Sociological factors underlying domestic violence, gang crime, and information access

Sociology Discussion Responses

Response to Post #1

I agree completely with almost everything in your post about the importance of preventing and responding to instances of domestic violence. However, I think it might be s slight exaggeration to characterize domestic violence as the single greatest societal challenge facing our society. That is not to suggest that it is not crucial, only that various other problems may be equal to or even greater in magnitude. In fact, I would suggest that child abuse and other forms of bad parenting are more important issues, particularly since those issues are directly causally related to the domestic violence problem. In general, domestic abusers suffer from some aspect of low self-esteem and were probably subjected to some degree of parental abuse that predisposes them to becoming abusive as adults. In that sense, I would suggest that domestic partner abuse, while an extremely important problem in its own right, is more of a symptom of more fundamental problems than it is an independently occurring societal problem. Even more generally, I would suggest that there is a fundamental problem in the way we socialize the genders differently, such as with respect to sexual morality and gender-based roles in relationships that also contributes substantially to the problem. Addressing those issues would seem to be more effective than focusing mainly on enforcement against offenders after the fact.

Response to Post #3

In many respects, I would have to disagree with your characterization of differential access to technology as a main factor in the differential access to information. If anything, communications technology has become so integrated into contemporary American society that low income does not seem to be a significant barrier to access. In fact, it often seems that many low-income individuals waste inappropriate amounts of money on cellular telephones, ring tones, and related products, considering their relative priority in importance. Furthermore, in my experience, the problem with the explosion of digital technology and social media is not necessarily access to information but the flooding of potential sources of news and information with inaccurate and superficial information that overshadows meaningful information and news. As a result, the average person is more likely to know about what movie star couples have split up or cheated on one another than they are to be aware of who their state representatives are in Washington.

In my opinion, K-12 education should provide information about contemporary information technology issues, such as how to differentiate credible from unreliable sources of factual information. Similarly, since digital technology and social media are now such an integral part of everyday life, the high-school generation should receive training in the safe and responsible use of these technologies to prevent them from becoming victims of exploitation as well as of their own bad decisions. Precisely because digital media are relatively new phenomena, many students do not yet understand the potential risks associated with them, such as in connection with information privacy. Likewise, many young people do not yet seem to appreciate that once they publish information online, most of it is impossible to erase or to prevent from being associated with them indefinitely. Teenagers may be compromising their ability to be accepted into the colleges of their choice and college students may be jeopardizing their prospects of employment because of some of the things they choose to publish about themselves online.

Response to Post #4

I would agree with your characterization of the importance of the problem of child abuse because it is a class of problems that is notoriously under-reported. As you suggest, child sexual abuse, in particular, is tremendously damaging to the individual with life-long consequences. Unfortunately, one of the worst of those consequences is that being victimized in childhood is a known causal factor in offender behavior in adulthood and this represents a cyclical and multigenerational social problem. In my opinion, one of the mistakes typically made in connection with trying to protect children against sexual abuse is the focus on the proverbial "stranger danger" because, much more often than not, the actual sources of potential danger are from individuals with authorized access to children. Therefore children should be better prepared to understand how to resist and report inappropriate conduct with respect to trusted individuals more than with respect to complete strangers. However, I am confused as to what you were referring to in connect with former Secretary Albright and the Cold War, because I do not understand the connection you are suggesting between the Cold War, deaths of children, and the problem of child abuse in society.

Response to Post #5

On one hand, I do agree with your characterization of substance abuse as a serious social problem. On the other hand, I am fundamentally opposed to the completely arbitrary and logically indefensible distinction that our current laws make with respect to so-called "illicit" drugs and the two most damaging drugs to contemporary society: namely, tobacco and alcohol. While anti-drug mantra continually refers to marijuana, for example, as the primary "gateway" drug that leads to the use of other, harder drugs of abuse, in truth, alcohol use almost always precedes marijuana use and is the true gateway drug of American society. More importantly, cigarette smoking is directly responsible for nearly half a million human deaths in the U.S. every year, which is more than all of the deaths caused by crime, HIV / AIDS, alcohol, vehicular accidents and all other drugs combined. I my opinion, the worst drug in contemporary society is tobacco and instead of worrying about the illicit drugs, U.S. authorities should be devoting more sincere efforts to reducing the use of tobacco through high taxes and much stricter enforcement of both sales to and use by minors.