Juvenile Crime and Violence in Schools - Essay Example

Juvenile Crime and Violence in Schools ID Lecturer Juvenile crime and violence are some of the most heinous issues to have crept up in the modern day America. There seem to be a number of different causes for this violence to have exponentially increased with the passage of time. One of the reasons is that these American high schools and colleges comprise of students who are at odds with the school authorities and feel their roles should be judged in the light of equality. However sadly this is one missing link which paves the way for the students to resort to violence and criminal activities. They are in essence subjugating their own future domains more than anything else. The society suffers on this count nonetheless. The discriminatory policies have been brought to the fore with the ever-increasing firing and sniping cases within these schools and colleges of late. The discrimination basically stems from the fact that teachers and fellow students have shown differential treatment towards the students who hail from world’s varied regions and continents. Then there is the important element of not meeting up to the financial basis of these schools and college and hence the pressure exerted on the students takes it toll in a very negative fashion. This paper takes a keen look at the ways and means through which juvenile crime and violence has been propagated in schools and colleges and discerns the ways and means through which this could be brought to an end. The juvenile crimes and violence within schools and colleges has increased because students have felt frustrated on most of the occasions. They opine that injustice is meted upon them and that they do not feel like a part of the usual school and college realms. The students who receive bad grades and who consistently fail within the school’s educational domains are thus the recipients of such injustice. They eventually succumb to pressure which is exerted upon them by the school authorities. They vent their feelings by being violent, give into the crime angle and thus make their destinies go all wrong. The perspective changes in essence and their thinking mechanisms start to change for the worse. One more aspect that comes to the fore here is that of looking trendy and different on the part of the students. They want to manifest their violent basis and thus need more control over the fellow students in these schools and colleges. What this suggests is the fact that the authorities within the helm of affairs have failed in their efforts to curb the violent regimes in place within these schools and colleges and have essentially given into these undertakings on part of the rowdy students (Hoffman, 1996). At times, different political parties and pressure groups make use of these students and try to sabotage the peace and sanity of these schools and colleges in order to take political mileage over their opponents and political groups. This indeed mars the very basis of having schools and colleges in the first place. The torture camps are thus synonymous with these schools and colleges and this suggests a very anarchic picture of the educational norms within the society. Juvenile crime and violence have long impacted the schools and colleges of America. There are serious problems with the people who essentially run these schools and colleges. They are more concerned with mincing money and having more and more students with each passing day. They are least concerned about the quality of education that is being given to the students and seldom investigate the kind of people who are actually getting enrolled with these schools and colleges. This is indeed a very serious anomaly which exists within the educational regimes of present times and one which needs to be properly focused upon in order to keep away from violent and extremist elements. What this will do is to propagate a lot of negativity and hatred amongst people as well as make them feel unsafe with regards to these students. The role of these students must be to learn, acquire knowledge and manifest their real self through their educational journey. If they fall within the trap of crime and violence, there is little doubt that they have actually lost the very meaning of having education and knowledge. Thus the best manner in which these students could be brought to justice is to tell them proactively their role within the school domains and what the schools and colleges expect of them on a consistent basis. This indeed will solve quite a lot of issues to start with (Swearer, 2004). The foreign students face quite a lot of problems and issues within the American educational institutions. These could include the students from Japan, China, India, Burma, Australia, certain parts of Africa, Brazil and so on. Since their native language is usually not English, they find it hard to decipher the education within its true contexts. Sometimes the native students make fun of these students which lead to animosity of sorts amongst them. Constant provoking leads to enmity which is of dangerous extents (Rothstein, 1995). What this implies is that these foreign nationals take these taunts and jibes on their personalities very strongly. They aim to take revenge from the students who have turned them into a laughing stock. At times, these students warn their fellow colleagues about the harsh repercussions which they would have to face. It has generally been seen that the students who have committed violent acts within schools and colleges are essentially the ones who had tough times at these educational institutions with regards to their fellow colleagues. Thus animosity leads its way towards violence and firing attacks. Similarly juvenile crime within high schools takes a similar lead to what is happening within colleges and universities. As a matter of fact, juvenile crime takes its roots from hatred. This kind of hatred is mostly developed on the part of the students for their teachers and fellow students if they feel that they are not being given their due rights or are made to pay by the school and college authorities in one way or the other. The bottom line remains that these students are being discriminated in one way or the other. The technological basis however is something which is also important to understand here. With the changing times, technological tools have come to the fore which has excited the students more and more. One can name quite a few products which are instant hits within the youngsters. These could include Ipods, cell phones, PDAs, laptops and so on. When these students see that their colleagues have the same with them and the fact that they cannot buy these trendy, expensive gadgets, they resort to crime. They steal these products and thus give pleasure to their thoughts and actions that at last they are the sole owners of these gadgets and trendy items. For this reason, school and college authorities have fitted in close circuit cameras to find out who is behind all these criminal activities and how students actually delve into notions of stealing and robbing things from the holds of their colleagues. Proper counseling needs to be given to such students who are determined as juvenile criminals. They must be taught that these acts would not win them any favors in their times to come. It would be best to put them in rehabilitation so that they could learn from their mistakes. Once again, counseling and facilitation works wonders for these students. The reasons for committing such crimes and the alternatives present in front of them must be asked. It is very important that these students are told about the solutions which could essentially put them at ease with regards to similar thoughts in the future. One must understand that juvenile crimes lead to something drastic on the part of these students in the future. They must be stopped now in order to have a better tomorrow. However this can only come about when there are concerted efforts on the part of the school and college authorities. They need to put school discipline as their first and foremost priority. Only after discipline is completely achieved, should they wander into other areas. However it is a given that the school authorities must not compromise on the discipline tangent at all (Scott, 1993). What is most important however is the fact that the causes behind these juvenile crimes need to be discerned and later on addressed in a much narrowed down perspective. The counseling and facilitation regimes must be proper so that the students learn only the good aspects with regards to the betterment of not only their own selves, but also the society at large. These students must be taught their responsibilities towards the people with which they live. A collective vision is indeed their ultimate savior if the schools and colleges focus precisely on the tenet of building a society which has welfare and care for one another. This would obviously bear rich fruit at the end of the day. References Hoffman, A. (1996). Schools, Violence and Society, Praeger Rothstein, S. (1995). Class, Culture, and Race in American Schools: A Handbook, Greenwood Press Scott, D. (1993). Reinventing American Schools, Black Enterprise, Vol. 24, September 1993 Swearer, S. (2004). Bullying in American Schools: A Social-Ecological Perspective on Prevention and Intervention, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Word Count: 1,506 Read More