Category: Youth Violence

Introduction

When people who have not attained the age of majority commit crimes, they have to face the criminal justice system for justice to prevail. However, their treatment is somewhat different with that of adult offenders considering the age factor and the fact that some of them may not have the mental capability to perceive the gravity of their actions.

Over the years, there has been a pressing need for justice systems in various jurisdictions to come up with various techniques of case management as a way of offering assistance to the people who have been convicted for various crimes in jails.

While people convicted of various crimes are seen as a threat to society and thus the need to seclude them, it is important to remember that there are various issues especially health matters that affect those incarcerated. It is this reason that has necessitated the need of adoption of methods to deal with some of the problems that such people face. The focus of this discussion is the case management approach that is applied in juvenile justice.

Purpose and Goal of Juvenile Justice Case Management

When juveniles are incarcerated or put behind bars for having committed crimes, this whole experience affects them mentally especially due to their tender age. The same also affects adult offenders. The purpose and goal of case management for both juveniles and adult offenders is to ensure that the experience they go through due to incarceration does not later lead to recidivism, mental disorders, or developmental problems (Robert, 2004, p. 76).

Various programs have therefore been developed by the justice systems in various jurisdictions with the help of social workers and medical practitioners which focus on the holistic aspect of an individual. Being able to take a juvenile detainee through the criminal justice system while applying these technique and ensures that they go back to the society unscathed is the challenge and thus responsibility of case management officials.

Case Management Models

There are two main models of case management. One of the models is strength based and focuses on the strengths and capabilities of a detained juvenile. This model puts much emphasis on those talents which the client has identified on his own and they are nurtured through the service and treatment plan adopted for him.

Under this model the manager in charge of implementing the treatment plan on the client is expected to have great regard for the juvenile and that such a person has an inward ability to discover on their own the capabilities and talents that they may have (Grisso, 2005, p.98).

The assertive model on the other hand is more forced on the client where services are delivered aggressively to the client. In this model, the managers in charge will have to go out of their way and seek out the clients so as to link them with offices that provide the treatment services that such a client may require.

Necessary Elements for Effective Implementation of the Practice

Traditionally, a case manager was viewed as a service broker whose main function was to search and broker for services much needed by his client. However, over time, there have been proposals to change this perception and come up with key elements that would ensure effective implementation of this practice. The include intake which involves creating a good relationship between the manager and the client and helping the client respond positively to the treatment plan.

Assessment is another key element which involves a general evaluation of how well the client is responding to the treatment plan. Classification is yet another important element which involves classifying offenders depending on the crimes committed so as to correctly establish which treatment plan best suits each juvenile offender (Ghezi & Loughran, 2005, p.76).

Referral is important and it is based on the needs of an individual client. Intervention is also crucial and involves identifying the needs of a client and matching them with the available treatment services. What then follows is monitoring to ensure that clients stick to the treatment programs for which they have been linked to.

Evaluation is also important where the manager in charge of a client carries out an assessment to establish whether the client has been receiving the treatment services and whether they have benefited from the program (Krisberg & Austin, 1993, p. 543). Advocacy involves recommendations that a manager may provide to help improve a certain treatment program.

Solutions to Potential Problems

Some of the solutions to challenges faced in implementing this practice would involve change of policies and laws which make it easy for case managers and clients to work together as well as make some mediation on behalf of the client.

Different programs developed for offenders

The various treatment programs available are developed with varying categories of offenders in mind. There are some programs that require that one client is handles by various managers. In such a case, every manager is assigned a role that is specific and different from the roles of other managers (Krisberg, 2005, p. 43).

Usually, the case managers, having carried out an assessment will determine which program best fits every individual offender. By classifying and developing the various programs, the needs of various young offenders who have mental health issues, history of abuse and drug addiction are met. Role of parents, schools and other specific service providers in cross-disciplinary treatment

It has always been a challenge for most case managers to ensure continuity of the treatment services provided to offenders (Butts & Roman, 2004, p, 56). This is because, once they have been released from custody, it is not always easy to follow up with them and ensure that they stick to the treatment plan. This is where the society at large comes in. Parents, schools and juvenile courts have been playing a contributory role in adding case managers look after these juveniles when they have been released back to the society.

Chicago Area Project, New York Citys Mobilisation For Youth and Bostons Mid-City Project

The above named projects were all started with the aim and goals of helping rehabilitating juvenile offenders back into the society by helping them through the various treatment programs that were assigned to each. All these projects were community based in the sense that they came about as a joint venture of the community.

Success of the Projects

These projects were a success as they helped provide accommodation for juveniles released from incarceration and who are still finding it hard to fit in a society that once condemned them as criminals. Through these projects, a great number of juvenile offenders have been transformed by being encouraged to attend their treatment programs.

Conclusion

Offenders, both juvenile and adult though they may have committed crimes against crimes must be treated in a way that will help them not go back to the same crimes that they committed once they have been released back to the society and thus the need to come up with case management models.

References

Butts, J. & Roman, J. (2004). Juvenile drug courts and teen substance abuse. New York: The Urban Institute

Ghezi, S. & Loughran, E. (2005). Balancing juvenile justice. New York: Transaction Publishers

Grisso, T. (2005). Mental health screening and assessment and juvenile justice. California: Guilford Press

Krisberg, B. & Austin, J. (1993). Reinventing juvenile justice. London: Sage.

Krisberg, B. (2005). Juvenile Justice: Redeeming our Children. London: Sage

Robert, A. (2004). Juvenile justice sourcebook: past, present, and future. Michigan: Oxford University Press.

Introduction

Juvenile justice is a justice system that operates under the juvenile law, which aims at trying the offenders who are mainly between 10 and 18 years (Maggio, 2010). The operation of the juvenile justice system takes into account the differences that exist between the youth and the adults in terms of accountability as well as room for rehabilitation. It operates on the basis that the youth can be successfully rehabilitated, hence improve security in the community.

Why Should the Juvenile Justice System Adopt Rehabilitation Program

Due to a number of reasons, many children and teenagers engage themselves in criminal activities that make them end up in courts. United States being one of the countries that have a high number of child/teenage crimes in the world has been engaged in major debates on how to put in place a system that will help to curb the high rate of child/teenage crime (Cole & Smith, 2009).

The juvenile justice system should focus on rehabilitating the children/ teenagers since the program operates on the basis that children/ teenagers can be successfully rehabilitated as opposed to adults and hence, improve security in the society. This rehabilitation program plays a critical role since it tries to identify why the children/ teenagers engage themselves in crimes.

Several research studies show that there are diverse reasons that make the children/adolescents to engage themselves in crimes. Some of these reasons include being in a state of poverty, being discriminated on racial grounds, and having easy access to drugs (Beyer, 2003). Moreover, there are also several theories, which attempt to find out the reasons why children/adolescents engage themselves in criminal acts. These theories include genetics, and being neglected by parents as this lowers the childs self-esteem (Siegel & Welsh, 2008).

A combination of the above factors with other environmental factors such as television and peer pressure makes the children to engage themselves in criminal acts. Proper understanding of why the children/teenagers commit crime is paramount since it helps the juvenile justice system to know the kind of rehabilitation program that should be put in place in order to induce cognitive behavior.

Explanation of the Juvenile Justice System

Law Enforcement and the Court Process

When a youth commits a crime, the police have the responsibility of arresting him/her and taking him to juvenile courts custody where he/she awaits his/her trial. Juvenile justice system operates in a flexible manner since it tries to attend various needs of the child offender.

In the court process, the Juvenile justice system works under a guiding principle whereby the child/adolescent undergoes through a trial that helps to determine the kind of treatment that he/she will be offered. The court follows the due process of hearing the case until the jury rules the case. The children/teenagers who are sentenced by the juvenile court are not termed as guilty but as delinquent children (Maggio, 2010)

However, the juvenile courts have the responsibility of handing over the children/teenagers to the adult court whenever the teenagers exceed the age limit of the juvenile court while serving a sentence (Cole & Smith, 2009). This also applies to cases where the rehabilitation program does not have a positive impact on the child/adolescent receiving it. The judge has the overall responsibility of determining where the youth will serve and the period of service.

Probation

The juvenile justice system has the mandate of releasing a child/adolescent offender as long as he/she has developed cognitive behavior (Siegel & Welsh, 2008). Hence, the childs sentence does not heavily rely on timeframe but rather on development of cognitive behavior.

