It is becoming a common theme as older generations look around and ask the vital question, “What is wrong with kids today?” Violence has become a way of life and expression for so many modern youth that it is becoming increasingly difficult to look past the problem and find a solution.
Gang violence is, of course, the number one issue that comes to mind when tackling the topic of teenage violence. Gangs represent the ultimate in family dysfunction. A child as young as eight or nine may join a gang because they are searching for a place to belong, to feel safe, and to feel wanted. A gang accepts this young member, pampers them, and makes them feel special. Now, they are part of the family, and their “brothers” have shown them loyalty and respect. The child feels indebted to repay that loyalty.
Consider the level of manipulation required for a nine- or ten-year-old child to be convinced to take a life. No child is interested in killing. There must be a strong motivator and a warped sense of responsibility to convince that child that this is the right thing to do.
The Need for After-School Programs
Programs that provide after-school care and supervision are absolute godsend to some communities, though there aren’t nearly enough active programs at this time. These programs literally fill the role that gangs offer when children join one. They provide someone who cares about how their day went, how they are handling their issues, and whether their parents are doing right by them. These programs offer them an educated chance at escaping a very violent corner of the world.
These children are still far from untouched by gang violence. Hundreds of kids trying to stay out of gang-related violence are harmed each year, many of them killed, caught in the crossfire.
Teen violence reaches far beyond the streets of Los Angeles and Chicago. Violence is cropping up in what many consider to be the most unlikely places. It has reached every community and every school across the nation. Whether you are talking about school revenge shootings or silent violence in upper-class neighborhoods, it is lurking everywhere.
School shootings never cease to shock us and tear at our core. There is something so heinous in this violence that we simply can’t accept that somewhere, someone is not to blame. We look to the schools and the parents in an attempt to understand how these actions could have happened and why the warning signs were missed. Children as young as ten have been responsible for school-related deaths.
Looking a little deeper, these issues make it to the front page of the paper, but the violence that slips under the cracks is the daily violence that nobody ever hears about. Upper-class communities are not immune. It is estimated that as many as 15% of all school-aged teenagers have been victims of violence in these upper-class communities. Date rape, intimidation tactics, and even extortion are hitting these communities at an alarming rate.
Personal responsibility, reasonable anger expression, and the value of human life and safety are the basic key issues lacking in individuals who harm others. We live in a throwaway society. If something is old, worn out, useless, or something better comes along, we simply throw one thing away and replace it with another. We, as a society, have lost touch with basic core values.
These values don’t need to be conservative, but it is helpful to occasionally wander out into undeveloped territory and reconnect with the very essence of human life. Our rapidly growing, on-demand society is creating a sense of “I want it now, and if I don’t like it when I get it, I’ll throw it away and get something better, and I’ll do so right now.” This attitude is certainly at least partially responsible for the rise of teen violence.
If it is acceptable for people to feel this way about things, how are children supposed to make the distinction about people, unless they are taught to do so? And somehow, this step is getting overlooked. The desire for success and economic security is certainly not a bad thing. However, the idea that it is acceptable to walk all over people in order to get what you want is not something we should be passing down to our children. Yet, they are certainly learning it from somewhere.
Whether through after-school programs, mentoring programs, or parents who are willing to stop assuming their child simply would never venture into a world of violence, adults need to be more involved. They need to stop assuming that kids in certain social classes are less prone to violence and that children who flock to violence are simply “bad kids.” Adults are responsible for the outcome of today’s children. If we are looking for someone to blame, we are responsible on some level.
