What's wrong with our youth? Is it a psychosocial disorder? Is it the parents?

[DSTCHAOS]

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

Whether you believe it or not, children have gotten much worse than they've ever been. The school shootings I mentioned earlier are proof of that. Of course they don't happen all of the time. In fact they're rare. They're an unprecedented kind of adolescent violence. I don't have a complete understanding of why they happen and I've barely begun to consider their long term consequences. I do have an opinion on the problem though. It could be from mental illness to lack of discipline, from violent media to the availability of guns. Do these theories hold water? I think they do. I'm not saying school shootings never occured in the past, but I do know they began to increase in the early 90s, peaking in the late 90s, then falling back to zero in the early part of the 21st century. Also, they only dropped off because school officials caught the problem before it got started.

They are rare and they have still received outrage and exaggerated analyses of the "state of our youth." Just like perceived increases in homicides have made people afraid of people and causes-of-death that they are least likely to actually be victimized by. Tragedies always result in exaggerated assessments that are based on a spouting of opinions and fears rather than information.

Plus, people are still going based on what they see reported in the media and others' fears and opinions. The public isn't conducting research on how many school shootings occurred before Columbine made it big and whether there have been any measurable changes to contribute an increase in violence to. You have to also consider that where such violence occurs matters. The mainstream wasn't concerned about violence as long as they THOUGHT it was kept in an "inner city and/or lower socioeconomic status bubble." As with any other incident, people's fears aren't based on an informed opinion.

Originally Posted by cheerfulgreek

Is violence publicized more now? Yes, and I think media coverage does contribute to school violence panic and by far aggravates the difficulties for communities in which rampage episodes have occured. Also, youth violence itself, not just the shootings, increased dramatically in the late 1980s and early 90s, a period in which rates of crime and violence among other age groups actually went down. I don't think kids and guns mix well, because the increase in homicides committed by youths came ENTIRELY in the form of murders involving firearms.

Yes, there are other factors, but we have to start by looking at which youths are violent. I'm not being biased, but I think boys are more likely to commit violent acts than girls. I also think that almost all violent offenders first manifest their tendencies between the age of 14 and 18, based on patterns that I've seen. Beyond age, race or whatever, other risk factors for violence among youths include domestic violence and abuse, weak family bonding and ineffective supervision, lack of opportunities for education and employment, peers who engage in or accept violence, drug and alcohol use, gun possession and individual temperament. Kids have always looked to elevate their status among peers, to have a permanent identity so they can acquire power over others, or find justice or retribution. Now, they use firearms to do it.

I think the increase in violence comes from violent video games, availability of guns, the crack cocaine epidemic, and a culture of violence, but I don't think any of these factors work entirely by themselves. It starts with the deteriorating social and economic conditions of inner city neighborhoods. On top of the drug epidemic, when they're unavailable, kids find other resources to get high off of. Now you have to be 18 to purchase spray paint, glue and/or Robitussin. That's ridiculous. I totally can't see how some of you can't see that kids are far worse than they've ever been. I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.

This is called an "everything but the kitchen sink" explanation. It makes it difficult to be accurate or inaccurate when you throw everything in there. There's a plethora of research on this topic, including research that discusses gender and violence (if boys are more violent than girls, it is more of a learned behavior and also based on the acceptability of boys' violence whereas girls are told to "be a lady"--one viable explanation for the increase in girls' violence is that women feel more liberated to do what men have always been allowed to) and the supposed "increase" in youth violence in the 1980s and the 1990s.

People can have whatever opinions about this topic but initiatives for change (not just discussion) can't be based on "everything but the kitchen sink" opinions. We can take whatever precautions that we want but that doesn't mean that every precaution is equally significant in the violence equation. The media (lyrics, video games, movies, shows...) is one factor that matters because EVERY human is affected by images both consciously and subconsciously. However, the average human will not turn this affect into violence or crime and deviance. This symbolizes that there are safety nets such as effective parenting, an attachment and belief in the legitimacy of norms and laws, education, and sound mental and emotional health (as they impact reasoning and self-regulation ability) that need to be targeted beyond just saying that the media, guns, or whatever are to blame.