Suburban Teen Violence, Essay Example

Violence may be delineated into a cultural thing. Suffice it to say that violence may transform the boundaries and definition of a group (i.e. subculture) depending on the rules, mores, and approaches to violence a particular group instills within itself.This essay will focus on how violence has a unifying quality in suburban youth gangs and how that unity serves to establish the framework of suburban youth culture by maintaining insider/outsider status (being accepted into a gang being rejected from family), and practices of alienation.

In suburban areas there is an epidemic of teenage violence. This may have begun in the 1990s (at least in America), when the social order was at a breaking point (here the stock market crash in the 80’s, the shrinking of the middle class, etc.). Violence began to creep into people’s neighborhoods, schools, and homes the proponents of such violence were coming from the hands of teenagers (gangs). A lot of the violence that was occurring seemed to be for superficial reasons such as being in the wrong gang, walking in the wrong neighborhood, and suggested “a wanton disregard for human life” (Elliot 1). And the perpetrators of these “wanton” acts were mostly adolescents (teenagers). The violence that’s occurring in modern society, however, has become drastically more violent and lethal. Such acts contribute to death rates and statistics. In fact, teenage homicide rate “has more than doubled since 1988” (Elliot 2). The reason for this drastic increase has been teenagers use of handguns for gang related violence in suburban (and surrounding) neighborhoods (Elliot 2) ultimately lead to fruition by feelings of isolation propelled by antisocial behavior.

Teenagers have frail egos. They are at the point in life when they are forming their personalities based on outside influences. During this stage, teenagers, especially in suburban settings, tend to be egocentric: they define their world, and they are the only important thing in that world. This egocentrism can be defined as narcissistic personality disorder and The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines this disorder with the following traits: “Reacts to criticism with feelings of rage or shame.Is interpersonally exploitative.Has grandiose sense of self-importance.Preoccupied with fantasies of success, power, and brilliance.Requires constant attention and admiration.Lacks empathy with others (Alt and Wells 9). This type of patternistic behavior may very well lead to practices of alienation as there is no empathy involved in the narcissistic personality disorder.These teens in suburban homes are misplacing or displacing their aggression (Frei et al. 169).

This displacement may be due to a wrecked homelife.Parents who have problems with social behavior put their progeny at risk. This means that problems may be on a biological level, but there is something learned about anti-social and aggressive behavior from the home.Antisocial behavior has been defined by the American Pyschiatric Association as “a pervasive pattern of disregard for and violation of the rights of others occurring since 15 years of age, associated with various anti-social traits that persist after adolescence” (Ostrosky-Solis et al. 1223).This antisocial behavior may also be a precursor to psychopathy, whose traits include, “pathological lying, lack of empathy, lack of remorse or guilt, manipulation, shallow affect, failure to accept responsibility for her own actions, superficial charm, impulsivity, and promiscuous sexual behavior” (Ostrosky-Solis et al., 2008, p. 1228).A parent’s inability to use good internal controls on progeny result in youth in suburbia indulging in deviant and often times violent behavior; “Antisocial personality and attention deficit disorders, a fearless and impulsive temperament, exposure to lead and other neurotoxins, and serious head injuries, for example” are all problems when a parent is trying to establish or maintain control over their child. Also, lack of a strong parental bond greatly influences a teenager’s behavior and choice problems(Elliot 4).Furthermore, teenagers in suburban homes that are exposed to abuse are at a higher risk of continuing the abuse pattern through violent behavior; “Families with a high risk for child abuse are those with parents or caretakers who have limited problem solving skills, poor impulse control and a history of violent behavior during adolescence” (Elliot 4). The parents or guardians of these teenagers are frequently low income, single parent households and typically fall on the minority spectrum:

It appears that growing up in poor, minority families and disorganized neighborhoods have two major effects directly related to violent behavior. First, when it comes time to make the transition into adulthood, there are limited opportunities for employment, which, in turn, reduces the chances of marriage. These are two primary definers of adult status. Second, there is evidence that growing up in poor, disorganized neighborhoods inhibits a normal course of adolescent development. Youth from these neighborhoods have lower levels of personal competence, self-efficacy, social skills, and self-discipline. Many are not adequately prepared to enter the labor market even if jobs were available.They are, in some ways, trapped in an extended adolescence and continue to engage in adolescent behavior (Elliot 7).

Due to these variables the families are already suffering from antisocial behavior and isolation from the surrounding community. Their children are deemed incompetent, or less than their peers and a social stigma is reinforced through all circles including home and school and possibly work:

During junior and senior high school, a clear adolescent status hierarchy emerges, and much of the violence at school is related to competition for status and status-related confrontations. Ability tracking also contributes to a collective adaptation to school failure and peer rejection by grouping academically poor students and those who are aggressive troublemakers together in the same classes. Delinquent peer groups tend to emerge out of these classes and individual feelings of anger, rejection and alienation are mutually reinforced in these groups (Elliot 5).

