...PROTECT CHILDREN NOT GUNS 2012 THIS REPORT IS DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF TRAYVON MARTIN AND THE THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN AND TEENAGERS KILLED BY GUNS EACH YEAR IN AMERICA. Children’s Defense Fund Mission Statement T he Children’s Defense Fund Leave No Child Behind® mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities. CDF provides a strong, effective and independent voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventive investments before they get sick, drop out of school, get into trouble or suffer family breakdown. CDF began in 1973 and is a private, nonprofit public charity supported by foundation and corporate grants and individual donations. © 2012 Children’s Defense Fund. All rights reserved. Table of Contents Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Foreword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Stand Up and Take Action . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Child and Teen Gun Deaths . . . . . . . . . ....
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...Guns Are Not the Problem, People Are Violence in school environments have become a major issue, and there are many precautions we can take to prevent this violence. Precautions such as better background checks before purchasing a gun will greatly decrease deaths due to gun violence. In America, the average number of school shootings is approximately 1.37 per week (Davies). There are too many lives lost throughout the year to gun violence. It is time for America to step it up when addressing the flaws in the laws and regulations in the systems. Seeing that gun violence in school environments have recently become such an issue, the United States must address these issues head on by enforcing more and existing laws and change the laws that contain imperfections. Gun violence has not only spread throughout the United States but also in many other countries as well. On an average day in America, there are at least ninety-six deaths resulting from gun violence (Guns). Every day, seven teens and children from ages zero to nineteen die due to gun violence. This means that four out of...
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...Television, & Violence On average, American’s watch at least four hours of television a day. Over the year’s television undoubtedly has become more violent. Even though television is a reflection of life, television can manipulate certain situations to make them more violent than what they are, and convey a negative message toward society, particularly the youth. This is evident through, the increased violence seen in today’s children/teens. Unfortunately, numerous television shows are highly violent. Being that children’s minds have not yet fully developed, they become immune in a way to the true and actual horror of violence. The biggest problem is that shows that are violent seem very realistic. Children imitate the violence seen on T.V.; they gradually accept violence as a way to solve their problems. Television can be a major influence in the behavioral growth of a child, as well as forming values. When the youth watches violent programs they, can potentially become more aggressive and violent. Viewing repetitive violence without a consequence allows the youth to believe that they too can, participate in violent acts, and get away with them. A shocking statistic, that less than five percent of television shows show a consequence from using violence. A 9-year-old boy surrendered after the robbery of a midtown Manhattan bank. His lawyer claimed his crime was influenced by crime programs on television and that he was only playing when he pointed a toy gun at a teller...
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...Bloody Pixels: Video Game Violence There are many speculations on video game violence and its harmful effects on the kids who have come addicted to playing them. Many people believe that video games are the ultimate cause of why we see aggression and violence from our youth today. In reality video games are not the main cause of this violence that is being seen. There are many factors that are not being accounted for when determining the cause of a child's violence. Factors such as abuse, depression, and environmental influences have more of an effect on children then actual video games. Violence in video games is not the reason children become violent. Said violence comes from the abuse, depression, and other environmental factors. My support for this claim is for many of reasons, but the big one being that I myself have played many violent video games as a child yet I have grown to be caring and refrain from violence towards other people. I have not committed a violent crime or acted aggressively towards another in any way. A major argument that comes up is that children act based on what they see. With today's advanced technology video games have become so clear and graphic that one could get lost into the "gaming world". Albert Bandura, a famous psychologist, did a study on children and aggression. The study showed that children who witnessed a bobo doll being abused by an adult also committed those same actions, sometimes worse and sometimes less when encountered with...
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...attain political goals or economic goals. Two fears that have come about in the past few years are the fear of terrorism and the fear of TV and Video games lead to violence. These fears have because much panic in the public leading to new policies being made and control over the public. As you continue to read, I’ll go over the facts about these fears and what kind of gains have come of it. Over the past few years there have been a string of violence in today’s society involving kids and guns. It has been suggest that Teens who watch too much violent shows are prone for more violence. Political groups have stated that we need to control what our teens watch, if we don’t, if not there would be more violence. After the tragedy of Newtown, Conn a bill was passed the impact of violent video games on children. Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has introduced one of Congress' first pieces of legislation. Even after bills have passed and policies have been made, like California made a law banning sales of violent video games to minors. Supreme court struck down this law. It was stated by Justice Antonin Scalia that this law was "unprecedented and mistaken." "No doubt a State possesses legitimate power to protect children from harm," he wrote, "but that does not include a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed.”. After incidents like columbine, Sandy Hook, shooitgs in colleges, we too...
