Youth Concern: Who to blame for young people's violent behaviour

Who to blame for young people's violent behaviour By Spiros Tzelepis Investing the reasons of youth violence. Modern societies experience an increasing rate of violence year after year. Although violence was always part of human societies, what seems more threatening nowadays is the fact that more and more young people are involved in violent actions even at an early age.

During the last year all mankind was shocked by the events in the American and Canadian schools where young students attacked their teachers and schoolmates without any obvious reason.

The statistics on the phenomenon speak:

According to Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a school-based survey designed to produce a nationally representative sample of risk behaviors among students in grades 9-12 in USA in 1997:

18.3% of high school students carried a weapon (e.g., gun, knife, or club) during the 30 days preceding the survey, down from 26.1% in 1991;
5.9% of high school students carried a gun during the 30 days preceding the survey
8.5% of high school students carried a weapon on school property during the 30 days preceding the survey
7.4% of high school students were threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the 12 months preceding the survey.
Nationwide, 14.8% of students had been in a physical fight on school property one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey. Overall, male students (20%) were significantly more likely than female students (8.6%) to have been in a physical fight on school property. This significant difference was identified for white and Hispanic students and all grade subgroups.
Approximately one third (32.9%) of students nationwide had had property (car, clothing, or books) stolen or deliberately damaged on school property one or more times during the 12 months preceding the survey.
Arrest rates for weapons offenses among youths 10 to 17 years of age doubled between 1987 and 1993, then dropped 15% by 1995 - down to their 1991 level.
In 1997, 5.9% of students in a national survey reported carrying a firearm at least once in the previous 30 days. In 1995, this was true of 7.6% of students - a decline of 22.4% over the two year period.
Between July 1992 and June 1994, 105 violent deaths occurred on or near school grounds or at school-associated events. The majority (81%) were homicides and firearms were used in most (77%) of the deaths. The violent deaths occurred in communities of all sizes in 25 states.

(information provided by Youth Violence and Suicide Prevention Team)

What makes young people turn into crime and violence? This question is not easy to be answered as it is relevant to a variety of reasons which are interrelated and form the structure of modern societies. Therefore if we want to find out what makes these young people "shoot" society, we have to investigate its structure.

Young people live in a society which has neither beliefs nor ideology ; they try to find something to believe in, to find values, but they cannot. This situation creates "nihilism" to them and many times creates fanaticism which leads to violent actions.
Young people try to find a way to channel the redundant amount of energy they have and as they have no other way, they try to ruin the "system".They deny the social system and because of this they want to destroy it.The more they refuse to accept the system the more they want to destroy it. Here is a collection of what young people have written in various walls of my city.
"We have nothing"
"We are nothing"
"There is nothing"
"There is nothing for me"
"We do not believe in anything"
"We do not belong anywhere"
"We are punk because we do not like anything"
"I am bored; stop the world because I want to get off it"
Please notice the repetition of the word "nothing", open your ears to hear the desperate voice of those young people who have nothing to believe in life and then it will be easy for you to understand their behavior.
Young people want social acceptance in a world which considers "possessing" a necessary presupposition for "being " and values only money. Everyday they receive a shower of advertisements which promote the model of the "successful people"; the dreamy world of luxury cars and impressive dresses. It is easy for everyone to understand that the average teenager will turn into crime in order to obtain a position in this world when the circumstances of his family do not support him.
What do young people experience around them? A society where the person with power is the person with money; values are abolished; human rights are violated; lives are not respected. All these are sacrificed for money. How can we expect for them to be different when this is what they are taught everyday?
The Media familiarize young people with violence.They highlight the model of the powerful violent person. Even the model of the "good man" who enforces the law (the anti-violence) does nothing more than to expand this situation as the legal defence is violence, too. Scientists claim that nine out of ten criminals are "constructed"
Young people encircled in hostile cities without immediate contact with nature, pressed by the lack of time feel a threat around them. Feelings of psychological pressure lead them to antisocial behavior.

Adults find it enjoying to give toys and games which promote violence to their kids. On the other hand they allow them to watch violent films and sometimes they accept their violent behavior.They do not understand that this way as kids get older, they will continue to play other violent games in real life this time.

Here is what an official organization mentions as factors of causing violent behavior to young people:

INDIVIDUAL	FAMILY	PEER/SCHOOL	NEIGHBORHOOD
history of early aggression beliefs supportive of violence social cognitive deficits	poor monitoring or supervision of children exposure to violence parental drug/alcohol abuse poor emotional attachment to parents or caregivers	associate with peers engaged in high-risk or problem behavior low commitment to school academic failure	poverty and diminished economic opportunity high levels of transiency and family disruption exposure to violence

Table taken from the US National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Division of Violence Prevention.

If the world does not do anything to redress the wrongs and acquire moral values and if we do not enrich our lives with the love for other human beings, we won't be surprised to hear about and watch more crimes committed by young people.

"Without love the world is an endless lonliness"

Albert Camus

The table and the statistics were taken from the Youth Violence Fact Sheet at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/dvp/yvpt/newfacts.htm by the Youth Violence and Suicide Prevention Team at the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, USA.

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Who to blame for young people's violent behaviour

Investing the reasons of youth violence.

Reconstruction: July-August-September 2002 © Copyright 2002 Spiros Tzelepis No part of this website is to be used or reproduced by any means without the written permission of the creator

Reconstruction: July-August-September 2002

© Copyright 2002 Spiros Tzelepis
No part of this website is to be used or reproduced by any means without the written permission of the creator