Youth Violence

 Youth Violence
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Institution

 

Youth Violence
In the past few years, there has been an increase of violence particularly among the young adults with mass shootings in the United States and other parts of the world. These incidences and many others have focused the attention on youth violence as it has become one of the leading causes of death among persons aged 5 to 14 years. Englander (2017) adds that the rates of shootings amongst young adults, adolescents, and children are higher in the U.S comparing to the numbers in other developed countries. Youth violence involves violent acts such as hitting, slapping, and bullying which cause both emotional and physical harm (Hoffman, 2011). Also, there are assaults and robbery cases that are carried out either with or without weapons and lead to severe injuries to the victims and sometimes to death. The increased instances reported on youth violence has initiated a public concern as it affects thousands of young people, their families, communities, and schools each day. The present paper carries out a literature review on several aspects of youth violence.

Englander (2017) refers to violence as the actual or threatened employment of physical power towards an individual or a group, and that causes or likely to result in death or injury. These forces include other possible outcomes such as deprivation, mal-development, and psychological harm. Another definition of violence by Wilkinson (2015) is the behaviors that deliberately try or threaten to inflict physical damage on others such as robbery, sexual assault, and homicide among other severe conducts that are not outlawed in the criminal code. According to Hoffman (2011), youth violence is the injurious conducts that begin at an early age and progresses into their young adulthood. The abuse can occur on a young person as a victim, witness, or an offender. Ebsensen (2011) states that it involves young adults hurting their peers whom they may or may not be familiar with, and it can take different forms. Heller (2014) adds that violence by young people is a common social disorder especially in urban settlements where youths use guns to threaten or kill others. There exist numerous causes of youth violence and Englander (2017) David-Ferdon et al. (2015) Barnie et al. (2017) identify key risk factors for youth violence such as access to guns, mental health, and exposure to violent media. Hoffman (2011) adds other risk factors such as misunderstandings and inadequate support in life.     

Causes of Youth Violence
There are thousands of violence cases reported each year which has forced parents, school boards, and policymakers to focus on this issues to try and find solutions. However, the answers to these problems are not easy as youth violence is a problematic phenomenon (Ebsensen, 2011). Therefore, one has first to recognize and appreciate the issues that place the young adults at threat for violence perpetration and victimization. Englander (2017) writes that youths who are victims of violence are at a higher risk of developing mental health, physical problems, and health issues such as academic difficulties, depression, high-risk sexual behavior, smoking, obesity, and even suicide. This section involves understanding the biological, environmental, and psychosocial causes of youth violence.

The period of young adulthood and adolescence is marked by patterns of behavior change including violence when these behaviors receive a heightened expression. Therefore, there is need to understand the conditions that violent acts occur. Youth violence commences through different techniques as some teenagers start to display problems in their actions in an early age. These problems gradually intensify into more cruel practices of violence either before or during adolescence. Some studies indicate that childhood anger is a forecaster of violence in early adulthood and adolescence. Wilkinson (2015) writes that between 47 percent and 69 percent of girls and 20 percent and 45 percent of boys who are violent offenders at the age 16-17 years developed violent behaviors since their childhood and they are more likely to commit more violent and severe acts in their adulthood. These individuals continue their behaviors into adulthood especially if they do not receive help.

The General Form or Findings of Studies of Youth Violence
The incidents of youth violence increase during adolescence or early adulthood. The frequency then rapidly decreases throughout the life of an individual. In the United States, more youth die especially from homicide cases that have become frequent each year that is committed by between 4-24 years old adults. Therefore, the youth experience and perpetuate high levels of violence in the U.S matched to those from other advanced nations. Wilkinson (2015) states that youth shooting rates are higher in U.S than in similar high-income countries. According to Heller (2014), the prices vary betw