For over a decade, there has been endless news reports on violence in schools. In fact, just recently ( January 25, 2018), the news reported an incident at Murphy High School in Mobile, Alabama involving two teenagers. With school shootings apparently increasing exponentially, one cannot help but wonder why so many of these incidences are occurring and how we in the nursing community can help to prevent this problem. Undoubtedly, some underlying issues exist in these situations. In these incidences it seems that anger is one of the common factors. In the article “Anger In Adolescent Communities: How Angry Are They?”, Lisa Pullen et. al (2015), discussed the various contributing factors that affects adolescent anger. The researchers’ main intent was to focus on adolescents in a community environment …show more content…
Using the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI), and The Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST), the researchers attempted to find the correlation between self-reported anger levels and the variables mentioned in the article (substance abuse, gender differences, cultural differences, emotional differences and social differences). They measured the level of self-reported anger from age 12-19, in addition to the differences among three adolescent age group and self-reported anger. The results indicated no significant differences in gender as well as no significant differences between the three adolescent age groups. The researchers found that there was an overwhelming association, however, between anger and stress. Their findings indicated that the frequency of religious activities lessened the anger levels in the
Public mass shootings have increased at an alarming rate over the past three decades and have become a growing concern for the people of the United States. It has appeared that approximately every few months, media outlets report incidences of tragedy involving a sole gunman targeting groups of people with the intent to harm or extinguish life due to various motives. Recent research data indicated that over 80 public mass shootings have occurred in the United States since 1983. Some of the more recent shootings to date are: Marysville-Pilchick High in October 2014; Santa Barbara, California in May 2014; Fort Hood, Texas U.S. Army base in April 2014; Washington Navy Yard in September 2013; Sandy Hook Elementary, Connecticut in December 2012;
14)) Prothow-Smith, D. and H. Spivak. "America's Tragedy." Psychiatric Times. Vol. XVI, Issue 6. June, 1999. , A survey of mounting teen violence, including a detailed discussion of several biological precursors to violent behavior patterns.
Crime manifests itself in various ways in society and oftentimes difficult to pinpoint what drives people to commit certain actions. The Columbine shooting was a particular incident that ended in tears and suffering which resulted in numerous research as to what was going through the minds of these young individuals at the time of the shooting. Therefore, this paper will analyze specifically the role of differential association- reinforcement as altered by Akers in propelling Dylan Klebold to commit such heinous act, while also giving credit to Edwin Sutherland for first formulating the framework of differential association.
It is a sad time in American history when one can easily recount recent school shootings in their own area. This ease stems from a sharp increase in the number of firearms brought into elementary and middle schools across the country, with an intense focus on the issue beginning after the shooting of 20 children from Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. Most school shooters are male, white, and often upper middle class. They are also more, often than not, under some type of mental stress that is causing them to create this type of violence in our communities. In fact, many school shooters are never suspected of doing any harm to their peers and teachers until it is much too late.
As us Americans we are actually making the stereotype of we always carry guns around sound true to the rest of the world considering that, we are the “31% percent of all public mass shootings which at least four people are killed.” (TheWeek.com) But under a broader definition USA counted 346 mass shootings including shooting deaths of four or more victims in a 17- year period. The worst part about this information is this year we already have recorded 249 mass shootings in about 7 months close to the same amount USA counted over 17 years! This is a problem that must be solve for the safety in this country but also prevent more mass shooting from happening. “According to a Mother Jones study: Only 23 percent have been treated for mental illness.” ( Gallagher )
Pastore, Fisher, and Friedman. “Violence and Mental Health Problems among Urban High School Students.” Journal of Adolescent Health. New York. Elsevier Science Inc., 1996
Preventing School Shootings From 1980’s till now, there are has been many school shootings. Many researchers have made many hypotheses as to why these occur. The most tragic shooting took place in Sandy Hook Elementary. 2.
School shootings are the leading death by a fire arm in the United States. What motivates these people to want to kill others? Acts of violence at schools is not a new thing. School shootings date back to the 18th century. However, school shootings are growing more common in this day in age. What motivates these people to want to kill others? With social networks more and more people are being bullied, which results in more kids snapping and shooting up their school. Bullying isn’t the only reason for school shooting, now smart kids are snapping under the pressure of unrealistic standards set for them by their honors teachers. In high school teens get the choice to take honors classes, or regular classes. The biggest difference in these classes
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, violent students often indicate their intentions before acting violently through drawings or writings. (Juhnke et. Al., 1999) They also make threats of violence towards others. Next, students prone to violent behavior tend to have a history of violence or aggression. (Juhnke et. Al., 1999) This may include other students, boyfriends/girlfriends, and animals. Violent students often have hypersensitivity toward criticism. (Juhnke et. Al., 1999) These students report perceptions of being teased, harassed or being picked on by those they were violent toward. This tormenting can also cause a student to isolate him or herself and withdrawal from friends and family, which is another sign that something is wrong. Another fairly obvious characteristic includes those children who are inappropriately given accress to firearms. (Juhnke et. Al., 1999) When students are given a gun, it gives them a sense of power. Some choose to take advantage of that power, as we have seen in numerous high school shoot...
Most of us learned when we were very young that we should not judge by appearances. But, in the aftermath of massacres in schools everywhere, a sane person has to take seriously what the material world shows - and pass judgment. After all, a lack of judgment and subsequent action may lead to further youth violence.
Texas has passed a new piece of legislation that has now given the students, teachers and other officials to carry a loaded gun onto and around their college campus. The case for this gun carry legislation was that if the students, teachers and other officials were able to have these gun than maybe the issue of school shootings would almost evaporate in some areas. This no doubt sounds like one of the better arguments for guns on campus, seeing as how much of an epidemic we have with school shootings. However, congress seemed to have disregarded an issue on how this could also harm the campus more than it could help. Giving way to empowered threats, reckless engagements, and innocent losses is only some of the ways that this could be a negative thing.
With the media shining so much light upon this topic, it is evident that mass murders in the United States of America are more frequent and deadly. In fact, studies have found that the USA has more mass public shootings than any other country (Christensen). These numbers have only been increasing in the past decades. This is shocking because the USA holds only 5 percent of the world’s population, but as a nation, contributes to 31 percent of mass murders (Christensen). Although these murders continue to be a rare phenomenon, weak gun laws, the need for fame, and issues with societal views are the main causes of the increase in cases.
My subtopic was gun violence in schools “school shootings.” There have been many schools shooting and most of them had many innocent people dying because of one or two people who had committed these horrible crimes. There are many things that should be done to help innocent people from getting hurt and prevent this from happening again. One thing that should happen is to put guns away or just getting rid of them. People get guns many different ways as you may already know. Sometimes we would just want guns to vanish and everyone one to have peace in the world. Gun violence in schools occurs around the world not only in the United States. The news inform us about the many other countries that are attacked and children or students that have been killed because of terroirs groups. People aren’t safe now days in places that we should believe schools are safe. Many parents are nervous sending their children to school because of the different stories they hear about on the news and from others.
Throughout the last two decades, the number of school shootings and gun violence in schools have rapidly escalated. While the number of victims from a school shooting is always the most remembered and talked about information in the media, the largest thing that goes unmentioned is the collateral damage that is left behind with the friends and families of the victims. An article in the Washington Post stated that since the Columbine shooting in 1999, more than 187,000 students have witnessed a school shooting during school hours. Based off this statistic, that means more than the entire population of Eugene, Oregon have been frightened due to what is today one of the most controversial topics in our society today.
Violence in American schools has triggered debates on the root cause of student’s anger and aggressive behavior and proposed proactive solutions.