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...Are Video Games really to Blame for Violence of Children? Kid violence and video game violence: Is there a correlation? When a child commits an act of violence, there are times when video games are brought into the equation of the cause. Sometimes, depending on the nature of the crime, violent video games are being blamed directly for the violence of children. There has been research done to learn more about the effects playing violent games on children’s behavior. Since children learn through repetition, repeatedly watching acts of violence over and over again will have an adverse effect on a child’s mind. While the debate continues of whether violent video games are the cause of child violence, one thing that is certain is that parents need to be educated about the effects that playing unsuitable games can have on their children. Cases that seem to show a link between violent video games and children’s behavior are countless. In Jacksonville, Florida, a little girl accidentally shot herself with her father’s handgun (Warford). When Action News asked the little girl’s mother, Lachrisha Holmes, how the little girl even knew what to do with the gun, her mom replied, “I walked past my son and saw her on the computer and they were playing game called ‘Maria Wars,’ they were disassembling a gun” (Warford). Holmes said that she isn’t blaming video games but wonders if that is how her daughter learned what to do with a gun (Warford). In Marble Falls, Texas, a thirteen-year-old...
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...delinquency, including one's economic background, substance abuse, peer groups, repeated exposure to violence through the family circit, increased availability of firearms and media violence, however, I feel that the number one cause of juvenile delinquency is the breakdown of families, including lack of parental control over children. It is ironic that one must have a driver's license to operate a car, a permit to own a gun and even a license to own a pet such as a cat or a dog, but one does not have to have training or a license in order to become a parent. Without educational programs in child development, many of our future parents will not have a chance at becoming successful parents and worse, yet, many parents today are already contri- buting to the ever increasing problem of juvenile delinquency simply by not knowing how to be parents. Being a parent is a lifelong commitment and new parents must learn parenting skills immediately; they do not have the luxury of internships and often times, mistakes in parenting will have drastic effects on the child. There are many reasons for the widespread crisis in families today. Below are some of those causes: 1. Changes in the Social Environment - there have been many changes in our social environment over the last number of years. These changes have made a risky environment for today's youth. 2. Children and teenagers spend more time with peer groups than ever before. 3. Drugs 4. Weapons are used...
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...Moms Demand Action: A Rhetorical Analysis Two children stand in a classroom. With naïve faces and solemn eyes, they look back at the audience. Both children are the same age, yet one of them holds something that is banned in the United States, while the other holds an object that is perfectly legal. A Kinder egg rests in the hands of one child, while the other child cradles an assault rifle in her arms in the first add; and in the second one, a young girl holds Little Red Riding Hood while the other one carries the same assault rifle. The advertisement asks the reader “which object is prohibited”, but it beckons the audience to consider the question “which object should be prohibited?” Gun control has become a hot topic here in America. People are questioning what is...
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...variety of guns are sold to countless people, not knowing what they are going to do with them. I think guns should be looked at as a hazard and a harm to society. Because they cause pain, depression and most of all deaths. It is why I am against guns and people owning them. We die more from guns than from acts of terrorism. More than 30,000 people are killed by firearms each year in this country. More than 30 people are shot and murdered each day. 1/2 of them are between the ages of 18 and 35 1/3 of them are under the age of 20. Homicide is the second leading cause of death among 15-24 year-olds. And the primary cause of death among African Americans of that age...
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...mental health condition is not only a fraction of the behavioral effect of the average human being’s behavior, but a dosage of daily struggles one will experience firsthand. Mental illness is a controversial issue, however society needs to understand that mental illness is not something you are born with, but solely a condition that affects the path you take, because of life events and traumatic experiences, not genetic inheritance (The Telegraph). To begin with, mental disorders are nothing to be ashamed of, these conditions associated with changes in thinking, behavior, and functional abilities, however mental illness has become a large factor in contributing to American society. In other words, being diagnosed with a mental disorder impacts the American society in various ways, such as the troubles in daily functioning, distress, and traumatic involuntary memory. In fact, organizations such as the World Health Organization issued a report that 25 percent of the American population is affected by a mental or behavioral disorder during their life (Schmidt). For example, society and individuals romanticize mental illness far too often, social media plays a large role because people aspire to...
