Teen Violence - Essay Example

185442 Teen violence has come to the forefront from the side wings, where it always has been, all of a sudden in Britain. It is a rather depressingsocial happening and one that creates terrible hopelessness in the society. It also brings forward the divisions, simmering hatred, difficult bifurcations and unmentionable sad undercurrents of the society that looks monolithic from outside. For a flourishing society, nothing could be more degenerating. Mostly it is blamed on the media, home, school and television. "Children who watch more than an hour of television a day during their early teens are more likely to be violent in later life, according to new research." reports BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1899533.stm Daily Mirror blames the home and school environment and lack of interest for the crime escalation. "Today, school boy violence is brutal and cruel, a youngster on his first day at a new school is assaulted for not having the money to pay off his school bullies, a student is harassed and brutally manhandled for the mere fact of wearing a new pair of shoes to school. Teenagers yet in school accused of rape and sexual violence". http://www.dailymirror.lk/2003/03/03/opinion/3.html It is reported that watching wrestling could be one of the reasons. In America, teen violence is also linked with volatile music. The Guardian dated 16th February 2007 blames it on cheap arms availability and local rivalries. "Recent Home Office research says illegal firearms are becoming increasingly accessible to younger offenders, who appear more likely to use them recklessly. The possession of these illegal firearms - some bought for 50 - leads to "shoot or be shot" situations, even when the events precipitating conflict are trivial". Same Guardian published a curious article on 14th September 2003: Feeding children a diet rich in fish could prevent violent and anti-social behaviour in their teens, according to research to be announced this week which suggests the root causes of crime may be biological rather than social. This view was seconded by The Observer. Psychologists agree that instability during teens is part of identity establishment, and attitudes could be habit-forming. "Attitudes formed during the stage of identity formation that occurs during adolescence are likely to be long-lasting, even permanent, and to exert a great influence on behaviour," McCarthy and Hutz (2006, p.vii). In recent times, extreme violence has been shown by the teen groups. They kicked a mentally challenged person to death, killed a man who was merely defending his car and property, and there were gang wars, resulting in a number of teenage killings. A teenager was shot for not parting with his games console. There are many connected issues and themes here. Bullying could be the reason and result both. Showing off usually happens after watching highly violent movies and television where utter violence is glorified. A rather appalling point exists here. If a teenage gang attacks a person, how could all of them be of the same opinion How could they all be tuned to the same psychological violence There can be an easy answer that says 'they are part of the same violent gang and naturally the mind-set is the same'. It can be the same up to a certain extent; otherwise they would not be together. But beyond that point, the cracks have to show. At least some teenagers, either due to reputation fear, parental admonition, teacher intimidation or even the police and jail future, should show reluctance in killing a person. In the recent cases, this reluctance of some members did not show and that is a very negative point which shows that the teen violence mindset has reached an uncontrollable limit and society/authorities should notice this trend. Another theme is drug/alcohol sometimes mixed with wild sex. Sex is rather rare in these cases, but cannot be ruled out completely. Drug and alcohol usually exist in every case. The teenage unavailability of drugs and alcohol could be overcome very easily with many manoeuvres. Making both totally unavailable looks almost impossible and the only way of protecting teenagers is making them understand the effects. Teen violence also includes fights, gang violence, gang wars, dating violence and suicide. Another cause can be the existence of ethnicity, race, religion and other connected differences. It is surprising that even though the elders have mastered the art of non-discrimination, the youngsters, who, practically speaking, should have been above all the differences, are being victims and perpetrators of these differentiations. Of course, this cannot be the cause of all the teen violence all over Britain. But to a large extent, there are undercurrents. This does not mean that there cannot be teenage warfare between the groups belonging to the same ethnicity. Both patterns exist. It is difficult to say that dropping out of school, unemployment and deprivation are the causes. They are too young to feel the discrimination. Teenage usually is the age when everything looks beautiful, marvellous and dreamy. Then how can this offensive lot become so cynical to the extent of taking innocent lives There are also instances of extreme domestic abuses that lead teenagers into hatred and abuse transfer. In one of its research reports, Guardian Unlimited blamed it all on the increasingly violent computer games: "Hi-tech maps of the mind show that computer games are damaging brain development and could lead to children being unable to control violent behaviour" http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,539166,00.html Psychological help, recognising the offence behaviour and communication will help a lot in this direction. Community help and keeping the teens occupied in beneficial education or tasks also will be of use. At the same time, some kind of fear should be inculcated in the teen minds. Main problem here is the knowledge that the law will treat them as children even if they are caught. This leniency of the law, even though it is right with reference to their age, spurs them into careless and reckless attitude. If there is a change in the law that the treatment of the court will depend upon the nature of each case and not on the age of the attacker, that should work as a deterrent. The Prime Minister has recently said that he would look into violent game crackdown. Home Office says it is trying to curb the domestic violence. "The Home Office is working closely with other central Government departments, regional Government and local partnerships, particularly those responsible for crime and disorder, to ensure an effective, multi-agency response to domestic violence." http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/dv/dv01.htm Teen violence can be a debilitating danger to any society and should be curbed as fast as possible. Teen Outreach Project renders sufficient help to teens who are in trouble and has proved to be a positive organisation. There are a number of organisations, caring institutions that the teens could go and find help if they are disturbed or abused in any way. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Guardian dated 16th February 2007. 2. Guardian dated 14th September 2003. 3. McCarthy, Sherry and Hutz, Claudio (2006), Preventing Teen Violence, a guide for parents and professionals, Praeger, Westport. ONLINE SOURCES: 1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/1899533.stm 2. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,539166,00.html 3. http://www.dailymirror.lk/2003/03/03/opinion/3.html 4. http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk/dv/dv01.htm Read More