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Teenage Violence in Schools
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Teenage violence in schools has become a tremendous concern to many people. School violence over the past number of years has been increasing and family life, the things that occur in schools and the neighborhoods that the teenagers (that commit the crimes or violent acts) live in are some of the major factors. These are not necessarily the only causes to teenage violence.
Family Lifestyle and the behavior of members within the family have been shown to have a direct affect on a teenager s behavior in school. A child can be influenced very easily by any older person, especially a family member, because he always looks up to that family member. If a person in the family is involved in a criminal activity then the children can be turned on by this and become interested in doing the same thing. If the guardian or parent of a teenager does not punish him for doing something wrong, this can only lead to repetition of the bad behavior. Failure to stop a child from doing something wrong could lead the child to believe that his behavior is acceptable. Also, a child thinks that the people that are supposed to love him don t even care that he is doing something bad so he will continue to do it. Teenagers also commit acts of violence to get their parents attention. If parents ignore what their teenagers are doing, then the teenagers will continue to do more negative things just to get their parents to notice them. Another reason why family lifestyle is a cause to teen violence is, if the teenager is abandoned at a young age than there is no one to teach him wrong and right (Kim 82).
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There are many different situations that can occur in school that can cause teenagers to do violent things. When a student has an argument with other students or a teacher that student may only know how to deal his anger by striking out. Often, teenagers do not know how to talk things out and instead, react violently. If a teenager doesn t like what someone (a faculty member or another student) has said to him, he might also let out his anger in violent ways. Sometimes, even if the other person has not done anything wrong to him, but rather to another person he can still get angry (school violence).
The neighborhood that a teenager lives in can also cause him to be violent. If a teen lives in a bad neighborhood, where violent acts are going on all the time (besides for when he is in his house) and he will most probably be influenced by it (Kim 81). As a teenager sees more and more negative behavior happening daily in his surroundings, these behaviors will become acceptable and result in the teenager committing these same negative behaviors. Some of these negative behaviors include theft (lunch money, jewelry), vandalism, demands, threats, bullying, murder and rape (Kim 79). The following situations are examples of common behavior by teenagers; two boys did an act of vandalism in their school in New Jersey. The two boys vandalized their busses. The damage amount was $60,000, and the school had to close down for two days because there was no transportation. Another act of vandalism happened in Oregon
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when a boy was upset about his semester grades. He brought explosives into the school office and destroyed his records and the records of all the other students. It cost $43,000 in repair for all the damages (Landau 81).
Some teenagers don t get caught at what their doing out of their own intimidation behavior towards other teens. After they bully some kid or even hurt him, the victim may feel so intimidated and he will be scared to tell on him (Landau 80). The teenagers that do get caught sometimes end up doing whatever it is they were caught doing or doing something even worse. This happens because either, they get very little discipline or they are just so angry that they were caught they do the same thing again (or something even worse) out of anger (Landau 79).
The results of violence in schools can vary from requiring every student to have a picture ID, to installing an alarm system in every class. Some schools have locker checks without advising the students, undercover police come in, or even metal detectors installed at every entrance in the whole building. Proof that the metal detector works was demonstrated in California where 15 students were expelled for having guns in school. Before the installation of the metal detectors they hardly ever caught anyone with guns. Generally, schools need to bring in more security than ever needed before. Twice in Long Beach, California teens from outside the school threw bottles and rocks at the schoolyard. Twice, students were fired on and a bullet hurt a boy playing basketball. As a result of these incidents the school built a 10-foot wall to protect students (Landau 80).
