Americans have felt a growing uneasiness from the growing problem of youth violence with teens from the ages of twelve to eighteen. It is a controversial subject that is an increasingly rising with families and the in the government. Some people believe that the reason behind this national problem is because families are no longer a united unit and are not home to take responsibility of watching their children. There are others who believe that it is the influence of the media and technology. The issue this paper will examine whether youth violence has risen from unattached parenting or because the lack of censorship and influence of the media. Through the presentation of documented support, it will be shown the rising rate …show more content…
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Benedict 2). Youth violence is an overwhelming problem as realization occurs on the horrifying fact that children are killing other children. Sixteen year old honor student Derrion Albert from
Chicago was attacked on his way to school at the bus stop. A mob of teens attacked him and clubbed him in the head with a piece of wood, pushed him down and stomped on him. The beating was fatal and five suspects were charged ranging from ages 14 to 19. And this was all recorded on video with a cell phone (Billitteri 1).
Attorney General Eric Holder said about Albert’s murder “Youth violence isn't a Chicago problem, any more than it is a black problem or a white problem. It's something that affects communities big and small, and people of all races and colors” (qtd. in Billitteri 1). Education
Secretary Richard R. Riley also adds that on average 16,000 violent crimes or thefts occur near or on a school campus every day (“As Youth Violence” n. pag.).
In Louis Harris’s poll for Harvard University School of Public Health shares the facts of 1 in every 10 children ages 10 to 19 say that they have been shot or have fired a gun at someone else. Forty percent knew someone who was injured or killed in gunfire. And another 59 percent said that they have easy accesses to a gun (“As Youth Violence” n. pag.).
Today, homicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 24; when discussing youth violence the range is extended beyond 18 and in to the mid twenties (CDC). In addition to murder, non-fatal injuries are another large part of the picture of youth violence. In 2007, 668,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 14 were treated for violence related injuries at hospital emergency rooms (CDC). In 2007, a large representative sample of the country’s high school students were surveyed; 35.5% of students surveyed answered ‘yes’ when asked if “they had been in a physical fight in the previous twelve months”, and 4.2% of students surveyed answered ‘yes’ when asked if they had been “in a physical fight one or more times in the previous twelve months that resulted in injuries that had to be treated by a doctor or nurse (CDC). As this survey was conducted with a representative sample, it helps to give one a good picture of the aggregate youth violence problem in the United States of America.
In fairy tales, children are pushed into ovens, have their hands chopped off, are forced to sleep in coal bins, and must contend with wolves who've eaten their grandmother. In myths, rape, incest, all manner of gruesome bloodshed, child abandonment, and total debauchery are standard fare. We see more of the same in Bible stories, accentuated with dire predictions of terrors and abominations in an end of the world apocalypse that is more horrifying than the human imagination can even grasp.
In 2016, the homicide rates in Chicago were the highest in two decades. A teen
As the world recovers from recent school shootings, people wondered why these events have occurred. They are focused on drug use, violent society, video games, bullying, and mental issues to try and explain an unexplainable event. The idea that a person would shoot others for little or no reason gave little relief to the survivors.
7.7% saying they have been threatened with a gun at least one time in the last 12 months.
In our class book Practical Argument, I chose “Violent Media is Good for Kids” by Gerard Joneson page 36. In this article Jones states and tries to prove that violent media is undeniably good for children. He challenges this by saying what he believes also how he grew up too passive because he was sheltered from the media. Upon hearing that the media has "lofty messages of pacifism and tolerance" (par.2), his mother had borrowed some comics for him to read. After reading the comics, he said that he followed Hulk for a while then switched to "more sophisticated heroes", in (par. 3) and "finally found my own lead along a twisting path to a career and an identity." (par. 3) Later on, his son
Hundreds of students, along with community members attended to come up with solutions to the problem. One student, Daquan Summers, made a statement at one of the summits, that kids in gangs are responsible for the murders. He said, “I never know that shooting dice or talking about somebody’s mom could get you killed until last year” (Bennett, 2016, para. 5).
* It was found that “criminal gun use is far more common than self-defense gun use.” Studies show that the number of respondents claiming to be victims of gun violence outnumbered those claiming to have used a gun in self-defense by more than 4 to 1.
own guns, almost 500,000 people were victim to gun crimes in 2011 alone. 68% of murders involve guns, gang members owned 2-10 million guns in 2007, there were 875 million guns globally the same year. With this many guns floating around the world, there is no doubt it will lead to someone abusing the privilege. In 1999, two teens killed fifteen people including themselves at Columbine High School. In 2007, a student killed thirty-four people including himself at Virginia Tech University.
Two of the most famous recent cases of juvenile killers involve Lionel Tate, and Nathaniel Brazill. Tate, 12 at the time, beat to death 6 year old Tiffany Eunick imitating moves from pro wrestling. Eunick suffered a fractured skull, lacerated liver, broken rib, internal hemorrhaging and cuts and bruises. I do not believe that he didn’t know what he was doing to the little girl. He had to see that she was probably bleeding from her skull injury, and not to mention most likely screaming in fear and pain. If so, why didn’t he stop beating the girl? Just this January, Tate is possibly being released from prison based on his overturned conviction stating that his mental competency was never tested before the trial.
child who was shot by another child, and 12% of adults knows or knew and child who
“The US Department of Education based on their recent surveys has reported that at least ten percent of the schools in the entire United States of America are faced with problems associated with violence and in these schools there is at least one serious case of crime other than thefts and physical attacks”(School Violence...). The article, School Violence-a Survey, on the School Violence, Weapons, Crime, and Bullying website clearly states a rising problem within the US. It seems as if the news has a constant flow of new school violence cases, and there is no indication of slowing down. It is truly shocking to think that teens could cause so much destruction in their own schools. Nevertheless, school violence cases occur quite
Teen Violence is a big dilemma in today’s society. Violent behaviors usually start from family and peers, as well as teens observing it at there neighborhoods or communities. These behaviors are reinforced by what youth see on television, on the Internet, in video games, movies, music videos, and what they hear in their music. When children are disciplined with severe corporal punishment or verbal abuse, or when they are physically or sexually abused, or when they witness such behavior in their home, it is not surprising that they behave violently toward others. Teen Violence has had such an impact in our youth today that it leads many destructive things and that’s why we have so much violence today.
some adults), however, do not always realize this is not the way difficult situations are handled in
The children of today are surrounded by technology and entertainment that is full of violence. It is estimated that the average child watches from three to five hours of television a day! Listening to music is also a time consuming pastime among children. With all of that exposure, one might pose the question, "How can seeing so much violence on television and video games and hearing about violence in in music affect a child's behavior?" Obviously these media have a big influence on childrens' behavior: we can see it in the way they attempt to emulate their favorite rock stars by dressing in a similar style and the way children play games, imitating their favorite cartoon personalities or super