The development of new cognitive behavior is normally evaluated in order ascertain whether the child should to be released. This evaluation is determined by the way the program influences the child/adolescent during the rehabilitation process as well as after being released to the community. However, the child/adolescent can be re-arrested if he/she fails to demonstrate development of cognitive skills within the community.

Correction

According to a nationwide research, the juvenile courts play a very critical role in reducing future criminal activities of the drug offenders. In a comparison done between teenage drug offenders who completed the rehabilitation program offered by the juvenile court and the teenagers who never completed the program shows that the rehabilitation program has a capacity of reducing a re-arrest of the same offence by 8% to 26% (Siegel & Welsh, 2008).

This thus shows that the youth offenders who are re-arrested for committing the same offence are the youth who are transferred from the juvenile justice system to the adult prisons. The completion of the juvenile justice program is thus emphasized since transferring the offenders to adult prisons reduces the success rate of the rehabilitation.

The juvenile rehabilitation program endeavors to correct the offenders by transforming cognitively the distorted cognitive behavior of the child/adolescent involved in criminal acts. The program plays a critical role in the life of the offender after the trial period since it aims at identifying the childs weaknesses in order to generate new alternatives, goals, and viable ideas that will help the children to solve their present as well as their future problems (Maggio, 2010).

Community Services

The juvenile justice rehabilitation program helps the community in providing education programs, which play the role of providing families with essential information on bringing up a healthy child. Some of these programs involve teaching the children on the negative side effects of being involved in gangs, drugs, harmful weapons, and sex while others aim at raising the self-esteem of the child/adolescent as well as letting them understand the self worth of other people (Beyer, 2003).

This approach helps the children/teenagers to understand the consequences of their actions and hence, makes their thinking to slant more in the positive rather than the negative side of an event.

Intervention Programs

The purpose of a juvenile court is to divert children/adolescents offenders from facing criminal justice by providing them with an opportunity for a rehabilitation program (Zimring, 2000). However, the teenage offenders have in the past been subjected to scare tactics during the 1990s as the rehabilitation program administrators thought that this would improve the children/adolescents attitudes.

The scare tactics strategy was implemented due to increased debates affirming that the high youth crime rate had resulted from lack of fear of being sentenced in juvenile courts, as the system was not harsh to them. This subjected the teenagers to harsh conditions in the juvenile courts. In addition to this, the transfer from the juvenile court to adult court was made easier. Although the purpose of this tactic was to reduce the crime rate among the teenagers, it however had a low success rate (Roberts, 2003).

The failures evident in the scare tactic program have facilitated the need for coming up with a viable intervention that aims at developing the child cognitive behavior.

Some of these interventions take an approach of assisting the children at their early stages of childhood development to their adolescent stage while other take an approach of providing the offenders and the neglected children with the appropriate intervention that aims at increasing their self esteem rather than subjecting them to harsh judgments. Therefore, when implemented in an effective manner, the rehabilitation program plays a critical role as it reduces the prison admissions.

Argument Opposing the View of Rehabilitation in the Juvenile Justice System

Rehabilitation program provided by the juvenile justice system faces a number of arguments, which emanate from the fact that the rehabilitation programs do not restrict crime in the society. On the other hand, others believe that the best option for reducing crime in the society is improving the lives of the teenagers through proper implementation of rehabilitation since it will serve the role of inducing therapeutic integrity that adds value not only to the lives the offenders but also to the entire society.

Roberts (2003) asserts that in reviewing the existing process of outcome evaluations of the juvenile court, there is a need of coming up with a conceptual framework that will assess the success of Juvenile courts rehabilitation program. This would help in addressing the arguments by providing answers since it will have indicators, which show that the juvenile justice can hold rehabilitation programs in a successful manner. The three main arguments are discussed below in turn

Argument 1: Should teenage offenders be left to suffer in adult prisons or should the juvenile justice rehabilitate them in order to induce cognitive behavior?

The answer to this argument can be derived from evaluating a single juvenile court in order to assess whether the treatment modifies the character and the personality of the teenage offenders. The study should entail measurement of various kinds of successes that have been achieved by the effectiveness of the juvenile rehabilitation programs since the purpose of a juvenile court is to divert teenage offenders from facing criminal justice by providing them with an effective opportunity for treatment (Beyer, 2003).

According to Zimring (2000), a good evaluation program should strive to ensure that the juvenile court specialists have the required skills pertaining to training the offenders, which include the background area of the offenders, and assessment of the major reasons that contribute to criminal acts.

The juvenile courts have successfully achieved the knowledge about the children and teenagers by ensuring that the staff or the juvenile courts specialists are well trained and sensitive, monitored, and have adequate knowledge of delivering the program effectively as well as following the offenders after they have completed the rehabilitation program (Beyer, 2003).

Argument 2: Do juvenile justice incur larger costs than the adult courts?

Financial benefit is a critical component that should be considered while evaluating the effectiveness of the juvenile justice rehabilitation program. It would be rational if the assessor evaluates the long-term financial benefits rather than the short-term benefits of the juvenile rehabilitation program.

A careful consideration of the ongoing cost of the juvenile justice program to the participating members should be put into consideration. The evaluation should assess how the juveniles court resources are distributed by carefully identifying the cost savings associated with juvenile court even when findings are unavailable from the federal government (Siegel & Welsh, 2008).

The juvenile court rehabilitation program has contributed to a stunning national expansion and this proves that it is cost effective (Siegel & Welsh, 2008). This emanates from the fact that when a teenage offender get into the juvenile court he/ she experiences motivational as well as behavioral change. This facilitates reduction of crime and therefore helps to reduce the added cost of crime that affect the society.

Argument 3: Do juvenile justice assist the teenage offenders in developing new behavioral cognitive skills fully, thus preventing a re-arrest?

There are a number of issues, which should be considered when evaluating whether the juvenile courts help in assisting the teenage offenders in learning of new behavioral cognitive skills. The type of treatment methods that is employed by the juvenile courts puts much emphasis on the method that appears to develop cognitive skills to the offenders. Siegel & Welsh (2008) affirms that the appropriate method to be used for all offenders should assess the pattern of the crime, and the way the children/ adolescents influence program participation. The program thus takes into account the various stages of childhood development.

The success of juvenile rehabilitation program has been facilitated by concealing the records of crime to the public and hence; it does not limit the child/ adolescent opportunities for his/her future goals (Maggio, 2010). The development of new cognitive behavior together with unlimited opportunities in the community helps to reduce the chances of a re-arrest.

Advantages of the Rehabilitation Program in the Juvenile Justice System

Rehabilitating children in the juvenile justice system takes a considerable amount of time before they acquire cognitive therapy. The juvenile justice rehabilitation program however works to the advantage of the child offender since it facilitates cognitive behavioral development that helps the children after they leave the juvenile court.

Being termed as delinquent children is beneficial since it hides the secrets of having being sentenced by a court of law. Hence, the child offender does not experienced reduced life opportunities within the community.

Despite the fact that the juvenile justice system program is expensive, the cost of the program far outweighs the cost related to crimes committed by the youth. Thus, the juvenile program guarantees safety to the entire public on a long-term basis, hence, reducing costs related to crimes, which include costs in response to crime, costs resulting from crime, and costs in prevention of crime.

References

Beyer, M. (2003). Best Practices in Juvenile Accountability: Overview. Web.

Cole, G., & Smith, C. (2009). The American System of Criminal Justice, International Edition. London: Cengage Learning.

Maggio, S. (2010). Juvenile vs. Adult Courts: A basic introduction. Web.

Roberts, A. (2003). Critical issues in crime and justice. Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE publishers.

Siegel, L., & Welsh, B. (2008). Juvenile Delinquency: Theory, Practice, and Law. London: Cengage Learning.

Zimring, F. (2000). The Common Thread: Diversion in Juvenile Justice. California Law Review, 88, 6, 2477.

There is no use denying the fact that modern age can be characterized by the blistering development of digital technologies. This process, in its turn, results in the appearance of a great number of different means of communication. Under these conditions, it became very easy nowadays to get access to information or some data which is interesting for a person. Additionally, mass media became much more influential.

Having obtained great number of different devices that make the process of conveying information easier, different channels, or some other means of media became one of the most influential remedies in the modern world. It is possible to promote some issues with their help, and people will obviously believe the information presented.

That is why it also can be rather dangerous. Trying to be beneficial and attract people, different channels, or some other actors place some information that can promote the development of violence. Resting on these facts, it should be said that this issue is very important nowadays as young people consider mass media to be one of the main sources of information.

