Race has been considered a risk factor for the onset of violence for some time and it is included as a risk factor in some studies trying to predict violence (Office of the Surgeon General, 2001). However, does race predict violence once other known risk factors are taken into account? As it turns out, research indicates that when the effects of other known risk factors have been considered, generally no significant effect of race on youth violence has been found (Elliott et al., 1989; Reiss and Roth, 1993; Roitberg and Menard, 1995). Thus, it appears that race is not a risk factor. Rather, it can be said to be a risk marker. That is, race suggests other known risk factors, which include living in poor, single-parent families, doing poorly
Violence take multiple forms, many of which are covered in the nightly news. Murder, rape, familial abuse, bullying, workplace hostility, armed robbery—all of these are societal problems with far-reaching repercussions. There have long debates and discussions regarding whether nature or nurture influences individual violent behavior. People are concerned about what makes an individual to engage in violent behavior such murder or burglary among other types of crimes. They are also concerned about what makes people stop such behavior. However, there is no precise conception whether nature, nurture or both influence violence. Some people assume that, violent behavior results from individual’s life experiences or upbringing also known as nurture. Others feel that violent behavior is more complex and results from individual’s genetic character or nature. In other words, it is not clear whether violent behavior is inborn or occurs at some point in persons’ lives, but even it’s hard, emphasizing one and ignoring other influences is always an unwise way to go.
In order to solve the problem of violence in schools, we must first find out who the problem is. Being that not every teenager is prone to participate in such violent acts as what happened at Columbine, there must be specific environment imposed on a particular biology to turn a teenager into an Eric Harris or a Dylan Klebold. These are not normal, healthy teenagers, and they don’t just become killers overnight. They become killers because they are already deeply disturbed individuals who can be sent over the edge by all sorts of innocuous influences. Violent teens often have specific characteristics that put them at high risk for committing these crimes. These high risked students may display some of the following traits. First,
In this article, as the title suggests, it explains the use of social class differences to explain racial differences in crime. Among earlier arguments are the subculture of violence and subculture of poverty theories, which argue that African Americans tend to have pro-crime norms and values. The article's author, Robert D. Crutchfield, goes in depth with recent and more advanced theories to explain the link between poverty, crime, and race, while criticizing the subcultural theories. These new theories tell a different view from that of the subcultural theories with evidence showing that economic disadvantage and the way how society is structured accounts for the link between poverty, crime, and race. From these evidence, ethnographers conclude
Modern biology is focused more on understanding behavior, like violence and crime, through research on indicators and influences. Rather than attempting to determine a single root cause, researchers are discovering markers of predisposition and identifying factors of risk. In a recent interview about his new book, The Anatomy of Violence: The Biological Roots of Crime, criminologist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Adrian Raine asserts that there is a “biology of violence” that should not be ignored; “Just as there’s a biological basis for schizophrenia and anxiety disorders and depression… there’s a biological basis also to recidivistic violent offending” (Gross, 2013).
Adolescent Black males throughout the years have been subject and victim to numerous economic, socioeconomic, and environmental disadvantages. In many inner-city neighborhoods, these disadvantages have led to an increase in violence among these adolescent African American males, especially in the educational system. Violence among African American males in schools is something that increases tremendously each year; a 2010 study in Education Week showed that over 70% of the students involved in school-related arrests or referred to law enforcement were African American students. This can be explained
The starting point of violence takes place in communities and at home--not at school. Youth take what they hear and see at home and in their communities to school. The environment in some communities and households are positive and the presences of protective factors outweigh the high risk factors. However, there are communities and households where there is a lack of informal social control and high risk factors exist more than protective factors--, which affect youth in a negative manner.
This neighborhood factor drives children to seek companionship amongst others on the already violent streets and causes them to follow suit. The final factor that may result in violence stems from the individual. For instance, children raised in a bleak and violent environment may develop low self-worth and feel little power over their future. Unable to break the cycle, they become a direct reflection of what they experience in their community and contribute to the ongoing violence.
The impact of race on criminal justice and inequality: How much of a role does race play in the criminal justice and inequality equation? Vincent Toi Lai Lee 1001333586 October 2, 2015 Word count: 1452 For this essay topic, we will be discussing about different issues surrounding race within criminal justice and inequality; furthermore looking at the different factors and determinants that influences one’s perception of racial profiling, coming to the decision that race is not the sole factor in this problem. With so many news and incidents surrounding race and the police these days, it is not surprising for people to come to the conclusion that just because you are a certain race, you will be automatically treated differently than others, but that is not the case in reality. We will be taking a deeper look into the problem to find out what other possible determinants play a role in deciding how an officer makes an arrest or stop and continue to analyze what is happening in those contexts.
Prior to the 1930s, the United States had no national crime statistics but information reflects that at the turn of the twentieth century, violent crime rates were equal to the present levels. Although the willful homicide rate declined from its peak in 1933, this dip in crime was somewhat misleading due to better treatment methods and more survivors of crime but by the seventies, the sheer volume of violence had surpassed the means of recovering victims. At the beginning of the early 1990s, the United States was enjoying unprecedented low levels of criminal violence although the rate of homicide by black, urban juveniles exploded due to the crack cocaine epidemic, poverty, single-parent households, educational
The youth of the black community are perceived as violent because of the brutal past the previous generations had to go through. “I think the African American community… [understood that] … somebody like Trayvon Martin was statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. So folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys … they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it and that context is being denied.” If a white teen was put into the same situation, the results would have been distinct from the outcomes of a black male teen.
This article goes through the disparities in races in comparison to violence. Statistically blacks are six times more likely to die by homicide than white people are (Robert J. Sampson, 2004). That is a significant gap between the two races. The rates of Latino’s have slowly been converging with the whites in more recent years. There are other studies that are based on police statistics that show disadvantaged communities have the highest violent crime rates.
This reading evaluate the trends for violence, crime, and abuse in the lives of children. This study provides updated estimates for exposure to a wide variety of offenses, including violence, crime, and abuse. This exposure is wide spread in the short term and over the developmental life course. Children and youth are exposed to violence, abuse, and crime in varied and extensive ways, which justifies continued monitoring and prevention
Poverty is regarded by many as one of the key orchestrators of violence and particularly among African-Americans. Together with racism, these factors are cited
A violent crime occurs every 23.5 seconds in the United States of America. Even though crime has been at a low during the past decade, violence is still prevalent in today’s society. Most of these crimes happen in places that are socio-economically disadvantaged. There then is the debate of whether violent crime is associated with environments struck with poverty. There is a correlation between violent crimes and poverty because of the unemployment rates in major cities, the culture of poor areas, and drugs.
A range of studies assert that causes of violent behavior are complex at the level of environmental influence and compare other learning, modelling and disinhibiting factors. This is an area where opposition to the hypothesis is more common. Two longitudinal studies assessing levels of violence pre-and post the introduction of television found a positive correlation, however