Teen Violence

A study into what causes violence among teenagers in America today.

The causes of teen violence in America’s society. This paper touches on the Littleton, Colorado school shooting incident in which 15 people were killed and then progresses to explore the different causes of this social tragedy. The paper discusses whether school causes or reflects violence, and how drugs, alcohol, the media and broken families can cause teenage violence. Finally, it examines the results of this specific form of violence on society.
Those individuals who see the school as the source of aggression argue that the school in one setting fosters all of the necessary conditions for violence and vandalism (Apter, Goldstein). They say the school labels various students as failures and by making their failures obvious to themselves and to others, forces youngsters toward aggression as a face-saving response. These youngsters, in turn, fulfill the negative expectations of their teachers and principles. On the other hand some view the school as the victim of aggression rather than its provoker. Is the school really provoking teens to act in the ways they do? It is believe, that this is not always true since we see cases in which the violent acts are done in elementary schools where the children say they get their examples from outside the school. So could it be that the violent offenders start at a very young age to get influenced by their surroundings to then act upon them in the future?