Youth Violence: Causes, Media Influences, and Potential Solutions

Youth Violence: Unraveling the Impact of Media, Prejudices, and Personal Experiences

In 2016, an article on child safety stated that every year, over 5 million reports of child abuse are made in the United States. Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, whether through action or failing to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm, or risk of serious harm to a child. There are many forms of child maltreatment, including neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse.

Although violence has not affected my life or anybody that I know of, it has a clear effect on our society today.

In truth, everybody is affected by violence. Most likely, someone I know has been affected by violence, but I probably don’t know. Or if I do, I probably don’t consider it violence. It affects most of us because it changes simple things like how late at night to be outside walking or going to buy something. Violence is mostly the reason why some people don’t like to be out walking while it’s dark. It also affects attitudes towards certain races. Violence really has a negative effect on the world and people. There are many causes of youth violence. Some causes of youth violence are the media, violent movies, and bad influences or parentage. There is something else you must be thinking, and what you are probably thinking is violent video games. I personally don’t think that they are a cause of youth violence; although they can be violent, they are digital worlds and digital characters that are doing the violence.

Media Influence and Solutions: Addressing the Root Causes of Youth Violence

Video games are made to entertain you so you can do stuff you can’t do in real life. On the other hand, violent movies and TV. Shows can be a cause of youth violence. They are real, actual people acting out violent things. I find these are more of an influence because they are mostly funny, and sometimes people will copy things from TV to be funny. Sometimes, people might be doing violence unintentionally, like bullying. The media is also a cause of youth violence because of all those young celebrities doing drugs and sometimes being depressed. All that pressure can cause celebrities to do violence, maybe not intentionally. Bad influences are basically things like parents who care nothing for their child or maybe a family member who encourages violence. Sometimes, a family member who does not encourage violence has a gun legally for self-protection. Sometimes, a youth who has gone through bad times might steal their family members’ guns and use them to do violence and kill people. There are many ways through which violence can be made, like bullying or bad influences.

We as a country can stop youth violence if we actually try to lessen the sources of violence. What we can do is make parents more responsible. If someone in a kid’s family might be a bad influence, you should make your child spend less time with them. I personally think the media is a really stupid thing, but no one is going to remove it. What we can do about violent TV. Shows to make them a little less violent. I mean, you could have a narrator voice at the beginning say, ‘Don’t try this at home,’ or he could say,’ Do not repeat the actions you are about to watch”. There will probably be consequences if you do. What we can do about youth stealing the firearms of family members is make people who have guns keep them in a secure place. There are many things we can do to stop youth violence.

References

1. U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, “Child Maltreatment Reports.”
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Youth Violence: Facts at a Glance.”
3. Anderson, C. A., & Bushman, B. J. (2001). “Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature.” Psychological Science, 12(5), 353-359.
4. Huesmann, L. R. (2007). “The impact of electronic media violence: Scientific theory and research.” Journal of Adolescent Health, 41(6), S6-S13.

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