Modern Effects of Teen Violence YATW BLOG 1

For one of our English assignments, we are to choose any issue in the world that we care about. After researching it more, we are to write about our topic in three blog posts and this is my first. For my “You and The World” project, I chose to do how a modern society plays its effect in the violence of youth, specifying Philadelphia. Youth violence is a young person either witnessing, commencing or being a victim of harmful behavior according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and each aspect of a modern society affects it. This drew my interest because of the people around me. The adults are always talking about how horrible and corrupt our future generation's mind are. Most times, they say how this was seldom to occur while they were being raised yet, is becoming increasingly common in today's society.

In urban cities especially, teenagers are beginning to play a more and more important role in crime rate statistics, a lot of times being the major contributors in data that include homicides, suicides, assaults and shootings. Younger age groups are also included in violent situations. In one story, a 10 year old boy punched his teacher in the face after having a BB gun in his locker the week before. With 10 being the youngest age which a child can be arrested, the boy was charged with assault and put on probation. His mother claimed that his neighborhood contributed to his violent behavior, which was said to contain many prostitutes and drugs. To view more situations like this, please read the Inquirer's article. Both the drug and prostitute businesses are growing, causing more to be around. If they were to be the cause of one child’s violence, imagine how more are becoming the cause of another’s.

The risk factors of a violent adolescent can range anywhere from a low IQ to a lack of family interaction to a low economic status. This means that almost anyone can participate in violent activities. It isn't helping any that peer pressure is becoming increasingly relevant in today's society. Peer pressure can take the form of a simple threat over text or post on social media. On social media, teenagers tend to brag about some of the bad things that happened to them, they saw happen or they did. This can influence younger people to want and take part in actions such as street fights and assaults, only creating a cycle of acts like this. A few years ago, in Audenried High School, a girl knew that a fight was coming, not only viewing the girls and boys preparing to fight, but reading the week before the Facebook post that was sent nearly promoting the fight. Click here to view the full article. Social media and technology is a large influence on violence in youth and is an increasing cause for it.

This chart shows the percent change of homicide victims from 2007-2012 for each year.

    Our generation of young people are affected by today’s society. They are the ones contributing to our violent environment. In the future, I hope to find more recent statistics to share. It’s a little challenging to find charts, graphs, and statistics that are about my topic because they aren’t recent. All of my questions aren’t answered either, so more resources would help too. I hope to find and check out books related to my topic so that I can continue to share information with everyone also. The more that I can find and share information, the better the chances are for a less violent adolescent group.