Causes of Violence
Introduction
There are various theories that seek to explain the causes of violence in society today. Most of these theories seek to identify the predetermining factors that make individuals engage in violent behavior. Some theorists posit that the main causes of violence in society are situational factors. They assert that the environment accompanied by other predisposing factors such as economic well being of house holds play a vital role in determining the level and nature of exposure to violence. Others claim that dispositional factors determine the conduct and behavior of individuals. They say that the internal wellbeing of a person is responsible for acts of aggression in response to specific stimuli. Other theorists give psychological and socio-psychological factors as being the main contributors to violence in society. This paper seeks to critique and analyze each of these set of approaches and how they relate to youth violence in society.
Situational and dispositional factors
Most of the causes of violence are situational. This implies that those who perpetrate violent acts have no initial intention to engage in the acts but are forced by circumstances. Tomsen (2005) indicates that the main contributor to youth violence is exposure to violent acts through improper upbringing. Most children are exposed to violence at early stages of their lives. As they grow up, they have already formed a perception that violence is an acceptable practice in society. There are various cases where those who engage in domestic violence claim that they grew up witnessing the same between their parents or guardians and therefore perceive it to be normal.
Most of the home environments where such children grow up play a crucial role in determining their involvement in violence. Their exposure to abusive and neglectful home environments makes them become despondent and violent towards the society. Most of these youth become disoriented with their lives as they painfully come to terms with the reality. They are unable to pursue their dreams since their parents and guardians have no economic means to support them. As the author puts it, poverty is a key contributor to gun violence in society today. The youth rebel against the society and target the rich whom they consider to be the cause of their predicament. Due to the boredom and idleness that most of these youth are exposed to, they become influenced by peer pressure and result to other vices such as drug and substance abuse. Most of them engage in violent behavior when under the influence of drugs such as marijuana and cocaine.
Lack of involvement in any conventional activities is also another cause of violence in society. Most youth result to violence due to lack of any economic activities that they can engage in to earn an income. They target the wealthy since they develop a perception that it is the wealthy are responsible for the discriminative social strata in society where some have in plenty while others have nothing. Such negative thoughts are the main reasons why youth congregate in gangs and start violent behaviors towards select members of the society. They consider it an expression of their grievances towards unfair distribution of income in society.
There is also increased availability of cheap weapons whose sale is poorly regulated. Teenagers are getting access to guns and other gadgets that may be used to commit violent acts such as daggers, grenades and machetes. This is mainly due to the failure of authorities to implement effective legislation in control of purchasing and ownership of guns and other weapons. They also fail to control the sale of weapons to underage persons thereby increasing the risk of exposure for the society to violent acts. Easier access to weapons makes the youth feel overconfident and develop a mentality of revenge against anyone who they may be uncomfortable with.
There are also various dispositional causes of violence in society today. Most of them can be attributed to the impacts of technology in society. One aspect of technology that has made a considerable contribution to youth violence is the media. Most of the media channels like television, movie theatres, computers and smart phones have considerably contributed to increase in violence in society. This is due to the ability of the media to change attitudes, emotions and behaviors of most of the youth. Smith (2004) reveals that the increased exposure of the youth to media sources is the major cause of increase of crimes and violence that are similar in nature. This is because most of the youth have similar thinking capabilities and tend to fancy almost similar trends and changes in criminal and violence acts that they see in movies. They therefore aim at replicating the aggressive scenes in the actual sense when they feel aggrieved by the society or individuals.
Various studies such as the social learning theory are explicit in describing how individuals learn from their own experiences and behaviors imitated from others. Most media violence acts have an immediate impact on the youth through priming, mimicking or arousal. Priming means that most of the youth can connect visuals into their cognitive thoughts and this may influence their actions e.g. the sight of a gun mostly creates an evil thought of aggression in the mind of a youth. The continuous exposure of the youth to the media is therefore responsible for formation of primed concepts that influences the youth to behave in a way related to such concepts. Exposure of the youth to media violence is therefore responsible for formation of aggressive primed concepts by the youth which increases the likelihood of violent behavior. Mimicking means that the youth are more compelled to replicate certain violent behavior they saw on a movie against their adversaries (Fischer, 2007).
It is also notable that the adoption of violent behavior is not a result of a single exposure to a violent act in the media. It is the result of continued exposure that makes one internalize most of the viewed scenarios and feel an urge to practice them.
Smith (2004) fails to look at another dispositional cause of youth violence which is the adoption of authoritarian methods by parents of bringing up their children. It leads to harsh treatment of the child through inconsistent nature of parental interventions. This makes the child confused and often leads to low emotional attachment between the parent and the child. Such a child develops negative thoughts of the society and is highly likely to become a rebel. They suffer from extremely low or high involvement of their parents into their lives that brings numerous conflicts and misunderstandings. These inconsistencies make the youth seek alternative refuge where they will feel accepted and recognized properly.
It is also evident that children who come from families where parents use substances or the parents have criminal records are most likely to engage in violence. Their exposure to criminal acts by their parents may give them the head start to indulge in acts of delinquency as they seek to imitate what their parents do. There are even known cases where parents work collaboratively with their children to engage in violent acts. It is also likely that children from such families may find themselves engaging in violent crime through default since their upbringing has made them accept that violence is an acceptable social act. Such families have low attachment to social value such as respect and honesty. The children from such poor functioning families are poorly monitored and when they grow to become teenagers, they are a source of most violent behavior in society.