First of all, it should be said that such a spread of the influence of media became possible due to the development of digital technologies. In 1950 only 10% of American families had a television, while nowadays, 99% of people have it (Beresin, n.d.). That is why people, especially youth, can obtain information which can do harm to their minds and change their outlook, also adding some significant alterations to their set of values (Anderson, Berkowitz, Donnerstein, Huesmann, Johnson, Linz, Malamuth, & Wartella, 2003).

Under these conditions, nowadays, movies and television are the main issues that are considered to promote violence among youth. According to some researches, a child watches television 28 hours a week, and that is why he/she can view more than 200,000 acts of violence, including more than 16,000 murders before age 18 (Beresin, n.d.).

Additionally, video games, which become more and more popular, replacing some traditional activities, also have a great influence on young people. With this in mind, it is possible to say that nowadays there is a great number of different factors which influence youth-promoting development of wrong ideas.

With this in mind, it is possible to state the fact that the level of violence among young people increases. Unfortunately, there is a great number of cases when a young person kills his/her counterparts under the influence of some ideas obtained from TV program, the Internet or videogames (Escobar-Chaves, & Anderson, 2008). Moreover, it is possible to admit the increase in the number of such cases and the number of victims (Goebel, n.d.).

Additionally, analyzing the behavior of young people, it is possible to admit the tendency for using some rough methods to solve problems. Very often, young people prefer to use force in order to assert themselves (Youth violence, 2015). The force can be used even without a clear reason, especially if a victim is weaker. That is why the number of fights and injuries increases. With this in mind, it is necessary to find some solution to the problem of violence among youth.

Taking the fact of the pernicious influence of media on youth into account, it is possible to suggest some solutions connected with the information presented by different means of media. First of all, it is possible to use V-chip technology whose main aim is to read and analyze information presented by media and block the content if it is unacceptable or can be dangerous for young people.

It will help to reduce the number of scenes of violence which a child can see and also give parents the possibility to control the content which their child watches. Additionally, clear and visible labels should be created and warn people about the violent material which is going to be presented for them to be able to make a choice whether they want to see it or not.

Nevertheless, it is also obvious that the issue of violence among young people and possible solutions to this problem should be controlled by the government. It should make the filmmakers reduce the number of violent scenes in their movies and, moreover, revise some films created for children in order to get rid of different manifestations of violence. TV shows should also be controlled as very often they include some violent scenes on purpose in order to attract the attention of youth.

With this in mind, having analyzed the main aspects of the issue of violence among youth, it is possible to make a certain conclusion. First of all, it should be said that there is no use denying the fact that the media has a great influence on people nowadays.

Obtaining a great number of different remedies that help to convey information, it promotes the development of violence, showing some scenes of films with violent content. That is why some solutions to prevent this process are needed. It is possible to use special programs or labels to warn parents and people in order to protect youth from the pernicious influence of the media.

References

Anderson, C, Berkowitz, L., Donnerstein, E., Huesmann, R., Johnson, J., Linz, D., Malamuth, N. & Wartella, E. (2003). The influence of media violence on youth. Psychological science in the public interest, 4(3), 81-110. Web.

Beresin, E. The Impact of Media Violence on Children and Adolescents: Opportunities for Clinical Interventions. Web.

Escobar-Chaves, S. & Anderson, C. (2008). Media and Risky Behaviors. Children and electronic media, 18 (1), n. pag. Web.

Goebel, J. Media and violence study. Web.

Youth violence. (2015). World health organization. Web.

I believe this undergraduate degree will be challenging but also very interesting and rewarding. It will be a new way of learning for me about subjects that I am very passionate about. It will also be rewarding as I am certain this new way of learning will help me in my future career in helping the youth.

My interest in youth crime started when watching an episode of Police Interceptors and wondering why a person so young is involved. This interest increased when I started studying sociology as I was learning the reasons why people of different classes, ages, and ethnicity resort to crime. I then saw a short documentary on BBC called The Lost Boys where three young men spoke about their experiences of being drawn into gangs at a young age. Their stories made me question how the system may be failing young people and leading them in the direction of crime. In addition to these shows, I have also viewed TED talks; one being The Unspoken Injustice of Youth Justices. In his talk, former Supreme Court Judge Stanley Jones discussed the time young offenders are standing before the court and how it is often too late to address the problems that have led them there. Jones believed that to get tough on youth crime, we need to look at early childhood and find ways to address childhood disadvantage.

Another memorable talk I watched was The Real Roots of Youth Violence with Craig Pinkney where he goes out of his way to find the root causes of youth violence. He also discussed people’s belief of not my problem and how as a society, youth violence is our problem and needs greater community support. He went on to discuss a young person`s invisibility and wanting to be noticed and often turning to violence to be seen. His talk has helped me to continually question what can I do. instead of it`s not my problem’. Both talks have pushed me further in wanting to learn more, hence my choice in taking these courses. I think they will fulfill the desire of learning and achieve something that I am passionate about. Whilst studying criminology at the A level, I have received further insight into the legal system, criminal theories, different viewpoints, and much more.

When I`m not studying, I have been lucky enough to volunteer and help support a family that has young adults with learning disabilities. I help them build up their skills in interacting and socializing with people outside of their family unit. In doing so, these experiences have helped me to learn and understand how to interact with people who have disabilities. One of the young people I assist had Angelman Syndrome where a character is nonverbal communication. I learned to adapt to a new way of communicating and pick up on their cues to support them. This has helped me to develop skills in adapting to new environments and a willingness to learn. I have also supported friends who have had family members who were in prison by giving them my time to talk about their worries and concerns and just sitting and listening to what they have to say. I carried out my work experience as a local florist. This has taught me how to communicate with people from all different backgrounds and the reasons why they may be buying flowers.

Whilst at Long Road Sixth Form College, I have been using my Extended Project Qualification to improve and develop my skills in research, time management, and essay execution. The project itself is focused on the issue of mental health, specifically body image. My research so far has given me an understanding of how people, especially the youth, can be influenced by the media and public opinion.

Overall, I believe my choice of an undergraduate degree will help me achieve my goal of supporting young people as a career. I am passionate and committed to learning all I can about criminology and the youth and appreciate any resource I can use to build on my learning. I also believe it will give me a sense of purpose where I can give back to the community.

The perception of youths as troublesome has led to the belief that young people are criminals rather than being victims. The graffiti portrays the situation of the aftermath of the 2011 London riots in local areas where people have had enough. Youth and children services were affected. Access to those free spaces where children developed a sense of belonging and well-being in their local neighbourhoods has been taken away. The message on the wall portrays the feeling of the need for belonginess in one’s community.

Within the graffiti, a great sense of fear is exposed. The poppies symbolise a history of war and bloodshed along with the colour red, used intensely within the message as an act of danger. The word ‘WAR’ itself shows that in local areas where there is inequality and conflict, it does create a situation of fear. For the people who live in those neighbourhoods, they live in fear. They fear for their children. In parts of London where there have been more cases of stabbings or gun violence, shows a greater fear of youth violence that is still escalating.

The situation of the 2011 London riots spiralled out of control when the police shot Mark Duggan. Sociological positivism suggests that this sort of tension, stress and division led to criminality of the public against the state- creating social disorganisation within society. The rioters were bound together to create destruction through the towns, creating fear as they went. In the aftermath of the destruction, young people were blamed for the violence and so they were negatively labelled and stereotyped. With this label placed upon them only led the youths to continue creating more cases of violence in London.

Apart from the negative representation placed upon youths, there are other underlying causes leading to youth violence can be poverty, lack of educational opportunities, exposure to drugs or alcohol and childhood trauma. Being brought up in these toxic environments can fail to nurture them, leading them down the path of crime. The emotions and trauma of a toxic environment can make crime and deviance meaningful to perpetrators, leaving them fearful and vengeful. There are also positivist biological explanations of criminal behaviour, for example, young people can be born with natural urges that are inherently self-centred, destructive, and antisocial.

Sociologists David Matza and Gresham Sykes argue that delinquent values create distance from dominant values by adopting sub-terranean values. They convince themselves that what they are doing is not deviant. They become in denial of their victims, their responsibility and hurting someone. The youth do not have enough support to teach them the right values they need.

