"Who Shot Johnny?": A Portrait of Youth Violence Essay

The cases of Lionel Tate, and brothers Derek and Alex King bring into focus the problems that society has in addressing how to handle criminal cases involving deadly violence by under-age juveniles. Lionel Tate, a 12 year old in Florida was convicted of killing a 6-year-old playmate while Alex and Derek King, 12 and 13 years old respectively, were convicted of killing their father. Interestingly, Lionel Tate, who happens to be black, was sentenced to life in prison while the King boys, who are white, both received minimal terms.

Juvenile gun violence is an ever-increasing problem in our country. With a wave of school shooting behind us it is time to get this under control. Many studies have been done on how to effectively diminish juvenile gun violence. It is clear that this must be handled on a state and local level with the federal government backing the states. Prevention and law enforcement is the key to successfully eradicate our nation of the ugly stain caused by youth gun violence.

are left to cope with the loss of a life lived and to have a future overshadowed by the

In “Who Shot Johnny” by Debra Dickerson, Dickerson recounts the shooting of her 17 year old nephew, Johnny. She traces the outline of her life, while establishing a creditable perception upon herself. In first person point of view, Dickerson describes the events that took place after the shooting, and how those events connected to her way of living. In the essay, she uses the shooting of her nephew to omit the relationship between the African American society, and the stereotypic African American society.

Imagine being able to get your hands on a gun in your community with ease when you were younger. Sounds cool right? Well, to some it might and that’s how young children are living in our communities now-a-days. Kids are able to get guns as long as they have parents with guns or the money to buy one. There aren’t enough restrictions on guns & who can get a hold of them on the streets and parents aren’t doing a well enough job of hiding their guns from their children. Something needs to be done. Too many children and young adults are being injured and murdered by something that is supposed to protect them. The ease in which youths are able to possess guns needs to be stopped. The harder it is for kids to get guns, the safer

Teenage gun violence is on the rise. Gun violence has become a major problem for America. We have more privately owned guns than any other country. This could be one of the reasons that guns are being used by teens, because of the access they have to guns. The availability of guns to our youth is making the world unsafe. Although lawmakers are working on gun control laws, I wonder is the problem too far gone.

The reader’s introduction to the main character is that of a violent act, where he defaces a car that is implied to have been stolen in front of a car park worker. There is no explanation for why he acted in such fashion, or why the attendant “ducked his head away” and ignored him when he first caught eyes with the narrator. The reader at this point can assume that the narrator has a history of violence in this society, but it is unclear why he has gone unpunished for such acts, and more so it is unclear what his motivation behind his

On an unseasonably cold March morning in 1993, high school sophomore Edward Gillom exited his first period classroom and made his way through the crowded hallways of Harlem High School. After engaging in a heated argument, allegedly over a girl, with Ronricas “Pony” Gibson and Ricoh Lee, Gillom pulled out a .38-caliber gun and opened fire. Gillom’s shots fatally wounded Gibson and left Lee with a non-fatal gunshot wound to the neck (Washington Ceasefire, 2011 pg 1). The shooting in Harlem, Georgia sparked national attention as one of the first high school shootings and added to the alarmingly high rates of gun violence by adolescents during the 1990s. According to the Virginia Youth Violence Project, forty-two homicides took place in

Youth gang violence has turned into an unmistakable issue in the public eye reaching across national boundaries as well as socio-economic, cultural, racial, and class distinctions. Not only is the problem widely dispersed geographically, but its incidence is also extensive, making it a common, acknowledged, and a mainstream behavior for many teens. Gang activity is extremely common in lower income neighborhoods and ethnic ghettos where underprivileged children are regularly recruited. Youth gang violence has always been an issue in the United States since the 1950’s but many crime analysts tended to overlook the problem of youth gang violence in major cities due to historical events such as the Korean War, U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation was illegal in the Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the Civil Rights Movement. The first nationwide study undertaken of the nature and extent of gang violence was reported by Walter B. Miller. Miller whose study concentrated primarily on the increase of gang violence and four major motives such as respect, guarding local communities, control, and gain the of monetary goods.