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Teenagers who are, once were or never were victims are constantly fear. The kids who are victims don t want to ever go school again because they are so scared. Every day they hope that they will get through the day without anything bad happening to them (Landau 79). Bob is a very good example of a boy who has once been a victim. Bob s school was in a neighborhood where no one suspected any abuse was happening. Although no one suspected it, it did happen. Three boys always cornered him and took turns hitting him. He got headaches and dizziness from this happening to him. As a result, he switched schools. Bob felt as if he was going into a boxing ring everyday. He had terrible nightmares, his grades dropped and he was always preparing for someone to hurt him. Bob s mom told the school what was being done to Bob and they didn t do anything. She sued the three boys, their parents and the school administration (Landau 77). A sixteen-year-old once said, You get used to it, and learn not to leave anything around. I never wear my good watch on gym days (Landau 80). In Los Angeles, California undercover police had to enter the school system, in order for school to go on. 300 police have been in schools, 150 work undercover and the rest work in uniforms and drive police cars. All of them are armed and are ordered to bring any suspects to the local precinct (Landau 81). Teens who have never been victims are also very scared.
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They are scared that one day become victims. Their ability to learn is also affected greatly.
Schools have changed dramatically from the 1940s to the 1990 s. In the 1940s teenagers were in trouble for chewing gum, getting out of line, making
noise and not throwing out garbage. In the 1900s teenagers get in trouble for drugs, abuse, rape, robbery and bombings (Landau 79).
The Parent Teacher Association said, Over $600 million of vandalism is done in schools across America. This is more money than is spent on textbooks. Only the students loose from their own vandalism the tax dollars that they use on repairs could have towards their school, such as computers (Landau 81).
Reducing or stopping teenage violence can be very difficult. But there are many ways to do it. One way is to stop the violence before by having in-school programs to teach students what is wrong and what is right (to the ones that really don t know). The schools can have classes to teach the parents good parenting skills, such as getting more involved with their child s schoolwork, programs and activities. Another idea is to have after school programs, just so the teenagers will not be out on the streets where they may be influenced to commit crimes or engage in violent activities. Rehabilitation programs are also a very good idea. Helping students become better kids (not doing violent things) does not only have to be done in school it can also be done outside of school, in synagogues, churches or programs in the local park. Family life, the things that occur in school and the neighborhoods that the teenagers live in are some of the
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major causes of teen violence in school. If the families, the schools (faculty) and the neighborhoods help these violent teenagers then in the future there won t be this problem anymore (or it will at least be reduced).
Violence and Pornography
Pornography — Sex or Subordination?
In the late Seventies, America became shocked and outraged
by the rape, mutilation, and murder of over a dozen young,
beautiful girls. The man who committed these murders, Ted
Bundy, was later apprehended and executed. During his
detention in various penitentiaries, he was mentally
probed and prodded by psychologist and psychoanalysts
hoping to discover the root of his violent actions and
sexual frustrations. Many theories arose in attempts to
explain the motivational factors behind his murderous
escapades. However, the strongest and most feasible of
these theories came not from the psychologists, but from
the man himself, as a teenager, my buddies and I would
all sneak around and watch porn. As I grew older, I
became more and more interested and involved in it,
[pornography] became an obsession. I got so involved in
it, I wanted to incorporate [porn] into my life, but I
couldn t behave like that and maintain the success I had
worked so hard for. I generated an alter-ego to fulfill
my fantasies under-cover. Pornography was a means of
unlocking the evil I had burried inside myself (Leidholdt
47). Is it possible that pornography is acting as the key
to unlocking the evil in more unstable minds?
According to Edward Donnerstein, a leading researcher
in the pornography field, the relationship between
sexually violent images in the media and subsequent
aggression and . . . callous attitudes towards women is
much stonger statistically than the relationship between
smoking and cancer (Itzin 22). After considering the
increase in rape and molestation, sexual harassment, and
other sex crimes over the last few decades, and also the
corresponding increase of business in the pornography
industry, the link between violence and pornogrpahy needs
considerable study and examination. Once the evidence you
will encounter in this paper is evaluated and quantified,
it will be hard not come away with the realization that
habitual use of pornographic material promotes unrealistic
and unattainable desires in men that can leac to violent
behavior toward women.