Bringing in organisations such as the Violence Reduction Unit is one of the many effective approaches that can help stabilise and minimise the number of violence in the long term. One of the many aims to support the youth is by providing extra support for young people who are affected by domestic violence as figures showed 13 percent of serious youth violence victims are victims of domestic violence, and evidence of the link between involvement in violence and children witnessing violence in the home. The organisation gathers specialists from health department, police force, government etc. to tackle the issue and recognise the early signs of risk in everyday lives. This would mean intervening at critical moments in a young person’s life when they are on the verge of committing a crime.

Finding solutions to end youth violence continues to challenge society; the police; regulators and the government, families and young people. By intervening at the earliest of a young person’s life can help prevent the continuous violence on our streets, end the fear of the public and our youth becoming victimised. Can the youth still be saved from the streets of crime?

Over the past few decades, a series of school shootings as well as street shootings by the youth has been on the rise in the United States leading to an extensive exploration of the reasons why the youth indulge in such violent behavior.

In the youth violence article, quantitative data mining procedures are used. Here, the article’s authors make use of several data gathering instruments such as historical studies that provide data on features of school rampage features. Another instrument used are several databases such as the School-Associated Violent Death from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and provides information on school-related homicides (Bushman et al., 2016). The article also made use of interviews as an instrument of gathering data. The interview involved 163 people who were victims of school mass shootings and suffered either in extensive injuries or deaths. The individuals interviewed provided crucial information on their experiences and their lives after the particular shooting incident. In addition, the article gathered data from newspapers that provided information on every rampage school shooting account in the U.S. that occurred between 1974 to 2002 (Bushman et al., 2016). The total number of the incidents analyzed were 25.

Youth violence has been associated with a number of theories that define why the particular incidents occur. According to the article, the main factors include increased exposure to violent media content, accessibility to guns, mental illness or conditions, and family influences (Bushman et al., 2016). Family influences are key in influencing increased or decreased youth violence behavior. Aspects such as harsh and rejecting patients, parental violence and chaos, child abuse as well as neglect can be key factors for increased youth violence.

The article also associates the youth’s exposure to media violence as theoretical concept for youth violence. The youth will view violent content of images and videos on social media sites and tend to copy them. In addition, a larger percentage of the youth in the U.S. have unsupervised access to guns due to high levels of gun ownership in the country as well as weak gun control laws (Bushman et al., 2016). Most instances of youth violence such as school and street shootings will involve the use of a gun. Mental health is associated with increased youth violence especially in severe cases of mental illness. Illness can arise from various causes such as drug and alcohol abuse or from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Social and Behavioral Science has several disciplines such as sociology, psychology, economics, political science, and anthropology. The disciplines are closely related to each other as they seek to study various aspects of human behavior whether in the past, present or the future. They are also key aspects in understanding why people make the decisions they do and the actions they take. Various scholars use these disciplines to identify the etiology of youth violence in America. Each of the discipline named above attributes violent behavior to certain aspects and issues. For instance, psychology attributes violent behavior in young people to various aspects of their minds or behavior such as development, health issues, mental behavior among others. Sociology, on the other hand, associate youth violence to the social environment of an individual such as family background and the relationship they have with other people and their interactions.

Youth violence is associated with both economic and social costs that can either be direct or indirect. Direct costs are incurred or felt immediately or during the violent act while indirect costs occur as a consequence of the action. Economic costs of youth violence are felt in loss of productivity and use of health care services. The young people are more vigilant and stronger when it comes to productivity and the well-being of any country. However, when they engage in violent behavior this aspect is undermined posing a risk to the future of the economy. In addition, when youth violence acts occur, extensive medical resources and equipment are used which is quite expensive. For instance, youth violence in the United States costs the country about 158 billion dollars in each year (Bastiaens, 2006).

Social costs are felt as the consequences of the violent act and that may include death or injury. Social costs include loss of social cohesion and financial burdens especially for affected individuals.

Youth violence is usually preceded by a number of factors mainly associated with the youths’ personalities or characteristics. Among these factors is poor behavioral control that can be as a result of mental illness or drug and substance abuse. These aspects affect how the young person will behave and react to the environment around them. Youth violence is also known to occur following a history of violent victimization where the individual may have experienced trauma or abuse in their young age. As the individual grows, they tend to pick on the violent aspect of their lives leading to violent behavior and acts. In addition, emotional depression and stress are precursors to youth personalities. Youth violence may occur as the young people try to relieve what they may be feeling or experiencing.

References

1. Bushman, B.J., Calvert, S.L., Dredze, M., Jablonski, N.G., Morill, C., Romer, D., Newman, K.,
2. Downey, G., Gottredson, M., Masten, A.S., Neill, D.B.,

Lim Jeong-yeo (2017) reported there was serious school violence in Busan, the Republic of Korea, in 2017 called Busan Teen Girl Attack. Four assailants, who aged 14 to 15 years old girls, hit a 14 years girl with steel pipe, chair, and glass bottles for one and a half hours. The victim was bloody over her body and had two deep cuts on her head. They testified to the police for what they have done as the perpetrators already knew ‘protection cases’ of Juvenile Act, which usually give less serious punishment to youth criminals. So, they got lesser than two years sentence in a juvenile reformatory, but it led to second violence. Korean Statistical Information Service (2016) represented the recent data on the number of all youth violence, including school violence in South Korea, which was 28,310 in 2013. Violence nowadays in England and Wales are serious. According to the Youth justice statistics (Ministry of Justice, 2020), the percentage of ‘Violence against the person’ in 2019 has increased the most for a decade, compared with other types of juvenile crimes. Violence is to harm someone physically or mentally or could be both ways and is globally viewed as breaking the law and social norms. Thus, juvenile assailants who committed violence could be classified as a deviance group. Therefore, it will discuss how and why violent teenagers are identified as a deviant group through reflecting two theories, and it will also explore what effects do they have on society, and how society responds to these groups.

Psychologists and Sociologists have different standards to identify deviance, but two aspects can explain why violent students are classified as deviant by their theories. A research paper (Nalah et al, 2013, P. 1) argued that human nature and criminal tendencies, such as mental illnesses and psychological trauma e.g PTSD, determine deviant behaviours, which is a psychological point of view. On the other hand, sociologists consider a violation of social norms and rules, which is not just considering as individual acts but also the social context, in terms of defining deviant behaviours. Social rules and orders have been changed over time, and they are socially established by some organisation, such as policies, courts, and legislature (Hawkins et al, 2019). Social rules could be built by the results of deviant behaviours as well (Nalah et al, 2013, P.1). Social norms vary from different countries since people who live in other countries have various cultures and environments. Hence it leads to a number of diverse social norms and rules. For example, smoking on the street is normal in the UK whereas it is deviant behaviour in South Korea. Consequently, sociologists can take strain theories, and psychologists can take conduct disorder in order to explain the reason why juvenile violence is deviant.

There are four main strain theories when it comes to explaining the youth violence, which are anomie theory, institutional anomie theory, general strain theory and relative deprivation theory (Ministry of Children, Community and Social Service, 2016). Anomie theory and general strain theory will use for explanations of a violent adolescent group. To briefly mention Merton’s anomie theory, it has five possible responses to anomie, which are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. Conformity is the most common response in society as it accepts the cultural goals of becoming wealthy, using legitimate means. Innovation uses illegal means and targets the cultural goals. Ritualism takes the socially approved means but rejects the goals. Retreatism rejects both the cultural goals and lawful means. Rebellion seems the same with retreatism, but it pursues new goals and means (Inderbitizin et al, 2017, P. 134-135). The four responses, except for conformity, are deviant since they do not seek either the goals of being the rich or legitimate means for the goals or maybe both of them. People may think that anomie strain theory is unable to correlate a juvenile violent group with abnormality even the theory contains explanations of deviant behaviours because the theory does not directly show that young violent groups are deviant. However, Merton’s strain theory could actually prove that the young violent population is deviant as this youth group could be classified as either innovation or retreatism. It will be discussed later by using a case study. Agnew (2012) said that the larger the gap of anomie, the more negative emotions such as anger it creates, and it could lead to committing a crime. He also proved that adolescent crime rates are the highest among other age groups in which Merton’s anomie strain theory could not prove. Agnew’s research (2012) showed that youth groups want to get peer status, instead of social status in Merton’s strain theory, from their similar age groups but if they are mistreated or get mistreatment by family or teacher they would illegally escape from such treatments, for example, they could run away from home or continue truancy to reduce aversive treatments. Therefore, as juvenile groups are impulsive and immature to control their emotions and behaviours, the violence rates created by strain peaks during adolescence.

