Preventing Extreme Violence By Proper Adjustment To, And Use Of, Milder Forms Of It

I think one of the major problems in society, within the United States, is the almost absolute aversion to violence, of any kind, with regards to children. Sometime, probably about the mid 1970s to early 1980s, it seems that the educational system in the U.S. started to prevent all forms of violent behavior among school children. Look at most schools where many if not all forms of even potentially violent behaviors have been banned, including contact sports or sports in which a child might be injured such as dodge ball. Not long afterwards, police (in general) started to arrest children for truly minor infractions that involved violence at schools. I am not talking about violence that had ever been considered a crime before. I am talking about the violent acts that come with the natural aggression seen in pre-teens and teens that goes toward them establishing a pecking order among themselves. Children were arrested for acts as minor as pulling on another's clothing, a minor schoolyard fight between two children, and normal bullying.

 

This cessation of even minor violent behavior, pushing, slapping, bullying, sports, and the like, I believe, has led to children not having an outlet for the anger they experience as a normal part of their development - it does not prevent anger and probably does not truly prevent violent at a higher level. Most certainly, acts of extreme violence perpetrated by youthful offenders, has been on the increase over the years since any type of violent behavior by youths has been shunned and strictly eliminated in our schools and in our society in general. I hypothesize that this total attempt at elimination of violent behavior among youths has led us to a society in which we have a disproportionate number of children and young adults who do not know how to handle certain types of frustration and anger through at least one of the most effective means of deflating those emotions - mildly to moderately violent behavior. We also have a large number of children who when confronted with mild forms of violence such as shoving, minor fighting, taunting or bullying or even mandatory violent sports participation who do not know how to react to it and then ultimately inappropriately react and sometimes overreact.

 

I believe that anger and frustration then have no outlet, that they are internalized and are held within, without an outlet, over the years that the children are developing and thus lead to the child becoming an adult who does not know how to cope with frustrations and anger invoking life incidents as well as would a child who was allowed to act out with minor violence throughout development. Of course, there are other ways to out frustration and anger - talking about feelings for instance; however the communication skills of children are in development, just as are aggressive skills, and talking is often if not always not enough.

 

Thus, by the time many children have reached their mid-teens or passed on to young adulthood they are ill equipped to deal with their emotions and are also not able to interact with other people as well as had they been allowed mildly to moderate behavior, at times, during their development. In addition, the propensity of many children to play extremely violent games, where the only successful way to win the game is to utilize extreme violence may add to their inability to understand how to deal with their emotions and with social interactions that anger them. 

 

Thus, a youth who has never learned how to control anger and frustration through the utilization of minor violence may also be otherwise unable to cope, possibly due to minor mental disorder, drug use, buildup of family and or personal problems  may be more likely to reach a point where he or she inappropriately resorts to extreme violence to deal with their problems. Why extreme violence – because they have been repeatedly admonished if they have ever resorted to minor or moderate violence and have been prevented as much as possible from ever resorting to such and because they have seen examples of extreme violence being used as a problem solver with great success in video games, theatrical entertainment, and on the news (such as war coverage). Therefore, extreme violence is often the only violence that children and teens have been taught about as a tenable option to solve problems no matter how appropriate or inappropriate for any given situation. Had these young people been taught the proper and natural outlet for their angers and frustrations, by way of minor violence in some instances, it is unlikely that so many would resort to the only type of violence that they have ever witnessed as being successful – extreme violence.

 

You will not, I did not mention firearms as a problem above. I also did not mention automobiles, gasoline and matches or knives or clubs or any other thing that could be used by someone as a means toward violet behavior. Those things are not the problem, they are inanimate objects that are not dangerous in and of themselves. A loaded gun will not go off if left alone, if no one picks it up to fire it. An object that could be used as a weapon is not dangerous without someone to operate it. Millions of Americans own firearms and never have or will use them for inappropriate violent behavior or illegally. We would be better off addressing the real problem of why people resort to inappropriate use of extreme violence for problems that would have been so much easier to address if they were aware of and familiar with other means to solve them. Ban guns, sure you can do that and then a youngster could resort to using matches and gasoline, Molotov cocktails, poisonous substances (easy to obtain or create with things found in the supermarket) or even explosives (also pretty easy to make at home). 

 

In addition we need to address our mental health care system and reconsider allowing people who are mentally ill, who have the high potential to act out with extreme violence, to remain unfettered in our society. Maybe it is time to restrain them to protect society as had been past practice. 

 

Bear in mind, that behavior resulting in school shootings and other mass murders, within the United States were virtually unheard of up though the 1970s. Certainly there were some but not nearly as many as there have been  within the past two or three decades. It was only after the implementation of the anti-violence campaign, relative to children and teens, in our schools and society in general that it seems our youths began to resort to extreme acts of violence as a means to cope with their problems. Violence may have been said to beget violence but sometimes, I would hypotesize, appropriate use of milder and moderate levels of it almost surely is a way to adjust one to its appropriate use and thus prevent further inappropriate use of heightened forms of it.

 

All the best,

Glenn B