Teen Violence

The current laws are not suitable in correcting the issue of delinquency and the crimes committed by adolescents. More correctional facilities are in demand where adolescents can fulfill their terms, while at the same time learn useful skills that may help correct their deviant behaviors. Adolescents placed behind bars are introduced to more violence and greater resentment towards society. An education, with real-life skills, will help them get back into society and give back to their community, rather than sending them back without any type of correctional program and/or skills. Adolescents are very easily impressionable and are not mature enough to be placed with criminals who have had the opportunity to grow and understand the repercussions of their actions. Nurturing, and treating, children with deviant behavior with the correct means will allow them to become productive citizens in society.

Adolescent Violence:

Lost Boys: Why our sons turn violent and how we can save them

There are a number of social developmental issues that male boys face as adolescents. These may include factors such as parents, peers, and other influences, ranging from media to environment, that play a role in changing an adolescent into a violent teen. Along with these factors are other aspects that may also have a negative influence on a teen during their adolescent years; in particular, poverty, abuse, drugs, and television/media. By looking at James Garbarino's book, Lost Boys: Why our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them, and comparing it with other books, such as Peter Elikann and Mark Klaas', Superpredators: The Demonization of our Children by the Law, we will be able to view similarities and differences between different factors in teen violence and how it manifests itself. By analyzing these factors of adolescent violence, an alternative way of dealing with these juvenile delinquents can be found.

What are some factors that contribute to teen violence? The American Psychological Association states that they are, "Access to firearms, involvement with alcohol and other drugs; involvement with antisocial groups, including delinquent gangs and violent mobs; and exposure to violence in the mass media" (Violence and Youth, 1991, p.4, ). The APA also believes that people who often commit violence fall within three categories; the first of these categories deal with a sense of expression. In order to release anger and negative emotions, these people turn to violence as their means of release. The second category deals with manipulation. These people use violence as a form of retaliation and a means of controlling others. The third category involves violence as a learned behavior. If one is reared in a violent atmosphere, or is subjected to one, there is a possibility that the violence he sees will become second nature to him. Even though these are three broad categories where numerous other factors may come into play, they are the essential root from where violent traits begin.

In concordance with these categories, Garbarino's book, Lost Boys: Why our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Save Them (1999), also has a variety of factors that are relevant to these three categories when dealing with teen violence. "We can save our sons, even our temperamentally vulnerable sons, from turning violent by connecting them to positive values and embedding them in positive relationships" (Garbarino, 1999 p.149-150)

James Garbarino, Ph.D. is Co-Director of the Family Life Development Center and Elizabeth Lee Vincent Professor of Human Development at Cornell University. Prior to his current position, he served as President of the Erikson Institute for Advanced Study in Child Development (1985-1994). He earned his B.A. from St. Lawrence University in 1968, and his Ph.D. in Human Development and Family Studies from Cornell University in 1973. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Garbarino has served as consultant or advisor to a wide range of organizations, including the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse, the National Institute for Mental Health, the American Medical Association, the National Black Child Development Institute, the National Science Foundation, the National Resource Center for Children in Poverty, Childwatch International Research Network, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, and the FBI. As an expert in his field, Garbarino is a viable source to look at for information on this topic.

Garbarino's book can be divided into two major parts. In the first part of his book he looks into possible venues of how teens may turn into troubled adolescents. In the second part he focuses more on what we can do to ensure that those same youth, and others in the future, do not fall into this same pattern of deviant behavior.

One of the fundamental factors that must exist to protect one's child from violence is the connection between the child and the parent. "Parental behavior plays a critical role in at least two other very specific ways. First, at all extremes, parental behavior determines whether a child will live or die. In the United States each year, about two thousand children are murdered by their parents through fatal child abuse and neglect. Second, it is impossible to dispute the undeniable developmental effects of severe psychological deprivation and rejection, particularly in early childhood" (p.40). Garbarino believed that parental abandonment played a role in youth violence as well as the relationship that a child had with his parents; in particularly, the father. Any type of rejection or abandonment in this area could result in negative consequences such as violent behavior. "Rejected children are at heightened risk for a host of psychological problems ranging from low self-esteem, to truncated moral development, to difficulty handling aggression and sexuality" (p.50).

Garbarino also looks into social factors that could affect how a teenager is turned violent. "It's not the kids that have changed since I was a teenager. It is the social environment in which they live that has changed. The risks of misjudging one's peers have increased. The costs of being in conflict have been magnified by adolescent's access to guns and their willingness to use them. Children are routinely exposed to vivid and explicit scenarios of death and destruction" (p.100).

One of the major social developmental issues that are facing youth today is the influence of the media, guns/firearms, and how society has changed over time. The adolescent: Development, Relationships, and Culture, written by F.P. Rice, states that "By age 18, children will have watched television approximately