Staff and Kreager’s study (2008) provided evidence of two statements mentioned above. One is that violent peers used ways of innovation retreatism when they faced strain, and another is that as adolescents are relatively immature compared to adults and lack the ability to control their behaviours, it leads them to commit violence easily. One of the hypotheses of this study is some male students want to gain peer status through violence not through academic achievement, which is verified by Cohen, and Willis’s case studies (1955, 1977; cited by Staff and Kreager, 2008. P.10-11). So, the minority students commit violence to get peers status, and it is innovation when it comes to the responses of anomie as they use socially unapproved means to gain the social status that could be the cultural goal. Furthermore, Staff and Kreager (2008) discovered a correlation between violent youth groups and the increasing rate of dropping out the secondary school. The result showed that 30% of violent students tend to drop out of secondary school, so it can interpret that they give up their high academic level as well as their future success, and it indicates features of retreatism of Merton’s theory.

Conduct disorder can often be used to interpret psychological and biological theory of deviance. Youth with conduct disorder have antisocial behaviours such as being cruel to people and animals, arson, or shoplifting. People are diagnosed by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DSM-IV to know whether they have conduct disorder or not (Nalah et al, 2013. P.6). According to research (H. Russell Searight et al, 2001), there are 15 criteria of DSM-IV to diagnose conduct disorder by examining the degree of people’s aggressive, destructive, and deceitful behaviours. If a person has at least the following three characteristics of DSM-IV over one year, a psychiatrist will diagnose the person as conduct disorder. The first question part is ‘Aggression to people and/or animals’, and it determines whether a violent child is a deviant person or not as all criteria of the test paper are related to violation of social norms and law. ‘Have you often initiates physical fights’ or ‘have you been physically cruel to people’ are the examples of DMS-IV test paper. People could think that conduct disorder is a sociological explanation of the deviant group because of the results of the DMS-IV test. However, considering some underlying causes of conduct disorder, the theory of conduct disorder is more appropriate for biological and psychological analysis. As mentioned above, even though a person has more than three characteristics of the following criteria of DSM-IV, the person must last these symptoms for at least one year so as to diagnose a conduct disorder. Breaking law and social norms for twelve months are never easy for normal people, so people who diagnosed with conduct disorder may have a high level of negative emotion and low level of fear in their life. In addition, they may have problems with moral awareness and deficits in cognitive processing. These causes of conduct disorder are related to a psychological viewpoint of deviance. On the other hand, researchers at University of Birmingham (2019) researched biological analysis of conduct disorder. They studied causes of conduct disorder by investigating around 300 youth group, who aged from 9 to 18, of the area of the corpus callosum, the largest pathway towards two hemispheres of the brain, using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The research found that children with behaviour disorder have a different structure of corpus callosum compared to young people without conduct disorder. This abnormality of the brain results in difficulties regulating behaviour, impulse control, and emotion. People would recognise that biological perspectives of conduct disorder are relevant to psychological one through these findings. Dr. Graeme Fairchild in the department of Psychology at the University of Bath, who joined this research project, has a prediction in which psychological theory can be improved by this scientific discovery (University of Birmingham, 2019). The South Korea Ministry of Education investigated actual conditions of school violence in 2019. Some reasons for the violence of the survey correlate with proving practical evidence of conduct disorder’s theory as some perpetrators assaulted people for reasons such as ‘just for fun’, ‘they do not like a person(s) without any excuses’ or ‘uncontrollable of their anger and stress’ (yangsook, 2019).

Deviance can have both negative and positive effects on individuals, society, and country (Nalah et al, 2013. P.2). An example of positive influence is that deviant actions can make the rules and order of society stricter, whereas victims and their families could be suffered from a result of abnormal behaviours physically or mentally. Youth violent groups have more negative results than positive ones in terms of deviance. For instance, as violent children are disruptive influence in class, they could interrupt classmates’ study when they cause any disturbance. If they do not get mental treatment or care but become an adult, they could cause more serious violent crime. World Health Organisation (2016) illustrated a serious increasing homicide rate as a fatal result of youth violence, which is the most extreme effect. However, this kind of report could flag up the severity of youth violence and create an opportunity for governments and certain organisation mentioned above to review and amend the law for social safety.

The Guardian (2019) wrote that many representatives in the UK discussed the seriousness and prevention of juvenile violence. Boris Johnson also realised the seriousness of youth violence and created a new policy such as hiring 20,000 police officers, pushing a home secretary to make the practical vision, and improving prevention and intervention services. Korean citizens submitted a petition to the Blue House against the current Juvenile Act after the incident of Busan Teen Girl Attach. This because they wanted to make Juvenile Act harsher to increase the sentence period of serious juvenile delinquency and lower the age limit for imprisonment. The number of people who agreed to this petition reached 392,848 in 30 days, so the Blue house reviewed the Juvenile Act (Korea Joongang Daily, 2017).

Strain theory and conduct disorder explain deviant behaviours related to violent children through sociological and psychological perspectives, so youth violent population is classified as a deviant group. Due to the fact that the rates of juvenile violence have increased in South Korea and England and Wales, people should pay more attention to this deviant group, and the government should create more specific and realistic countermeasures for protecting further violence.

Bibliography:

1. Agnew, R (2012) Reflection on “A Revised Strain Theory of Delinquency”. Oxford Journals. 91(1). Available at: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy1.bath.ac.uk/stable/pdf/41683180.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Ae5481b5e7476e09b1bb50345f53b0c71 (Accessed: 14 April 2020)
2. Hawkins, R. X.D., Goodman, N. D., Goldstone, R. L. (2019) The Emergence of Social Norms and Conventions. Trends in Cognitive Sciences. 23(2). Available at: https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy1.bath.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S1364661318302626 (Accessed: 7 April 2020)
3. H. Russell Searight, Fred Rottnek, M. D., Stacey L. Abby, Pharm. M (2001) Conduct Disorder: Diagnosis and Treatment in Primary Care. American Family Physician. 63(8). Available at: https://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/0415/p1579.pdf (Accessed: 15 April 2020)
4. Inderbitizin, M., Bates, K. A., Gainey, R. R (2017) Deviance and social control: A sociological perspective. 2nd ed. London: Sage. Chapter 4: Anomie/Strain Theory (PP. 132-137)
5. Jeongyeo. L (2017) ‘Police under fire for mishandling Busan Teen girl attack case’, The KoreaHerald, 6 September. Available at: http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20170906000780 (Accessed: 7 April 2020)
6. Korea Joongang Daily (2017) ‘Citizens amplify their concerns to the Blue House; Some worry that the petition platform could be too crowded’. Available at: http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/article.aspx?aid=3041128 (Accessed: 15 April 2020)
7. Korean Statistical Information Service (2016) Juvenile Criminals Section (2006~2013). Daejeon: National Police Agency. Available at: http://kosis.kr/statisticsList/statisticsListIndex.do?menuId=M_01_01&vwcd=MT_ZTITLE&parmTabId=M_01_01#SelectStatsBoxDiv (Accessed: 7 April 2020)
8. Ministry of Children, Community and Social Science (2016) Review of the Roots of Youth Violence: Literature Reviews, Strain Theories. Ontario. 5(6). Available at: http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/professionals/oyap/roots/volume5/chapter06_strain.aspx (Accessed: 10 April 2020)
9. Ministry of Justice (2020) Youth justice statistics: 2018 to 2019. London: Youth Justice Board (YJB). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/youth-justice-statistics-2018-to-2019 (Accessed: 7 April 2020)
10. Nalah., Bala. A., Ishaya., Daniel. L (2013) A conceptual Overview of Deviance and Its Implication to Mental Health: a Bio Psychological Perspective. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Invention. 2(12). December. Available at: https://moodle.bath.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/1327817/mod_resource/content/2/Conceptual_Overview_Deviance.pdf (Accessed: 7 April 2020)
11. Staff, J., & Kreager, D. A. (2008). TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL? VIOLENCE, PEER STATUS, AND HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT*. Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation, 87(1), 445–471. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.0.0068 (Accessed: 11 April 2020)
12. The Guardian (2019) ‘Action on rise in youth violence completely inadequate, say MPs’. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/jul/31/action-on-rise-in-youth-violence-completely-inadequate-say-mps (Accessed: 15 April 2020)
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15. Yangsook, N (2019) Announcement of the results of the school violence survey in 2019. Seoul: The Ministry of Education. Available at: https://www.moe.go.kr/boardCnts/view.do?boardID=294&boardSeq=78346&lev=0&m=02 (Accessed: 15 April 2020)

Annotated Bibliography

This is my own work, based on my own ideas and I state that it is not the work of any other person. I declare that I have fully referenced the works of others in my paper.