In order to properly discuss pornography, and be able
to link it to violence, we must first come to a basic and
agreeable understanding of what the word pornography
means. The term pornogrpahy originates from two greek
words, porne, which means harlot, and graphein, which
means to write (Webster s 286). My belief is that the
combination of the two words was originally meant to
describe, in literature, the sexual escapades of women
deemed to be whores. As time has passed, this definition
of pornography has grown to include any and all obscene
literature and pictures. At the present date, the term is
basically a blanket which covers all types of material
such as explicit literature, photography, films, and video
tapes with varying degrees of sexual content.
For Catherine Itzin s research purposes pornogrpahy
has been divided into three categories: The sexually
explicit and violent; the sexually explicit and
nonviolent, but subordinating and dehumanizing; and the
sexually explicit, nonviolent, and nonsubordinating that
is based upon mutuality. The sexually explicit and
violent is graphic, showing penetration and ejaculation.
Also, it shows the violent act toward a woman. The
second example shows the graphic sexual act and climax,
but not a violent act. This example shows the woman
being dressed is a costume or being talked down to in
order to reduce her to something not human; such as a
body part or just something to have sex with, a body
opening or an orifice. Not only does erotica show the
entire graphic sexual act, it also depicts an attraction
between two people. Her research consistently shows
that harmful effects are associated with the first two,
but that the third erotica , is harmless (22). These
three categories basically exist as tools of discerning
content. Although sometimes they overlap without a true
distinction, as in when the film is graphic in the
sexual act and also in violence, but shows the act as
being a mutual activity between the people
participating.
In my view, to further divide pornography, it is
possible to break it down into even simpler categories:
soft and hard core pornography. Hard core pornography is
a combination of the sexually explicit and violent and the
sexually explicit and nonviolent, but subordinating and
dehumanizing categories, previously discussed. Soft core
pornography is thought to be harmless and falls into the
category known as erotica ; which is the category based
on mutuality. In hard core pornogrpahy, commonly rated
XXX, you can see graphic depiction s of violent sexual
acts usually with a man or group of men, deriving sexual
gratification from the degradation of a woman.
You can also see women participating in demoralizing
sexual behavior among themselves for the gratification of
men. In a triple-X movie all physical aspects are shown,
such as extreme close-ups of genitalia, oral, vaginal, and
anal penetration, and also ejaculation. Much of the time
emphasis is put on the painful and humiliating experience
of the woman, for the sole satisfaction of the male. Soft
core pornography, or X-rated pornography, is less explicit
in terms of what is shown and the sexual act is usually
put in the light of mutual enjoyment for both the male and
female parties(Cameron and Frazer 23). Triple-X
pornography is manufactured and sold legally in the United
States. Deborah Cameron and Elizabeth Frazer point out
that other forms of hard core pornography that have to be
kept under wraps, made and sold illegally in underground
black markets. These are ultraviolent, snuff , and
child pornography. Ultraviolent tapes or videos show the
actual torture, rape, and sometime mutilation of a woman.
Snuff films go even future to depict the actual death of
a victim, and child pornography reveals the use of
under-age or pre-pubescent children for sexual purposes
(17-18). These types of pornogrpahy cross over the
boundaries of entertainment and are definitely hard core.
Now that pornography has been defined in a fashion
mirroring its content, it is now possible to touch upon
the more complex ways a community, as a society , views or
defines it. Some have said it is impossible for a group
of individuals to form a concrete opinion as to what
pornography means. A U.S. Supreme Court judge is quoted
as saying, I can t define pornography, but I know it when
I see it (Itzin 20). This statement can be heard at
community meetings in every state, city, and county across
the nation. Community standards are hazy due to the fact
that when asked what pornography is to them, most
individuals cannot express or explain in words what
pornography is, therefore creating confusion among
themselves.
Communities are left somewhat helpless in this matter
since the federal courts passed legislation to keep
pornography available to adults. The courts assess that
to ban or censor the material would be infringing on the
public s First Amendment Right (Carol 28). Maureen
O Brien quotes critics of a congressionally terminated
bill, the Pornography Victim s Compensation Act, as saying
That if it had passed, it would have had severely
chilling effects on the First Amendment, allowing victims
of sexual crimes to file suit against producers and
distributors of any work that was proven to have had
caused the attack, such as graphic material in books,
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