Sources of Violence and the Effect Is Has on Our Children

Sources of Violence

And The Effect It Has On Our Children

There is far too much violence in our world today. Violence is surfacing in our children as young as 8 or 9, with children killing other children for no reason. This brings up the question of why our children are exhibiting violent behavior and committing terrible acts of violence. Our world has become a breeding ground for violence and our children are at risk. Everywhere our children look they are seeing horrific acts of brutality. Take this scenario for example: You are sitting at home, having dinner with the family around the television set. It is around 6:00 p.m. and you all are watching the local news. News clips of murder, kidnapping, terrorism, sexual assault, and arson are whipping by the screen. Your children are almost mesmerized by the reports of this violence. Or, your child is walking home from school and witnesses two kids fighting on the playground. These are only two sources of violence that our children have in their lives, but there are several types. They can range from domestic violence in the home to violence in video games. Most people do not realize that all of these different forms of violence affect our children on countless levels. They become desensitized and are in some cases acting out what they are or have been exposed to. It is almost like they have become accustomed to the fact that violence is in most aspects of their lives, like it is the way it is supposed to be. There is good news though; we can prevent this atrocity from happening to our children. It begins by knowing what forms it takes, how our children gain access, and what we can do to prevent further exposure.

One of the most profound forms of violence that our children are exposed to is from the media. The media is continually showing movies with explicit violent scenes, newscasts riddled with death, and television shows that seem to have no boundaries. According to Nielson Media Research the average child spends 28 hours per week watching television, which is twice as much as they are in school. They also state that children will be exposed to 200,000 acts of violence on television before they are 18. This study was conducted on children's cartoons, not on regular programming . These numbers are staggering. Because our children spend so much time watching television, they are more likely to have increased violent behavior with either their peers or their family. Part of the reason that violence in the media is so influential on our youth is that they soak up what they see and hear. It becomes a learned behavior. They believe that what they are seeing in the media is the way life should be, and they sometimes act on those learned behaviors.

The second source of violence is in the form of video games. This has become one of the most popular forms of entertainment in the United States for our children. They depict horrific acts of violence, whether it is from blowing the head off of an enemy with an automatic rifle to running over people with a car. In a recent study, researchers examined 357 seventh and eighth graders. They were asked what type of game they like to play. "The two most preferred categories were games that involved fantasy violence, preferred by almost 32% of subjects; and sports games, some of which contained violent subthemes, which were preferred by more than 29%. Nearly 20% of the students expressed a preference for games with a general entertainment theme, while another 17% favored games that involved human violence. Fewer than 2% of the adolescents preferred games with educational content." These statistics gained from the study show that most children enjoy the games with violent content. The exposure that our children are facing from playing these violent video games is bound to have negative results on the way the interact both with others and their environment. When they are playing these games, they are seeing graphic scenes with blood, fighting, and gore. A research review done by NCTV (1990) found that 9 of 12 research studies on the impact of violent video games on normal children and adolescents reported harmful effects. In general, while video game playing has not been implicated as a direct cause of severe psychopathology, research suggests that there is a short-term relationship between playing violent games and increased aggressive behavior in younger children.2 They tend to be more willing to solve conflicts with violence than they are to be more rational and calm. Children will see more acts of violence from video games than the average person does watching the news.

Another form of exposure to violence by our children is at home. Some children live in homes where domestic violence is the method used to solve conflicts. The definition of domestic violence is the physical, mental, sexual or emotional abuse inflicted on a person by their partner. Many parents spend time fighting with each other in front of their kids. They witness about two thirds of the incidents. Not only do they witness the violence, but also it happens to them. Most children who live in a home with domestic violence have been severely beaten themselves. This type of violence has devastating effects on children. They become extremely upset when they are exposed to these acts. They can have trouble sleeping, wet the bed, or even have temper tantrums. According to a study, children who have witnessed violence are more likely to be either abusers or victims themselves. Children tend to copy the behavior of their parents. Boys learn from their fathers to be violent to women. Girls learn from their mothers that violence is inevitable and something you just have to put up with. Not only do they copy the behavior that they have learned, they end up having a difficult time dealing with all of the stress. They grow up not knowing how to interact with society and become depressed and anxious.

A different form of violence that is picking up speed is school violence. Over the last 10 years, the public school system has seen numerous acts of violence. One of the worst cases of school violence was the massacre at Columbine in Colorado. Twelve students and one teacher were gunned down at the high school, and then the two shooters killed themselves. This is the most horrendous act of violence that any child could be exposed to. Most often the violence in school starts out with bullies. They push around the smaller kids and intimidate them. Then come the beatings. Also, children are seeing violence in schools from kids bringing in weapons. The U.S. Department of Education states "students aged twelve to eighteen were victims of more than 2.7 million total crimes at school."