Speculating About A Social Crisis

Teenage and young-adult violence is a growing epidemic. With the spreading violence epidemic comes widespread depression. We are now seeing more and more depression in younger and younger people. We tend to classify angry, violent, and aggressive adolescents as troubled individuals. We try to take these troubled individuals and sequester them from our troubled world. We are appalled at the outbreaks of murder in our schools, of gang violence, and of uncontrolled adolescent anger. We …

…by some as the main reason for violence among youths, others agree that violence in the home is only a contributing factor to the violence within adolescent youth. Many feel that violence in the home is generated by other components such as poverty. Poverty can cause frustration within the family unit, especially between the adults. The adults of the family may, in turn, unleash their frustration by violently abusing their children, physically, emotionally, or sexually.