While in these environments such behavior may term a teenager as dysfunctional or otherwise, in the teens group or subculture, violent acts may gain the teenager praise so that they are encouraged to gain praise through acts of violence, furthering isolating them from the former circles; “These families have few resources and are experiencing both social isolation and economic stress. They have few alternatives and limited social supports from extended family or friendship networks which might provide social controls on their behavior and non-violent alternatives for managing their children” (Elliot 4).The most prevalent cause of violence in suburban teens is hanging out with a delinquent peer group. In this group, rules are established and the teenager must model their life and action around these sub-cultural rules.Violence is a large part of those rules in a gang. In fact, it is not only present, but it is encouraged and when done the teenager is rewarded for their efforts, “and justifications for disengaging one’s moral obligation to others are taught and reinforced” (Elliot 7). Early exposure to this type of reinforced violence makes an individual weak to family controls. When a young teenager is exposed to this type of lifestyle they are far more likely to have violent outbursts and aggressive behavior because that is how they were taught to act within their group (Elliot 7).

There are other signs of social isolation or antisocial behavior that can be termed as aggressive side effects such as, “Lack of impulse control, quickly changing mood states and problem-solving difficulties were also indentified. A diagnosis of dissocial personality disorder (ICD-10)” (Frei et al.171). A teenager with a narcissistic personality disorder with violent tendencies tens to show grandiosity, or a psychological need for control/power.These needs may manifest itself through unrestrained aggression, and antisocial behavior that in turn leads to isolation. In the teenager’s suburban home life, links to this behavior have been found in abusive and neglectful parents (Haller, 1999; Turco, 2001).

While abusive parents do not necessitate all teenagers turning into deviants that are isolated from their dominant culture, abuse does tend to be a frequent part of a violent individual’s history.This idea of violence applies suburban teenagers although “it may take enormous energy and an intact nervous system to overcome the tendency towards violence that results from consistent, long-term abuse delivered by parents or tutors at a young age. When the impulse to violence provoked by abuse is accompanied by brain abnormalities, the affected individual may be at a higher risk for engaging in violence due to compromised impulse control” (Ostrosky-Solis et al.1227). Some forms of violence may not always be parentally induced or even culturally. Teenagers tend to be antisocial while they’re forming their identity. Violence may come in to play as a result of being accepted into a sub-culture such as a gang, “Gangs are a subtype of adolescent peer group, with a more formal identity and membership requirements. They tend to involve more homogeneously delinquent youth, often actively recruiting persons for their fighting skills or street smarts. In some instances membership entails violent behavior as an initiation ritual” (Elliot 5). Although the pressures of being incorporated into a gang may be found to counteract the element of isolation, such violent acts may support the notion of antisocial as they disallow for incorporation into the “normal” suburban culture.With gangs, there may be an element of a teenager trying to find their own “family” (a family that they have to be initiated into through acts of violence as opposed to the one they’re born into) there may still be an element of cerebral problems involved as “The presence of some dysfunction within the limbic system can lead to personality disturbances that may in turn lead to antisocial behavior. Head trauma also produces frontal and temporal lesions, and reduces the threshold of impulsive behavior and violence which may be reflected to EEG abnormalities” (Ostrosky-Solis et al.1227-8). This cerebral input may be in large part due to abuse in the home wherein the frontal cerebral cortex or frontal lobe suffered major impact through a blow or some similar abuse.

Antisocial behavior that leads to violence in suburban teens may also be explained through impulse control issues,

It has been reported that individuals with defects in impulse control associated with immoral behavior may present a frontal lobe dysfunctions; dissociation between social cognition and moral cognition has been observed in these cases. As a result, individuals suffering from this type of dysfunction lack an understanding of moral rules that is congruent with their immoral behavior…Recent neuroanatomical evidence suggests that frontal neural networks are involved in moral processing and empathy (Ostrosky-Solis et al.1228).

This lack of moral understanding may play a large part in violent teenage behavior as well as recidivism. A teenager may go to juvenile hall because of violence acted upon as part of gang life, then once in the penitentiary system, they must maintain a status and therefore continue to perform acts of violence furthering their social isolation.

There are several different ways a suburban teenager may participate in insider/outsider status in gangs or in antisocial behavior. The link between the two is violence. Violence does not differentiate between psycho, social, or biological differences. A teenager may be violent because the gang subculture expects them to be violent in order to maintain their reputation in their adopted family. A teenager may be violent because of mental disorders such as narcissistic personality disorder. Teenagers may also be violent because they’ve suffered some form of abuse that has affected their temporal lobe and thereby their moral reasoning is dysfunctional. In any of these reasons the end result is the same: violence among suburban youth.

Works Cited

Elliot, Delbert. (1994). Youth Violence: An Overview. Colorado State University Center For the Study and Prevention of Violence. 6 May 2014.

Ostrosky-Solis, Feggy et al. (September 2008). A Middle Aged Female Serial Killer. AmericanAcademy of Forensic Sciences. Vol. 53, No. 5, pp1223-1230.

Thompson, Jennie. (2009). Women’s Role in Serial Killing Teams: Reconstructing a RadicalFeminist Perspective. Springer Science+Business Media. Vol. 17, pp. 261-275.

Frei, Andrea et al. (2006). Female Serial Killing: Review and Case Report. Criminal BehaviourAnd Mental Health. Vol. 16, pp. 167-176.

Kellermann, Arthur L. and Mercy, James. (1992). Men, Women and Murder: Gender-Specific Differences in Rates of Fatal Violence and Victimization. The Journal of Trauma. Vol.33, No. 1, pp. 1-5.