Some Reasons Why Youth are Violent

Causes of Violent Behavior

It is very stressful to look at the news on television or listen to it on the radio. Even the newspapers are filled with stories of violence among our children. Increasingly, the stories that fill our media are of domestic violence, political violence and violence among our youth. Years ago, children would get into confrontation and fight it out with their fists. Our news shows us that times have changed dramatically. Violence among our youth is increasing every day. There are many causes for violent behaviors, but the major one is the environment in which we live in today.

First of all, we live in an environment where guns, drugs, and alcohol are easily accessible to children. For example, Mark Manes, a former Columbine high school student, purchased a TEC-DC9 at a local gun show and then later gave it to Harris and Klebold. Robyn Anderson, Klebold’s girlfriend, also admitted to buying a Hi-point semiautomatic carbine and two 1969 savage shot guns for Klebold. These were the guns Klebold used to shoot his schoolmates. In the Conyers, Georgia, shooting, T.J. Solomon took the guns he used from the unlocked display case in his family’s basement and the bullets from a drawer underneath the display. There are other reports of children who obtained guns from home or a friend. Furthermore, drugs and alcohol are even easier for children to access. These substances are found in some homes or easily bought on street corners. Drugs and alcohol are both mind altering and can cause violent behavior.

Secondly, violence is marketed to young children through toys and products linked to television programs, movies, and video games. This is how many children are first drawn into a culture-of-violence. Researchers tell us that the roots of violent behavior are established when children are very young. For instance, the America

Psychological Association has concluded that patterns of aggressive behavior at age eight are highly predictive to aggressive behavior in adulthood. Both the quantity and quality of violence marketed to young children have continued escalating since children’s TV was deregulated in 1984, and it became legal to market toys to children through the media. Early TV shows, such as GI JOE, TEENAGE MUTANT NINIJA TURTLES , and POWER RANGERSbegan the phenomena. Now, movies are often the preferred vehicle for marketing violent toys and products to children. Many of the movies are rated PG-13 or even R, but the theme toys are marketed to children ages four and up. Examples of this trend include, GODZILLA, SMALL SOLDIERS, SPAWN, JURASSIC PARK, and STARSHIP TROOPERS.

Lastly, and most importantly, the tendencies to violence in the home where many factors includes, abuse, divorce, single parenting, inadequate adult supervision and child spoiling, feeds the problem. Young children are easily influenced. Setting boundaries at a young age may help eliminate some of the violence that we breed.

Some children face abuse and act on that, as they get older, sometimes in violent ways. A child may have been raped and so in turn becomes a rapist in adulthood. A child may act out violently because of the divorce of their parents. Another child may join a gang to achieve a sense of family or belonging. There was an episode on JUDGE JUDY , about a young girl who joined a gang. She absorbed in the culture-of-violence. When asked why she felt she needed the gang, she replied that her mother, who was a single parent, had another child who was handicapped, and he was getting all the attention, so she joined the gang to feel loved and wanted. Too often, there is no adult supervision to monitor what the children are watching on television who their friends are, or where they are spending their time. This is so, because the parent, usually the mother is left to raise the children alone, and she is too often busy working to take care of these responsibilities.

Therefore, as parents, as a society, and as a country we need to take a step back to look at these downfalls and to take steps to change our behaviors and the lives of our children. Children are depending on us to raise them into successful, well-socialized individuals who will lead the future.