Violence Against Children In The United States

Violence is a prominent characteristic of the United States. Despite the efforts made to make aware that it is an issue that must be diminished, it has become a social norm that many are numb to. Specifically, violence has increasingly spread to children, who have now become both perpetrators and victims. According to “Children’s Exposure to Violence”, in 2014, 37 percent of children were physically assaulted and about half had been assaulted during their lifetime. In cases like these children’s involvement with violence is caused by a few reasons including, social norms, the “institutionalization of violence against children”, and “the secondary status of children”. (Tolan and Guerra 196). This then leads to physical injuries; “impaired development to the brain and nervous system”; “negative coping and health risk behaviors”; and negative “impacts on opportunities and future generations” (“Children’s Exposure to Violence”).

Children have always been impressionable to their environment, especially in contemporary society where they are exposed to the entire world with the touch of a button. On the internet social norms are being circulated so that young kids and adolescents are learning how to behave. Frequently, television programs depict violence as part of its plot. The programs are glorifying violence as a behavior that is acceptable merely because its portrayal is entertaining. This is an issue especially as children get older because “not only does risk for victimization increase, but the most likely perpetrators become other youths” (Tolan and Guerra 198) because they are learning to handle situations with peers with aggression. However, this is not the only place that teaches them this type of behavior, if a children’s home environment is stressful, they’ll sometimes resort to using violence. In this type of home, the child is weighed down by the persisting family problems so once they’re interacting with peers, they have no patience left to handle situations with any stressors. As the years progress, this is becoming a popular trend as “over 70% of violent crimes against youths aged 12-19 are committed by other youths” (Tolan and Guerra 178). Most likely the children are mimicking behavior they experienced with their parent and as they’re growing older, they’ll tend to make violence a habit.

The pattern of children’s involvement with violence has become a cycle much like the sequence of life. On the parents’ part their violent tendencies are usually triggered by poverty and economic issues. The adults are unable to control their difficulties and instead project their anger onto something they do have control over, which is their children. Furthermore, society is accepting of “parents' rights to raise children as they see fit… akin to property owners' rights” (Tolan and Guerra 202). This ideology encourages treating children as if they’re second class citizens. Adults will pay a great amount of attention to this hierarchy when interacting with children, so they are sure to make known of their dominance; and violence has shown to be a full-proof way of doing so. Without much of a voice, children have no other option but to obey the adults in their lives. The relationship between children and their parents is therefore based on standing beliefs created thousands of years ago.

Many cases of violence against children will have an immediate effect on the victim; the most tolling of these is death. Violence appears within the top 3 causes of death of youths in the U.S. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “as many as 53,000 children are murdered worldwide each year” (Javanaud). The perpetrators are determined on making certain that the victim is punished for their actions to a point where they feel pain; however, this form of corporal punishment goes too far when death is the result.

In regard to frequency, physical injury from violence occurs several times more often than death. For every death, there are hundreds of adolescents who sustain physical injuries. Injury can range anywhere from marks and bruises to cuts and broken/sprained bones. Largely, violence against children is a repeated act so children are falling victim to physical harm often. Each time a child will suffer from another mark, another bruise, another cut eventually leading them to a state that they cannot recover from.

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Exposure to violence starting at a young age can impair development of the brain and nervous system. During these years, kids have multiple critical points, which must happen during a certain time frame, as they’re growing and developing. Surrounding these points, children are increasingly becoming aware of their environment and learning how to respond to it. Effectively when a child is witnessing violent and aggressive behavior their body is making use of the sympathetic nervous system that controls the fight or flight response; however, because the nervous system is still growing it’ll adapt to violent environments. The adaptation may prevent the nervous system from properly acting in various situations. Furthermore, it is known that abused kids show noticeable “linguistic competence…in the very early years” (Javanaud). Similar to the critical points of development, once the child is older it will be extremely difficult to compensate for their lack of vocational skills. These impairments will follow them all throughout to adulthood.

Subsequently, violence leads to negative coping and health risk behaviors. Youth involved with violence have a substantially increased risk of behavioral issues. The list includes but is not limited to smoking, alcohol and drug misuse, and engagement of “high-risk sexual activity” (“Violence Against Children”). Each of these behaviors and many more are key factors for downward spiral leading to a point where “the chances of running into conflict with the law as a juvenile are increased by 59%” (Javanaud).

Accompanying the negative coping behaviors are the presence of mental and physical health illnesses. The mental health problems associated with violence are not limited to specifics because of the varying degrees and nature of the abuse experienced. According to the Child Protection Hub by the age of 21 around 80% of people affected by violence had a psychiatric disorder. Two prevalent disorders are anxiety and depression. Anxiety disorder is defined as a state of excessive uneasiness and apprehension, typically with compulsive behavior or panic attacks; anxiety has many different branches which are also dependent on the person’s circumstances. Depression is defined as feelings of severe despondency and dejection, also with feelings of inadequacy and guilt, and often accompanied by lack of energy and disturbance of appetite and sleep. Both disorders will persistently affect the functions and interactions of everyday life.

One of the more long-term consequences is how violence impacts future opportunities and generations. All of the results mentioned above are contributors to the path of the child’s life. If the person becomes victim to any of negative coping behaviors, impaired development or mental health issues it will be difficult to find jobs; and even if a job is found it’ll take a great deal of effort to sustain their position. Again, the cycle continues as adults who were impacted by violence as a child end up portraying the same qualities and displaying similar behaviors as their perpetrators.

It is apparent that violence against children is a broad topic consisting of complex branches, all of which have their own causes and effects. However, the prevailing causes of social norms, standardization of violence against children and secondary status of children proved helpful in identifying outcomes ranging from injury, negative coping behaviors, mental health issues and to an impact on the future. Nevertheless, violence is ultimately a cycle where each outcome leads to another until it is time to repeat again.