In my Annotated Bibliography I am focusing on crime among young people in United States, I will focus on economic conditions linked to crime. I will also look at how juvenile detention centers and the negatives and positives of them being use by young people who are sent to them rather than an ‘adult prison’ for their offence. Youth violence is a major concern for the past 25 years in law and behavioral sciences the United States statistics show an increase of youth violence (Ewing, 2001).

According to USPHS in 2002, every year in the late 1990s an increase in ten times as many youths had said they have participated in some form of violent behavior which could have resulted in the killing or serious injury to another person. In the law point of view their main focus was to reduce the age at which violent juvenile offenders may be tried as adults (Ewing, 2001). In the behavioral science point of view, they are focusing their research on understanding youth violence, the causes, prevention methods and how it is looked at and dealt with by law and society (Ewing, 2001)

Hoffman, J. (2004) ‘Youth Violence in the United States’ Youth violence, resilience, and rehabilitation. pp.5-11.

The discussions on youth violence focus on two periods 1983-1994 and 1995-2000 (Hoffman, 2004). I am calling the 1983-1994 the first period and 1995-2000 the second period. In the first period the number of adolescent deaths, injuries caused by violence and arrest for youth homicides increased, during 1985-1991 homicide rates increased drastically by 154%, during 1985-1993 arrest of people aged between 10-17 also increased to 154% (Hoffman, 2004). During the second period this was opposite, crimes and homicides involving young people decreased, between 1993-1997 homicide rates decreased by 34% (Hoffman, 2004), weapon related arrests decreased by 24% by 1997 according to Snyder in 1997. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for young people aged between 15-24 and third for young people aged between 5-14 (Hoffman, 2004). According to Snyder and Sickmund in 1995 homicide victims aged between 10-17 have a greater risk of being killed by a friend, most homicide victims are shot to death and are mostly male. There is an increase use of firearms and because of this increase there is also a further increase in spinal cord injuries due to victims of gunshot wounds surviving.

Youth violence has been the biggest focus of the criminal justice system, many of the nation’s youth are taking part in a juvenile justice system. The violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 was used to treat juveniles as adults to decrease crime by using a harsher approach but according to a study where youth were transferred to an adult criminal court in Florida resulted in an increase in crimes for the juveniles who were tried as adults compared to juveniles whose cases were done in Juvenile court (Washington Crime News Services 1996a). In 1996 a report done by the American Bar Association seen problems with juvenile representation, where lawyers had 500 cases per year which resulted in poor/inadequate representation (Juvenile Justice Digest 1996c).

This book is relevant to my theme because I study law and my overall theme is about crime among youth in United States. I found that that even though the crime rates dropped in the second period I discussed the crime rates in the United States are the highest recorded yet. There were 2 experiments used that I researched in the book which shows there is a lack of commitment to the youth as we can see the youth who were tried as adults to create a harsher punishment but this actually backfired as the youth tried as adults increased crime and the experiment with the American Bar Association showed me that lawyers had too much going on to represent the juvenile adequately which could result in unfair judgements due to poor representation. Overall, this article increased my knowledge with facts and statistics which I found to be very useful in my research.

Britt, C. (1994) ‘Crime and Unemployment Among Youths in the United States, 1958-1990′ American Journal of Economics and Sociology.

Sociologists and Economists have an interest in the link between crime and economic conditions, there is very little research of the effect of economic conditions on criminal behavior of youth which baffles me because most crime is committed by youth. This articles main focus is on the existing and delay effect of youth employment on crime among youth by using data of unemployment and arrest time series of people aged from 16-19 years old in the United States from 1958-1990 (Britt, 1994). There are two main views of the link between crime and economic conditions one is the motivational perspective and Greenberg in 1985 did research where he applied this view with age distribution of crime hoping to explain why youth have the highest levels of crime he stated that employment is important to youth to obtain materialistic things etc. When your young you are dependent on your parents and when your parents are not giving you financial support, they need to get a job but getting a job when your young can be hard so they are not getting independent income which results in them getting the materialistic things (clothes) which can increase the motivation to crime (Britt, 1994).

Another view is the opportunity perspectives which sees crime decreasing when there are poor economic conditions, because when people become unemployed, they may remain in their home which decreases exposure to potential offenders (Britt, 1994). This suggests that when unemployment levels are high then youth are more likely to be at home because they can’t leisure activities according to Greenberg in 1985 and also they may have adults keeping an eye on them where as when youths are in a good well-paying job they be looked over because they have a good job so why would they commit crime they are supposed to be well behaved and also they would be working a lot so wouldn’t be at home to be supervised (Britt, 1994).

I find this article to be related to my theme because it is giving me a factor/influence that may cause a youth to commit crime and gives me two types of perspectives on economic conditions linked to youth crime. As I’ve stated there is little research on the link of the two and researched has failed to provide a clear set of findings. The Uniform Crime Reports show there was both a positive and negative relationship between both, this research has been limited due to short time series used in each study (Britts, 1994). I found it hard to find research for a factor, but this has given me knowledge as I had limited research so overall, I have found this article to be helpful in my topic.

Flowers, R., 2012.’Delinquency prevention and control strategies’ Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes. pp.182-185.

There is a lot of measure put into place to prevent juveniles from committing some sort of crime or violence act. According to Flowers, R in 2012, the successful programs put into place for prevention are as follows: prenatal to age six educational programs, classroom management for organization and instruction, curriculum focusing on conflict resolution and violence prevention, peer counselling and mediation, recreational programs for after school, firearms intervention strategies, training of parents, marriage and family therapy, gang prevention strategies, vocational training, policing strategies and mobilizing of community programs (Flowers, 2012).

There has been loads of strategies to reduce gun access and use by juveniles an example of this is the Boston Gun Project’s Operation Ceasefire which uses a multijurisdictional approach to firearm procession and homicides of males under 25 dropped by 70% as a result according to Kennedy in 1998 (Flowers, 2012). Another successful strategy for preventing gang violence was the Gang Resistance Education and Training program which was a school-based program according to Esbensen and Osgood in 1997 this resulted with the kids who completed the program to have less involvement with gangs (Flowers, 2012). There is an increase of school shouting with bullying as the main factor so there was a program put in place in Norway in 1980, where Olweus found in 1993 a reduction in bullying, victimization and other delinquent activities (Flowers, 2012). The main focus of this article was to show us ways the prevention strategies have worked with examples, in my essay I have given an introduction to youth crime and a factor affecting it so I ended it with prevention strategies, I found this article very useful in giving me information provided with facts, which concluded my knowledge in the theme I choose.

‘The current response we have to the youth violence has problems for health, development and wellbeing of the young both inside and outside correction systems’ ~ (Hoffman, 2004). I started off this topic with having knowledge of very little but as I researched I gained knowledge of facts and information I haven’t previously seen before, I think the research in finding out the topic of United States youth violence is very broad but there should be more systems put in place in preventing it.

References

1. (Austin et al 2000) – Austin, J., K.D. Johnson, and M. Gregoriou. 2000. Juveniles in adult prisons and jails: a national assessment. Washington, D.C.: George Washington University Institute on Crime, Justice and Corrections and the National Council on Crime and Delinquency.
2. (Britt, 1994) – Britt, C. (1994). Crime and Unemployment Among Youths in the United States, 1958-1990. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, [online] 53(1), pp.99-109. Available at: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=78a64fbd-f474-4927-9712-3e4adb5942de%40sessionmgr4007 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].
3. (Ewing, 2001) – Ewing, C. (2001). Introduction to this issue: youth violence. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, [online] 19(1), pp.1-2. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/bsl.422 [Accessed 3 Mar. 2020].
4. (Esbensen, Osgood, 1997) – Esbensen, F., and D. W. Osgood (1997). National Education of G.R.E.A.T. Research in Brief. Washington, DC: National Institute of Justice.
5. (Flowers, 2012) – Flowers, R., 2012. Kids Who Commit Adult Crimes. Binghamton: Taylor and Francis, pp.182-185.
6. (Hoffman, 2004) – Hoffman, J. (2004). Youth violence, resilience, and rehabilitation. New York: LFB Scholarly Pub., pp.5-11.
7. (Juvenile Justice Digest 1996c) – Juvenile Justice Digest 1996c. Washington Crime News Services. Fairfax, VA. January 4, p.2.
8. (Kennedy, 1998) – Kennedy, D. M. (1998). Pulling Levers: Getting Deterrence Right. National Institute of Justice Journal 7:2-8.
9. (Olweus, 1993) – Olweus, D. (1993). Bullying at School: What We Know and What We Can Do . Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
10. (Snyder 2000) – Synder, 2000 Juvenile arrests 1999 . Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
11. (Sickmund and Wan 1999) – Sickmund, M. and Y. Wan. 2001. Census of juveniles in residential placement databook. Detailed offense profile by sex for the United States, 1999 .Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

