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Questions and Causes: Teen Crime in America’s Schools An essay on possible causes and reasons behind school violence After the Columbine shootings the media was instantly turned upon and blamed for causing violence among teenagers in school. “ The media fills teenagers with images of killing equaling justice, they pump out the idea that killing the people who hurt you bring closer and “right” the wrongs of someone else. The media does this by promoting violence which they do through programs where every five seconds someone is cut to bits and shot to death.” (Guest speaker, Columbus Indiana School Violence Conference, Spring 2000) Many parents hold that by allowing young people to witness violence on television desensitizes them to acts of aggression. It also gives today’s youth the idea that killing is okay as long as it’s justified. In the case of Columbine, the two teenage gunmen justified their killing spree as avenging the taunts and hurt their schoolmates caused them. In the shootings of the students in Kentucky, the gunman shot and injured several students who were praying before school. The young man justified his actions by saying he hated Christians. Television however is not the only area of media being attacked as the “cause” of school violence. Music is seen as an influence in the epidemic of school violence. Shock rocker Marilyn Manson, scheduled to appear in Columbine just days after the shooting canceled his tour after an uprising of protests. The people stated that they believed the message of Manson’s music directly influenced school crime. Manson’s music is one of depression, anger and hate. He is known on and off the stage for purposely shocking his fans with grotesque acts. Manson, denied the allegations that he promotes violence and said that he was being unduly criticized for acts which he had no control over (J. Donner, guest columnist, Seymour Tribune) Many however, disagree with Manson’s claims and continue to support the theory that many teenagers identify with Manson’s pessimistic theme and are motivated by his music to commit crimes. The cause of school crime is not blamed solely on music or on television but on video games and guns. The youth today are bombarded with violence, they see it on TV, they read about it in newspapers, they hear it acted out in music and they pretend it in games. “Children don’t naturally kill; they learn it from violence in the home and most pervasively from violence as entertainment in television, movies, and interactive video games.” (D.Grossman Lt. Col (RET) Christianity Today Trained to Kill) Grossman states that children learn how to kill by being abused, neglected at home and taunted at school, this is furthered by violence in today’s television and movies, music and video games. Teenagers spend hours watching violence on television and at the movies and listening to violent acts depicted in music. They spend several more hours “practicing their aim” with interactive “shoot, kill and win” video games. Grossman says that the more time teens spend shooting at screens the more desensitized they become to what they are aiming at. It is stimulus-action, the stimuli are the targets in the game and the action is shooting at them, after awhile the youth forgets about what he’s shooting at and just shoots. Pretty soon the teen gets good at it because he becomes comfortable with the action, he sees the target and fires. It is this according to some experts that cause teenagers to commit violence in schools. Another cause for the rate of school violence many believe is the availability of guns. Many people believe that if guns were taken off the streets and made harder to own then the rate in teen crime in schools as well as other forms of crime would go down. The National Rifle Association or NRA has taken criticism for lobbying for citizens’ rights to bear arms at the same time many are lobbying for more restriction on owning firearms. Many believe that weapon magazines such as the NRA’s magazine, Gun World magazine and The American Rifleman promote violence by making weapons look appealing and by endorsing celebrities like Charlton Heston for fighting for easier access and ownership of guns. Some say the NRA’s claim that “shooting teaches good things” (NRA advertisement, Time, March 1999) is false and that teaching youth the proper way to use, handle and maintain firearms will only further America’s gun control and school violence problems, not solve them. Poverty is also seen as a cause for school violence and crime among teenagers. According to Mike Males it is not the lack of enforcement behind gun control laws, violent music, television programs, movies or video games that cause teen violence in schools but poverty. ``There is no such thing as `youth violence,' any more than there is `black violence' or `Italian violence,'' writes Males. ``The recent rise in violent crime is so clearly founded on social conditions, not age-group demographics, that experts and officials have had to strain mightily to ignore or downplay them.'' (M. Males, The Scapegoat Generation: America's War on Adolescents) This then leaves poverty as the main factor. The biggest difference between the United States and the rest of the industrialized world is the poverty among youth and the extreme disparities in come between the rich and the poor. According to a Luxembourg Income Study in 1995 the United States raised three to eight time more children in poverty than any other Western nation. According to the same study the United States also has the largest and fastest income gap between the richest five percent and the poorest five percent. The poverty factor among teen crime in schools is argued strongly by Males. ``While most impoverished people are not violent, there is no question among criminologists that the stresses of poverty are associated with much higher violent crime levels among all races and ages,'' writes Males. Males also said “Drugs, easy access to guns and a violent popular culture are all contributing factors to this nation's high rate of violent crime. This cannot be denied. But when one gets down to the nut, poverty remains the biggest factor of them all.” According to Males theory and many others then if poverty were reduced, the rate of violent crime would also be reduced. Lastly, many argue that parental influence and/or lack of parental influence on a teens life encourage and may even be a direct cause to teen violence in schools. As stated earlier abused teens are most likely to abuse those around them in an effort to act out their anger and bitterness towards those who caused them pain. Such was the case of Harris and Klebold. The two teens were angry and bitter at their schoolmates for shunning them and making them feel unwanted and left out, their anger took action in the form of a massacre at the school. In the case of a teen in Oregon, who after being expelled from school returned home and killed both his parents then returned to school and opened fire. Both events set off by anger towards classmates and parents who they believe hated and ignored them. Often times as seen recently in Columbus Indiana when a teenager attempted to kill his brother after his father was convicted in the murder of his mother four years ago it is the parents direct criminal influence on teens that causes them to act out rather than the parents or peers lack of influence. Some say that it is often the poor influence of parents that cause teens to act out in anger towards authority and peers as well as a feeling of isolation and depression results of being shunned, mocked and being ignored by parents and people at school. As stated in this essay there are many possible causes and reasons for school violence. No one really knows what causes school violence but there are many ideas and theories behind America’s violent youth. Anger, depression, bitterness, confusion and loss of hope are all great possibilities. It is most strongly believed that it is not just video games, or movies, or television, or music or the availability of guns but a combination of them all. School violence is taking the nation by storm. Ten nationally known incidents of violence committed by teens resulting in death in the nations schools in the past three years alone. The most recent at Columbine High School in 1999. As experts scramble for answers and parents of teenagers in school wonder and speculate, some believe it is as simple as parents assuming primary responsibility for influencing, teaching and controlling their children. Sources used for this essay: Developing and Maintain Safe Schoolswww.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/envrnmnt/drugfree/sa200.htm M.
Males Start
'Em Young : Recruitment of Kids to the Gun Culture. www.vpc.prg/studies/startcon.htm Christianity Today. ComGrossman, D., Lt. Col., United States Army (RET) Trained To Killwww.christianitytoday.com/ct/8t9/8t9030.html
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