Most of the authors concur that lack of effective community structures is a serious dispositional cause of violence in society. Most governments especially in emerging economies have poor policies in vital sectors such as security, healthcare, education and training. Most of the available facilities such as schools and hospitals are run down due to social ills like corruption and incompetency. The substandard facilities make the youth perceive that the society s harsh and has no plans for their future. This breeds resentment and anger. Out of desperation and feelings of self guilt, the youth readily join existent criminal networks through which they can unleash their frustrations to society. Most criminal networks are known to target areas that are in economic ruin since they know they will easily get recruits as its easy to convince the youth there to join them without much hesitation.
Psychological and socio-psychological causes
The exposure of children and youth to violent acts either through mistreatment by parents and guardians or through frequent exposure to media violence can disrupt their mental and emotional growth and development. This disruption has profound impacts on their behavior and may lead to long term effects that are heavily inclined to violence. Young children who have been exposed to violent acts are highly likely to experience nightmares. They may fear sleeping alone and in some instances develop various forms of irritability and excitement. The youth develop affection for violent and aggressive behavior and in most cases have poor behavioral control.
The behavioral theory explains that most people can develop affection for violent behavior due to their exposure to violent acts. Most children exposed to various sources of media violence develop a liking for violence due to the dramatic and heroic events they watch on television, video or from internet sources such as you tube. The role models for such children are violent robbers and criminals who star in most of the shows available from variety of media sources. This affection becomes ingrained in their psychological and mental models such that in their youth they will be receptive to violent conduct as they have been continuously watching from the media.
The continuous exposure of the youth to such environments like poor family set ups and violence within the family causes serious emotional distress on them and makes them develop resentment towards their families. Circumstances where parents exhibit antisocial behaviors towards their children are a recipe for aggression and violence by these children in their later years. Parents who have no appreciation for their children make them have a negative attitude towards life. These predispositions in early life make such children lean heavily towards violence since the behaviors they are subjected to in their childhood contribute immensely to development of their personality and character. Such children have weak egos and cannot sustain even an argument in defense of their personality since it is already damaged (Green, 2007).
Most abusers of drugs and substances are highly likely to result to violence. This is because such people are not in their right state of mind and normally act under the influence of such drugs and substances. Such people get irritated easily and have few or no friends apart from their peers in drug abuse. They become frustrated since they consider nature to be unfair to them. Such feelings of rejection and failure make them seek to revenge against the society and the most viable way is through engaging in violent behavior. Most youth who fail to make it in life result to drug abuse as the only source of consolation but demonstrate their anger and frustrations through violence. This is because as described by cognitive theory, the individual processes of reasoning have a fundamental influence on behavior. If the process is negatively oriented, then adopted behaviors and acts will also be the same.
It is also vital to note that individual reasoning is also influenced by the way people perceive their immediate environment. This is because the environment that one lives in impacts heavily on moral and intellectual growth and development. A child who has not been exposed to social morals, values and teachings may find it difficult to adopt them in later life. If a child was exposed to violence in early life, it becomes acceptable to him or her since the perception will be different from the norm.
The various feelings of depression, stress and anxiety that may make one result to violent behavior may be due to various mental diseases and ailments. Some diseases such as intermittent explosive disorder may cause unwarranted provocation and result to unprecedented acts of anger and may even result to violence. There are also individuals who may experience withdrawal symptoms from drugs that may also make them engage in violent behavior. There are also noticeable violent acts observed in people who may be experiencing anxiety disorders. Such disorders cause mood swings and affect the cognitive faculties of an individual that may make him result to violent. If precautionary measures are not taken such anxiety disorders can cause major depressions that may interfere with the brain.
Individuals who may have any symptoms that may indicate a sign of a psychiatric illness may experience denial and rejection from the society. Most of these psychiatric ailments are curable but may be aggravated by failure by society to embrace empathy and support for such patients. When these conditions e.g. anxiety subside from these patients, they harbor ill will against the society and this can make them engage in violent behavior.
Conclusion
It is evident that there are various causes of youth violence in society. Most of these causes point to the role played by society and immediate family in a child’s upbringing as being essential in determining the possibility of a youth engaging in violence. This is because most of those who engage in the vice have poor backgrounds and foundations right from their childhood. They are not taught and exposed to fundamental social values and practices. They view violence as a solution to the problems that they are undergoing and have no room for reconciliatory measures like dialogue and consultation. It is the role of the society to enact proper standards and structures that ensure that children are brought up properly since failure to that makes majority of them fall into violent acts once they reach their youth. Instead of them being productive and supportive to society, they become dissidents who harass and maim other members of society without fear. The exposure of the youth and children to illegal media sources should be discouraged. Most children are getting exposed to adult content at an early age. They become receptive to the views and acts of heroism being demonstrated there from an early age. This increases the risk of such children engaging in violence in their youth. The society must take a leading role in promoting ethical standards through engagement. Teachers and parents must liaise with authorities to develop reasonable content that children should access from the media from an early age. Monitoring of such should be conducted at all levels. Providers of violent content that harms the mental growth of children should be apprehended and prosecuted. Adult and violent crime acts available online should be restricted to adults only.
References
Fischer, R. (2007). The Effects of Media Violence on Attitudes, Emotions and Cognitions. Journal of Social Issues 81(5): 122-139.
Green, T. (2007). The Cambridge Handbook of Violent Behavior and Aggression. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
Smith, N. (2004). Harmful Effects of Exposure to Media Violence: Learning of Aggression, Emotional Desensitization and Fear. New York. Jossey-Bass.
Tomsen, C. (2005). Violent attitudes and deferred academic aspirations: Deleterious effects of exposure to rap music. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67(3): 49-55.