To date, researchers are increasingly interested in deciding whether sport-based approaches can be successful in the prevention of criminality among youth (Spruit, Van der Put, Van Vugt, & Stams, 2018). Statistics Canada defines youth violence as any deliberate physical, sexual or psychological assault on another person (or persons) by one or more young people between the ages of 12 to 19 years (Statistics Canada, 2016). Youth violence is an ongoing social and health problem across communities everywhere. While the overall violent crime rate in Canada fell by 4% in 10 years, from 1997 to 2006, the rate of violent crime among young people has risen by 12% over the past 10 years and has increased by 30% since 1991 (Statistics Canada, 2016). The development of delinquency can be explained through a variety of factors in effect, including environmental issues such as poverty and social class, social risk factors associated with parental authority and peer pressure, individual risk factors linked with one’s mental and emotional state, and additional influences including a child’s neighbourhood and community (Youth Violence, 2016, p.21). Many studies have attempted to explain how strategies focused on sport can be effective in preventing juvenile delinquency. These findings do not indicate that sport activity in itself prevents youth violence, but rather place emphasis on learning opportunities in the active participation of sports that contribute to the reduction of juvenile crime (Spruit et al., 2018). Sport participation can be used to tackle the ongoing issue of community violence among youth by promoting an improved state of mental health, greater social development, and the opportunity for personal growth.

Mental disorder is a risk factor that is significant for violence and may play a vital role in a violent teen’s life. Although mental and behavioural health issues do not directly cause young people to become violent, these factors increase the risk of violence for children as certain stressors place them at a greater chance of responding impulsively and aggressively in difficult social situations (Rueve & Welton, 2008). In addition, research also suggests that young people seek comfort from those who accept them and strengthen their sense of belonging (Clark, M. cited in Carmichael 2008). Thus, Clark’s 1992 study (cited in Carmichael 2008) concludes that many youth resort to street gangs to fulfill their need for acceptance, belonging and self-esteem. Not only can youth with poorer mental wellbeing easily become involved with gang-affiliation, for reasons such as loneliness and lack of support, but this affiliation can have adverse effects on mental health and often exacerbate current mental illnesses afflicted by the youth (Hughes, Bellis, Perkins, & Bennet, 2015). Having said that, sports participation can be an effective way to minimize stress and improve one’s physical and mental health, as well as tackle youth crime, conflict, and violent outbreaks (Novak Djokovic Foundation, 2017). Participation of physical activity also entails decreased symptoms of depression, anxiety and increased levels of self-esteem (Hutchinson, 2011). Furthermore, sports and physical activity can change the way young people think about themselves. Studies show that participating in sports can positively alter a young person’s self-confidence and alleviate negative behaviours—which contributes to the prevention and elimination of crime (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2016). Ultimately, it can be concluded that the power of sport participation can be effective to promote positive mental health and reduce negative behaviours.

Research shows that the more influences youth are exposed to, the greater the likelihood of a violent outcome (Leschied, 2008, p. 15). The role of peers influencing individual adolescent behaviour has been established as one of the strongest adolescent risk factors (Leschied, 2008, p. 18). Peers play a role in promoting behaviour and attitudes that are favourable toward violence. In some cases, young people are socialized in a gang culture that encourages attitudes towards crime (Leschied, 2008, p. 18). It is proposed that gang affiliation meets an individual youth’s needs for power, identification, self-esteem, socialization, and an overall sense of belonging (Leschied, 2008, p. 18). Exclusion and rejection may take place for a variety of reasons, and although it may not always be intended to cause psychological harm, the experience of exclusion may cause negative effects in terms of emotional and behavioural health, academic challenges, a decline in prosocial behaviour, and poor self-worth (Mulvey, Boswell, & Zheng, 2017). Moreover, families appear to play multiple roles exerting an influence on children that may intensify or diminish the risk of youth violence. Many of the best-established risk factors for juvenile delinquency are family- based, including dismissive parenting, inter parental violence, child abuse and neglect, inadequate discipline, and lack of monitoring by parents of children showing early signs of aggression (Youth Violence, 2016, p.21). Factors associated with lower risk for violence among young people often suggest elements which embrace close bonds with supportive caregivers, effective parenting that is consistent and responsive to development, and families working in ways that are healthy, stable, well-managed and well-regulated for children (Youth Violence, 2016, p.21). Ultimately, acts of violence among youth may be triggered through a lack of personal connections as well as social exclusion, for example, among peers and family. Through organized sports programs, youth will find benefits through social development and integration. Sports give a network of valid interactions through teammates, coaches, and program leaders, that can improve and enhance participants’ self confidence, social behaviours, self-discipline, compassion, and ability to collaborate with others (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2016). It is these psychological factors that ultimately help to reduce violence among young people (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2016). Furthermore, according to a study in 2002 by Gatz, Messner and Ball-Rokeach, organized sport initiatives that succeed in reducing youth crime appear to develop feelings of competence, connectedness and empowerment among young people (Gatz, Messner, & Ball-Rokeach, cited in Carmichael 2008), as well as engage at-risk youth by providing opportunities for positive peer mentoring to further prevent instances of youth crime (Sheehan, DiCara, LeBailly, & Christoffel, cited in Carmichael 2008). On top of that, sports programs offer activities that foster friendships and provide a positive group experience for youth where relationships are inclusive and where adults and young people can build trustworthy connections (Perkins & Noam, 2007, p. 80). Sport is a crucial aspect of social life as it engages communities directly. It brings individuals together in a fun and participatory way, creating social relationships, building connections, and improving communication between individuals and groups (Ehsani, Dehnavi, & Heidary, 2012). It is through sport participation where young people are able to become involved within the community, make connections with others, and develop socially in order to learn how to contribute to society in the safest and healthiest ways.

Life skills are cognitive, emotional, interpersonal and social abilities that allow individuals to handle the challenges of everyday life effectively (World Health Organization, 2009). To lack life skills and values, youth may resort to violence. For example, individuals who are typically aggressive or impulsive with self-control problems are more likely to commit later acts of aggression, delinquency and crime (Youth Violence, 2016, p.22). Individual differences in self-control are amid the strongest and most frequently observed associations of crime, delinquency, aggression and other problem behaviours (Youth Violence, 2016, p.22)

Using one criminological theory, explain why people engage in acts of violence and provide specific research examples.

Introduction

The criminological sociological theory of socialisation is used to underpin why people engage in acts of violence; identifying the definition of violence and placing the specific context of interpersonal violence will be the focus of this essay. Three individual journal article reports across three different social settings; youth violence, prisons and university programmes to challenge social norms will be focused on to deconstruct the socialisations that influence and normalise engagement in acts of violence. Highlighting that re-socialisation can challenge negative, harmful behaviours if done so on a personal and societal level impacting smaller groups of people.

Violence

The definition of violence is described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as the following:

“The international use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likely hood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, maldevelopment or deprivation” (World Health Organisation, 2019)

WHO have listed three sub-categories of violence; self-directed, interpersonal and collective violence. Further split into three sub-divisions of violence; family, community and intimate partner. Throughout this essay the focus of violence will be interpersonal violence, referring to violence perpetrated between individuals within the community; broken into stranger and acquaintance violence which can both include youth violence (Krug. et al., 2002).

One of the most visible forms of violence within society is perpetrated by the youth and most likely for victims to also be adolescents and young adults. Males are the most likely to engage in acts of violence. Media and news outlets report daily on violence within schools or by gangs. Most young people engaging in violent acts continue violent behaviour into adulthood. Risk factors for violence do not sit in isolation with many factors at play at once. It must be noted that people engaging in violence still have a personal choice to do so, with only a minority of the population engaging in violent acts (Krug. et al., 2002; World Health Organisation, 2019).