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...How gaming has an impact on society: Gamming has a very powerful effect on society as we know it today most people think gamers are recluse that stay inside all day, are obese and have no social interaction what so ever. But not all gamers are like this some of us are sophisticated and have lives rather than not talking to anyone. What people say about the gaming industry and about gamers are wrong most of the time. Some of these are just plain wrong. Gamers and violence: Ever since a violent game has been around there have been people who are trying to put them down and cause controversy over the amount of violence in the video games. The papers have blamed many accidents caused by children or teenagers on them being able to play violent games. Many of these include, anger from call of duty competitiveness as well as more dangerous ones like shooting and robbing shops due to some effects of gta (grand theft auto) .These are of course due to speculation the papers have no proof that this is the case they say that games are the problem when they are not the problem it is mostly due to the fact that the children have access to a gun in the first place or their parents our bringing them up in a rough way or getting peer pressured into doing theses certain acts. This is a prime example of the papers speculating: The study is called “violent video games do not cause teens to become aggressive” ‘An 8-year-old in Louisiana shot and killed his grandmother. The incident...
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...Youth Violence: What is the cause of it, and how can we prevent it? Violence happens everyday, not only in the U.S. but the rest of the world as well. In the 20th century violence was common among adults, but not a real big issue among youths. With violence among youths increasing in the mid to late 1990’s, many people have asked one question “What would cause today’s youth to commit an act of violence against another person?” There are many factors that can cause youths to commit an act of violence. Bullying is the most common factor that usually results in youth violence. Peer to peer bullying seems to be the most effective among youths because the bullies can physically or verbally abuse someone. Studies show that 20% of all children say that they have been bullied while at school. Bullying Statistics. Proactive Behavioral-Management.com. As youths get older they tend to stop the physical and verbal bullying and move to indirect bullying. Indirect bullying is mostly associated with teenagers and it involves gossiping, spreading rumors, excluding someone from social groups. Youths and adolescents that have been bullied directly or indirectly have committed an act of violence against their peers. From 1979 through 2001 youths that were bullied committed acts of violence at schools all across America that resulted in 45 deaths and 90 injuries. “Bonilla, D. M. (2000). School Violence. School violence (pp. 378-391). New York: H.W. Wilson Co.” Two-thirds of school shootings...
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...Social Problems Associated with Street Gangs Gangs are becoming prevalent in today’s society and within our schools. More and more young people are turning to gangs in an attempt to escape their everyday lives and the future, which they perceive as dismal and bleak. They are initially attracted to the prestige and cash flow, which is glamorized by the street gang. Many gangs are actively involved in criminal misconduct, such as drug and gun trafficking, burglaries and homicides. However, street gangs are not just a criminal justice issue, but a social problem, which is triggered by poverty, peer pressure, boredom, despair and lacking a sense of belonging. A street gang can be defined as “an organized social system that is both quasi-private (not fully open to the public) and quasi-secretive (much of the information concerning its business remains confined with the group) and one whose size and goals have necessitated that social interaction be governed by a leadership structure that has defined roles; where the authority associated with these roles has been legitimized to the extent that social codes are operational to regulate the behavior of both the leadership and the rank and file; that plans and provides not only for the social and economic services of its members, but also for its own maintenance as an organization; that pursues such goals irrespective of whether the action is legal or not; and that lacks a bureaucracy (i.e., an administrative staff that is hierarchically...
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...of Disease Control and Prevention (2014). Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is the act of violence towards a male or female partner which inflicts physical, sexual or psychological harm. It is also a series of coercive or manipulative behaviors enforced in a relationship to gain control of the victim’s quality of life. While recent media coverage of female victims increased IPV’s awareness and response from our society, it has done little to draw attention to the children, and adolescents who are exposed to the violence. Although the literature covers a lot of information from theorist’s, this literature review primary focus will be about children and adolescents who are expose to IPV and exhibits negative behavioral...
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...the most significant things that are constantly and rapidly evolving is technology. Technology has a direct impact on the social, economic, political, and cultural life. Nobody these days can do the daily responsibilities without using transportation or without their phone. Technology has become part of everything in the life. This rapid development has many advantages, but unfortunately it also has some disadvantages. Currently, the most important advantages is using technology in the educational process. On the other hand, technology has also some negative impacts especially on the kids. The worst disadvantage of using technology is that...
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