Revisiting Moynihan's theory on violence in the Black community and intervention strategies

Moynihan's Theory on Violence in the Black Community What Works in Reducing the Incidences of Violence in the Community?

The world we live in is a simple word crazy. Parents strive to work harder and offer their children a better life, but in this, they seem to forget that their offspring need other things aside money - they need attention, love and care. When these are refused, some teenagers become engaged in criminal actions. The juvenile criminal system is struggling to identify petty crimes as well as more serious ones and reintegrate the adolescents as members of the society. However, once a criminal, some teenagers, and later on as adults, find it difficult to estrange themselves from illegal actions. For instance, a report of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at the U.S. Department of Justice (2004) revealed that 50% of all inmates return to prison after they have committed other crimes. Crimes are present in all communities, but the rates seem to be higher in the black ones. The reason for it could be that of an improper raising, unsatisfied needs, personal feelings of frustration or, as put by a teenage shooter, the desire for "power, authority, respect [...] support and identity" (Hall, 1993).

2. Introduction

The matter of injuries caused by violent interactions has gained more interest. It is now being considered as major public health problem and proof of this stand the numerous studies conducted by various agencies, including the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). "This attention has produced improved understanding of the scope of the injury burden, with an increasing focus of studies and interventions on specific injury types and settings, particularly related to unintentional injuries" (American Journal of Public Health, 1994).

Despite the growing rates of criminality among adolescents of all ethnicities, the black communities appear to be the most affected ones. "Homicide is the leading cause of death among young black men 15 to 19 years of age and occurs at a rate nine times that for young white men of the same age. The homicide rate for young black women has also been found to be 3-5 times higher than that for young white women from the same age group" (DuRant, Pendergats, Stevens, and Linder, 1994). This is most often common in neighbourhoods where the black population is poor and unemployed. Also, the aggressors have most likely been previous victims of violent manifestations in the home, the school or in the street.

In order to address the issues and find resolutions to a national growing problem, "we must learn from the productive work on unintentional injuries, and so aim to develop information that is sufficiently specific to allow successful preventions of the many manifestations of violence. To do this, we must identify types of violence that can be studied and addressed specifically" (American Journal of Public Health, 1994).

3. The Moynihan Report

The Moynihan Report was issued in 1965 by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan and is still considered one of the most controversial documents to ever be issued under the label of the United States Department of Labor. The report commences with a brief historical look at the relations between the white and the black races and states that the 'Negroes' demands for equal rights and opportunities would not be met for longer periods of time, and not without the support of increased additional efforts.

The Senator goes on stating that in the past recent decades, the gap between the whites and blacks had further increased. "Indices of dollars of income, standards of living, and years of education deceive. The gap between the Negro and most other groups in American society is widening. The fundamental problem, in which this is most clearly the case, is that of family structure. The evidence - not final, but powerfully persuasive - is that the Negro family in the urban ghettos is crumbling. A middle-class group has managed to save itself, but for vast numbers of the unskilled, poorly educated city working class the fabric of conventional social relationships has all but disintegrated. There are indications that the situation may have been arrested in the past few years, but the general post-war trend is unmistakable. So long as this situation persists, the cycle of poverty and disadvantage will continue to repeat itself" (Moynihan, 1965).

Ultimately, the primary thesis of the Moynihan Report is that the combination of the above mentioned events "confront the nation with a new kind of problem. Measures that have worked in the past, or would work for most groups in the present, will not work here. A national effort is required that will give a unity of purpose to the many activities of the Federal government in this area, directed to a new kind of national goal: the establishment of a stable Negro family structure" (Moynihan, 1965). Otherwise put, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan blames the increased rates of criminality within the black communities on the structure of the black family, which needs to change in order to reduce acts of violence within the respective communities and neighbourhoods.

The Moynihan Report is organized under four chapters. The first, entitled the Negro American Revolution, deals with the historical past that has led to the blacks requesting equal rights and opportunities with the whites. The second chapter is the Negro American Family, which states the misunderstood features of the black family, through the lens of the white families. It suggests that the underlying problem in the black communities is the poor structure of the black family. "At the heart of the deterioration of the fabric of Negro society is the deterioration of the Negro family" (Moynihan, 1965). The third chapter, the Roots of the Problem, presents several issues that can be considered as having set the basis for the created situation; some of them include the slavery period, emancipation and reconstruction from slavery, the urbanization of the black individuals (increased in comparison to that of the whites'), unemployment and poverty, social aspects and their costs (such as divorce) or the wage system. The final chapter of the report, the Tangle of Pathology, suggests that it is quite difficult for the black youth to escape the burdens of their cultural and familial past. In other words, a black adolescent may find it rather challenging to build a successful life outside the ghetto, and even if he does, his children are quite likely to return to the streets. "In a word, most Negro youth are in danger of being caught up in the tangle of pathology that affects their world, and probably a majority are so entrapped. Many of those who escape do so for one generation only: as things now are, their children may have to run the gauntlet all over again. That is not the least vicious aspect of the world that white America has made for the Negro" (Moynihan, 1965).

So what can be done to reduce violence in the black communities? Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan implied that the problems are caused by the declining status of the African-American family. Therefore, the solution must come from a strengthening of the black family. To further detail, Moynihan revealed several aspects that reduced the role of the black male in the community. For instance, black females registered better performances throughout their educational programs than black males did; black females occupied more white collar positions than the black males; as a result, they registered higher incomes. The rates of divorce began to increase as the better paid women would no longer be dependent on the husband (and some of them did not like it that the husbands were financially dependent on them).

About one forth of the black families began to be headed by single females. This is likely to negatively impact the youth males. Otherwise put, the role of the black male used to be to care for a black female and her (their) offspring. The fact that spouses divorce and black females are better capable to take care of themselves and their children impacts the young male who is no longer guided by the historical principle that he must provide for the woman. "Margaret Mead has pointed out that while 'In every known human society, everywhere in the world, the young male learns that when he grows up one of the things which he must do in order to be a full member of society is to provide food for some female and her young.' This pattern is not immutable, however, it can be broken, even though it has always eventually reasserted itself. [...] 'Within the family, each new generation of young males learn the appropriate nurturing behavior and superimpose upon their biologically given maleness this learned parental role. When the family breaks down... this delicate line of transmission is broken. Men may flounder badly in these periods, during which the primary unit may again become mother and child, the biologically given, and the special conditions under which man has held his social traditions in trust are violated and distorted.'" (Moynihan, 1965)