As evidenced from the past tense verb in the title of the novel, Johnny Got His Gun takes as its focus the aftermath of war for a soldier, rather than the optimistic, patriotic prewar time frame upon which other novels—as well as the original song "Johnny Get Your Gun"—focus. Although the novel remains clear about the fact that Johnny received his injuries from an exploding shell, Johnny does not ever think back to combat warfare. The novel takes as its opponent not combat warfare but rather the mentality of warfare and organization of modern warfare by the moneyed classes. Joe's memories related to the war, such as the Lazarus story, or the story of the man with a flap over his stomach, do not directly deal with warfare. Instead, these various memories create a sense of the incomprehensible decay, injury, and pain that result from war. Joe remembers the stories with a wry tone that gives a sense of the absurdity of each of the situations—such as the rumor about the man who lost his face only to return home and die at his wife's hands. In this sense, the use of the war in the text remains true to its use in the title of the novel: the war exists as a precondition for senseless and grotesque injury and

On December 14, 2012, in Newtown, Connecticut, twenty-year-old Adam Lanza (just barely out of his teens) shot and killed six adults and twenty children at Sandy Hook Elementary School after murdering his own mother at home. He then turned the gun on himself bringing the morning’s fatalities to twenty-eight. As horrible as this crime was, it is only one in a growing number of similar shootings in other schools across our country. Two of the worst examples occurred in the late 90’s. In Springfield, Oregon, fifteen-year-old Kipland Kinkel killed two students and wounded twenty-two others when he opened fire in a crowded cafeteria in his high school on May 21, 1998. This was after he killed both his parents the night before (Grapes 6). In

Adolescent violence has turned into an expanding issue in the U.S. youth violence and young people raised in the 1990s and has stayed high. Youth are the in all probability gathering to be casualties or culprits of high school violence, however the after effects of teenager violence influence everybody. Youth brutality insights demonstrate this is a significant issue: A normal of 15 youngsters are killed every day in the U.S., and more than 80 percent of those are killed with firearms (Khey, 2008). In 2004, brutality insights report 750,000 youngsters were dealt with in doctor 's facilities for roughness related wounds (Khey, 2008). One third of secondary school understudies reported being included in a battle at school in 2004, and 17 percent reported conveying a weapon to class in the month going before the 2004 overview (Khey, 2008). 1 in 12 young people in secondary school are harmed or undermined with a weapon every year (School Violence in America, 2015). 30 percent of junior and senior secondary school understudies are included in tormenting every year as the casualty, spook, or both (School Violence in America, 2015). According to a savagery measurements report by the U.S. Mystery Service, in the earlier decade, the chances of a secondary school understudy being harmed or debilitated with a weapon were around 1 in 14, and the chances of an adolescent being in a physical battle were 1 in 7 (Hiscock, 1926). Youth roughness can influence anybody, however a few

According to CNN, 65% of people who go to prison for murder are wrongfully convicted. In the Dateline video, There was an African American man who moved to a town of all white people. This man’s name was Nick hillary. Nick Hillary was dating Tandy Phillips when he moved to Potsdam. Tandy had been hesitant about relationships because she had been a victim of domestic abuse by her ex husband. When Nick and Tandy’s relationship ended, Tandy’s son Garrett was found dead in her apartment. Garrett and Nick never got along with each other throughout the time Tandy was seeing Nick. Nick Hillary was facing a large amount of time in jail.

James Dickey struggled with suburban family life because his sets of beliefs contradict and interfere with the way others live. His dishonesty comes not from his misrepresentations or distortions of facts in his life to other people, but in his failed attempt to be true to his worldview. He is a loner not by choice, but by philosophical differences with the majority. These differences result in a mental tug of war that produces chaotic results in his life. Christopher Dickey witnessed the alcoholic, the adulterer, the liar, the artist, the promoter, the creative genius, and the decimated father figure. Christopher Dickey judged his father from his own perspective and at the insistence of his wife. Christopher Dickey may have connected with his father, but the reciprocal connection from his dad was certainly different. James Dickey did not openly display his dark side to his wife and immediate family to secure their loving devotion. They put up with him, because he provided for them financially; he had enormous charisma; and his wife was too weak to do anything. The connections in his family were superficial; he controlled them from a detached standpoint.

Teen violence is a term used to define collective behaviors by teenagers that are not acceptable by the society. These behaviors range from slapping, bullying, hitting, assault and even armed robbery. Teen violence has been affecting many societies and has destructive history to communities. Although many factors have been pointed out to cause teen violence, studies show that modeling behaviors are the most common causes of teen violence in the society. These include behaviors as seen in the movies, on the streets, on the video games and at home. Social engineering factors and psychology behind teen violence are some of the main challenges contributing to teen violence. Video games, in particular, have caused the prevalence