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

[cheerfulgreek]

Originally Posted by DSTCHAOS

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.

Well, people tend to think of small town life as stable and close, the opposite of big cities. Yet change has come to many parts of the United States. I think that dense social ties have given way to more impersonal relations in rural areas and small towns. We have to understand that demographic change brought on by migration and population turnover have disrupted tight social ties between families and neighbors. I do think that a lot of the violence among youths is indeed concentrated in poor areas of our nation's inner cities. You also have to understand that during the 1970s joblessness increased in inner city communities because of the outmigration of the middle class and the movement of blue collar jobs away from U.S. cities. Economic and social stress contributed to the breakdown of families and other community supports for children and adolescents. In search of support, identity, and meaning in the face of declining opportunity, more youths became involved in gangs, and with the introduction of crack cocaine, gangs turned to this volatile end of the drug market, where violence is the only available mode of protection and social control. Also rates of crime are much higher in the South than anywhere else.

You also have to look at untreated mental illness as part of the problem too.