Socialisation Theory

Socialisation is the life-long process of learning and inheriting social norms, skills and habits necessary to participating in society and social settings. In order for humans to learn and survive, social experiences are needed, those experiences will be relevant for each individual group of people; dependant on social norms and constructions of gender. Social, psychological and cultural streams achieve gender through socially constructed rules of how the sexes should behave. Gender being something we do and have to practice rather than something we are. Enforced constructions of masculinity and femininity influence ‘choices’, behaviours and characteristics (Oakley, 1972; Stoller, 1968; West and Zimmerman, 1987).

Socialization of appropriately considered behaviours and attitudes for both sexes are reinforced throughout countless subtle and non-subtle ways such as parents, friends, school, work and mass media (Henslin, 1999). Behaviours are constructed through adaptation and reproduction according with received impressions that achieve popularity (Adler, and Adler, and Kless, 1992; Corsaro and Eder, 1990).

The psychological concept of ‘the looking glass self’, developed by Cooley (1902) expressed that throughout society’s interpersonal interactions and perception of others, a person’s self grows. The looking glass concept has three stages:

• How we start to imagine how we appear to others.
• Judgment of that appearance then starts to be imagined.
• Our self is then developed based on the judgements of others.

The correlation between personal development is stronger with peer groups rather than parents, as adolescent individuals start to spend more time with peer groups rather than parents. Harris, (1995) proposed that socialisation is context-specific and peer-group socialization of children and adolescence is out-of-the-home socialisation; parental behaviour with wide variations in and between societies do not derail children’s development but personalities developed throughout an intra- and intergroup process, built and modified by environmental influences. Learnt norms within the home may not work outside of the home demanding different behaviours. (Dencik, 1989) Differences in social status are apparent, but not always clear within each group of children or adolescents. Dominance (social power) and popularity both have a vicious circle quality of the rise and fall of social hierarchy (Bussey and Bandura, 1984; Harris and Liebert, 1991; Pettit et al. 1990; Rubin et al. 2005). The nature of an “individualistic view of uniqueness”, and “individual-by-individual basis” ignores “peer group relations” achieving an incorrect view of a person (Asch, 1959; 1987, Corsaro and Eder, 1990, Plomin and Rende, 1991).

Youth Violence

A meta-analysis correlating youth violence in low- and middle-income countries, investigated 48 potential correlates of youth violence reported in bivariate analyses, across 60 countries defined as low- or middle-income status according to the world bank during the period of 1987-2012 with a total of 480,898 individuals aged 10-29 (De Ribera, and Traijtenberg, N, and Shenderovich, 2019). Carrying a weapon, fighting and other interpersonal violent behaviours such as assault were included in the violent outcomes. Sexual assault, intimate partner violence, dating violence and gang involvement were not included in the review. The analysis generated evidence that the strongest correlates of youth violence identified were similar to previously identified correlates for higher income countries; male sex, having deviant/delinquent peers, school and watching violent television were all within the strongest correlation of youth violence. Peer-level factors included having a delinquent or deviant group of peers and community level factors included neighbourhood ‘risk’, ‘problems and ‘crime’. The four following points highlight socialisation theory underpinning the correlations of youth violence found within this study.

• All violence associated with peer characteristics. Deviant peers shower the strongest effect size.
• All education factors showed significant correlations with the all violence outcomes
• Watching violent TV was moderately associated with all violence.
• All violence was correlated with low parental supervision/monitoring, with a significant association with low parental monitoring and carrying a weapon

Group socialisation of norms within peer groups has a direct impact on ones sense of self, adapting behaviours that are context-specific. Youths engaging in violence are more likely to engage in acts of violence if this is normalised within delinquent or deviant peer groups. Mass media reinforces socialised, appropriations of constructed behaviours and attitudes are subtle and non-subtle the evidence shown in this report recognises association of violence TV and engaging in violence.

Prisons

A sociological analysis of violence within prisons was conducted in 1974 with three clear questions to answer:

• Is there an association between each (group) variable in set of (group) variables alleged to be casually related to aggressive behaviour in prisons?
• To what extent do these relationships hold when the same variables are properties of individuals?
• What are the implications of such an analysis for diffusionist (latent role) and prison situational (institutional product) explanations of interpersonal violence in prisons? (Ellis, Grasmick and Gilman, 1974)

55 North Carolina prisons (29 felon and 26 misdemeanant facilities) representative of all prisons within the state, involving 278 inmates informed the analysis. One third of the 7000+ inmates unequally distributed across the facilities were currently serving a sentence for a violent offence. Interviews were conducted to explore how inmates accounted for prison aggression equally across two adult and two youth prisons, with two stratified samples of youth (ages 14-17) and adult (age 18 and over) inmate population.

Variables used in the study are all mentioned within literature as being related to correctional institutional aggressive behaviour such as; inmates under 21yrs, sentenced for violent crimes, and total numbers of activities provided by the correctional facility. Throughout the study aggressive transgression is “any behaviour proscribed by prison rules that harms or injures another person”.

The likelihood of aggressive encounters was greater where there opportunity for both group and individual interaction was greater. Inmates stated that to lower the number of stabbings and fights within the prisons, prisoners need to be separated. Aggressive encounters become a normal reaction to abnormal conditions by normal people; normalised, violent behaviour is one of the most persistent aspects of prison life. Younger inmates were more likely to engage in violence partly to do with the most valued type of identity being based on willingness to both receive and give physical punishment with inmates who are feared given more status. Younger inmates have a greater involvement of both group and individual encounters creating gains and losses of status where likelihood of rewarding aggression with status can be understood through emerging physiological indicators of manhood, aggressiveness and validation of an identity that is based on the reactions of others. The concept of the looking glass self is largely in play with younger inmates.

Young inmates appear to be reacting largely to the situational socialisation within prisons, violence is seen as an acceptable way to resolving conflict amongst the younger inmates. Removing the individual is self-acknowledgment from inmates themselves, however this doesn’t challenge the wider connections of socialization, focusing solely on the individual reacting and surviving in a situation that may enhance the risk of violence being committed. Constructions of gender socialisation of men and that ideas of ‘masculinity’ that influences behaviours and characteristics are adapted and reproduced within prisons with individuals adapting behaviours to receive status based on perceptions of them.

Sexual violence

Evidence pushing a social norm approach to engaging men in ending violence against women highlight the importance of effective preventative strategies to end violence against women by addressing the role of men and the influence they have on each other’s behaviours. Male-only groups to understand the normalisations and commonalities of male socialization and help to enforce intervention to challenge and change their own problematic behaviour and/or intervening and confronting problematic behaviours of other men. Teaching empathy and emphasizing consent. Environmental, large scale media approaches to challenge harmful norms created through socialisation of ‘rape culture’ and influences and acceptance of ‘rape myths’ deeply ingrained in individuals, families and social customs (Fabiano et al. 2003).

A study undertaken in 2002 (Fabiano et al. 2003) with 618 participating students attending Western Washington University (WWU), Bellingham, Washington. A survey was posted with a return self-addressed envelope to randomly selected 2,500 undergraduate students. Respondents sex was controlled in all estimated statistics the study presented in order to remove the influence of bias due to a greater representation of women. The survey focused on two specific categories around consent and willingness to intervene, three individual perspectives were explored to represent actual norms for women and men and perceived female and male norms.

• personal perspective, and the
• perspective of the average female
• perspective of the average female

Findings replicate those of previous research, suggesting a male misperception of peer norms of sexual behaviour being less likely to intervene and concerned less about consent than is really the case. While highlighting the importance of challenging socialisation by promoting healthy, n0n-violent behaviours and attitudes, and supporting values and positive attitudes that may sometimes remain silent due to the normalisation of violent acts within smaller groups within a larger society and the perceived negative response from others for an attitude that differs and challenges these norms of both group and gender socialisation.

The results from this study and previous research located throughout the introduction of the study highlight that the socialisation of individuals engage in violent acts can be positively challenged throughout individual, group and societal applications, supporting a reduction of acts of violence perpetrated. Group and societal responses to challenge push back on the individualistic view of a person, recognising the impact of recognising how an individual is impacted by norms of interpersonal connections and environmental factors recognised in socialisation theory.

Conclusion

The research explored throughout this essay acknowledges the strong influence on others behaviour specifically young adults, fitting in line with context-specific socialisation within groups. Negative peer associations can influence individual and collective rules, expectations of behavioural norms within a cultural or social group which can encourage violence. Media shows to influence norms of violence with peer groups appearing to have a huge influence on acts of violence being committed. Research does show a positive socialisation and challenges to accepted and perpetrated negative behaviours through positively engaging individuals and larger society to challenge these norms and help to support the reduction of people engaging in violent acts.

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