According to the University of Pittsburgh's Office of Child Development, these social factors may play as important of a role as the psychological factors. First, educational institutions can have a large impact on violence in children. According to their research, over 80% of children failing school have serious youth violence issues, including arrests for violent crimes. According to one study of 11-year-old males, 20% of the subject population of whom the teachers rated as low achievers were later convicted of violent crime, compared to less than 10% of those rated as higher achievers. According to researchers, social situations within the school system, such as overcrowding, imposed conformity, and peer pressure all contribute to youth violence (Farrington, 1989). Still further, study after study has shown that poverty greatly increases the odds of violence in youths in the United States. First, poorer areas have a higher turnover rate of residents, which can lead to instability and a lack of responsibility for the neighborhood within a given area. Secondly, lower income neighborhoods are less organized than higher income areas, and since youth require some form of organized structure, this can lead to more violent behavior. Even more troublesome, lower income neighborhoods tend to have higher crime rates, and thus, the children are exposed to more crime and violence. Additionally, social institutions such as the family are generally prone to anti-social behavioral tendencies in lower income areas. These tendencies include drug or alcohol abuse, large, disassociated families, low parental education, and increased likelihood for sexual or verbal abuse (Office of Children, Youth and Family, 1999).

While psychological factors and social institutions definitely play a part in youth violence, there is yet another factor, that of the youth culture in the United States today. In today's fast paced society, research has shown that many children and young adults are often poorly supervised by adults. As such, these youths tend to have access to a range of unsuitable material, such as television, movies, and games that depict high levels of violence. According to McCord and his...

This desensitization makes it difficult for a youth to learn right from wrong, and desensitizes him or her to violence, thus making a violent act far easier to commit (McCord, 1994).
In addition to this desensitization, youths who are culturally geared towards violence have a slightly altered view of the world, according to some researchers. In certain cases, youths exposed to high levels of violence have a higher mistrust of other individuals, and thus overestimate the amount of violence already existing in the world. This, according to research, can lead to higher levels of psychological retribution concepts, in which the youth attempts violence on others as a way to respond to perceived violence against them (Office of Children, Youth and Family, 1999).

As stated, youth violence has been rising in the United States since the early 1990's, and continues to rise today. With psychological factors such as learned violent behaviors, low self-esteem, and susceptibility to peer pressure, social factors such as overcrowded schools and poor families, and cultural factors such as violence in media and altered realities, these statistics will continue to increase. It is only when we, as a nation, attempt to combat all causes for youth violence that we can attempt to secure a safe and non-violent future for our children.

References

Bureau of Justice Statistics. (1994, July). Criminal victimization in the United States: 1973-92 trends, (NCJ-147006) Washington, DC: Bureau of Justice Statistics.

Farrington, D.P. (1989). Early predictors of adolescent aggression and adult violence. Violence and Victims, 4, 79-100.

Federal Bureau of Investigation. (1995, December). Juveniles and violence (updated). Washington, DC: FBI.

McCord, J. (1994). Aggression in two generations. In L.R. Huesmann (ed.). Aggressive behavior: Current perspectives (pp. 241-254). New York, NY: Plenum.

Office of Children, Youth and Family. (Winter, 1998). Path to violence. Background, 9, 1-4.

Snyder, H.N. (1994). Are…