The Michigan shooting should have enlightened Americans to the dilemma we face in this country. Two weeks after the Columbine High School shooting, information on the mass murder was still being broadcast on television. The press was feeding young viewers ideas on how to kill their classmates. News was reported how the teenage murderers acquired information regarding building bombs, obtaining guns, smuggling guns into the school, and proceeding to kill their classmates. A mentally unstable teenager could simply watch these news reports and write a book entitled, “How to Slay Your Classmates”. This onslaught was ridiculous and the news coverage should not have been permitted to continue for countless weeks. Society has determined three reasons on which to blame the shootings. First, the nation blamed it on television’s violent programs. Following that, Americans gave the music recording companies the evil eye as well as attacking the gun manufacturers. All of these reasons involve material objects that are unable to think for themselves. Televisions and CD players do not control themselves, people control them. Finally, boundaries controlling the television programs children view should be set by the parents. The same explanation applies to firearms. How can it be a gun’s fault that a person killed another human being?
Understand that there are more than one cause to juvenile violence. Media and television related violence is only one of the factors. Addressing and trying to correct one issue at a time is going to be the most productive. Take television for example. Lionel Tate was obviously influenced by actions he saw from people, adults, on television. Though not all blame can be put in the hands of the entertainment industry. Other factors including parent control and limitation, and previous behavioral patterns could have prevented Tiffany's death. In the book, Children in a Violent Society, Joy Osofsky makes a strong case about kids and the negative effects of witnessing violence. "Children learn what they see…and they do not learn that violence is bad. Too often, they learn that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict…"(Osofsky, 4). Take a hypothetical situation about Johnny.
The characters around Dave make him feel like he is still a child. His wants to purchase a gun to feel more powerful. In the beginning of this story, Dave talks about how a gun would change the way people acted towards him. He feels that if he owns this power, the men in the fields who work with him will have more respect for him, and his mother will start treating him as an adult. Dave feels as if he is surrounded by people who treat him as a child and he does not like this at all. “You ain’t nothing but a boy. You don’t need a gun.'; This statement said by Joe, is the main reason why Dave truly wants a gun, to feel independent.
Have you ever looked at someone and thought, I wonder what made him/her the way she is today?” When you do this, you often have to look back on a person’s childhood. How did certain events affect them? Over time violence has become dramatically evident is children’s lives. Parents do not seem to be careful with their children’s viewing habits. They are beginning to let them watch whatever is on TV. For example: Family guy, all those shows on Adult swim. These violent TV programs could cause so many problems for the children and parents later on in life. Parents should carefully monitor children’s viewing habits so they have limited exposure to violence, increase their physical activity, and decrease aggressive behavior.
To begin with, numerous reasons for why a child acts in the manner he exhibits and why he continues to exert such dangerous and even fatal schemes. Recent research shows that factors ranging from inherited personality traits to chemical imbalances and damages suffered in the womb can increase the odds that a child will become violent (Johnson 234). Experts argue that no one is predestined to a life of crime. They believe that influences such as repeated abuse, extreme neglect, poverty, media violence, and easy access to guns play the major role in molding children into criminals. The father of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer wonders, "If potential for evil is in the blood that some of us pass on to our children" (Seifert 23).
Kellmer developed a theory that there are 4 equally important needs that the child should have, this includes, the need for love and security is a basic need that every child should have therefore a child living with parents may not have this need met and that 's the reason why they are taken into local authority care, when this happens then the child will receive this need. The second significant developmental needs is the need for new experiences, Kellmer thinks that this is vital for mental growth and is usually carried out through play when the child is younger, the child should have the opportunity to explore the world and the environment that they are in. the need for praise and recognition is also an important developmental need according to Kellmer and requires a large amount of learning emotional, social and intellectual. When a child is put into local authority care they will receive praise and recognition from their key worker and foster carer as they may not have received this from their parents, the child can then continue to develop to the norm. The last developmental need that Kellmer thinks that is significantly important to the child’s development is
Shapiro, J., Dorman, R., Welker, C. & Clough, J (1998), Youth attitudes towards guns and violence: Relations with sex, age, ethnic group, and firearm exposure Journal of Clinical Child Psychology. 27(1).
...ted by a problem they have which also has to do with the parents big time, because, it is their job to make sure their son or daughter is always feeling comfortable with their environment. It really falls back on the parents when their child does something so heinous, but no matter what the crime is committed and should always be set in stone that no teen can get away with committing a murder.
On the eastern coast of Africa lies a land full of sunny blue skies and large plains in which zebras and elephants roam. This land is the country of Kenya. Outside of Kenya’s cities and towns lies many samples of natures beauty. Unfortunately, the people living in this land are troubled by their struggle with the government and trying to form a democracy. Matthew Carotenuto stated, “Much of the world had historically viewed Kenya as an island of peace and economic potential in a roiling sea of stateless chaos.” What he means is that people have long seen Kenya as a peaceful place that is surrounded by countries suffering from all sorts of violence and unfortunate circumstances. What many people do not know is that Kenya has a long history for political violence going way back to when the country was colonized. Understanding that Kenya’s past violence was due to their struggle for social and political authority helps us understand some of their violence issues today. According to Maina Kiai, violence broke out after Kenya’s 2007 election. Many people had thought that Kenya was a more peaceful country compared to others in Africa because they were working towards a democracy. Currently Kenya is a republic (“Kenya” The World...). Another thing Kiai mentioned is that one of Kenya’s major political problems is that Kenya's constitution gives the president full power to elect anyone he wants into a political position for any salary he chooses. Scott Baldauf and Robert Crilly also explain how Kenya is trying to become a democracy but its political system is weak and allows the president too much power, making the nation a dictatorship in disguise. This leads to many ethical issues within the governments systems. We should care about Ken...