The Innocent Victims of Violence. Part II

The bigotry of violence has been haunting us all through out history. We have lived it in its extremist measures through wars and genocides, but at its core, we still live it in our everyday lives. Violence has become like an epidemic that has our society grieving. It is like a plague that is afflicting our homes, our communities, and especially our children. Because this is something hat really concerns me, I decided to do some research on the topic and today I will like to share my findings with you.

Today I won’t be talking about the Iraq war but rather about a war that we have been fighting for much longer; the violence within our own communities. According to Osofsky (1997, p. 9), there is plenty of evidence to indicate that many children are exposed to considerable amounts of life-threatening violence in their homes and communities. His research shows, that “homicide is the second leading cause of death among all 15-24-year-olds and is now the third leading cause of death among elementary school children, ages 5-14”(Herbert, 1996, as cited in Osofsky, 1997, p. 3). It is not rare for a child from an urban neighborhood to witness a severe act of violence by the time they reach the age of 10. This is the cruel reality that has become an everyday fact of life. In this post I hope to give you enough facts for you to make up your own opinion about the magnitude of this problem and decide for your self whether or not it is time to do something about it.

For some of us whose reality does not include exposure to cruel acts of violence on daily basis, it is easy to think that such a problem does not exist. Well, I wish I could tell you that this is the case. “Each day, ten children in the United States are murdered by gunfire, approximately one [child] every two-and-a-half hours” (Mcalister, 2002, p. 21). These statistics provide only a partial picture of the problem of violence in the lives of American children, because aside from murder there remains a very high level of non-lethal assaults. In a recent study of inner-city elementary school children, “80 percent of the sample reported witnessed violence; 60 percent had seen weapons and 40 percent had seen a dead body” (Osofsky 1992, as cited in Chiland & Young, 1994, p.111). In many parts of the country, it is normal for children to hear the sound of gunfire outside the windows of their home. Some children are constant spectators or involuntary participants of actions that they perceive as dangerous or harmful. They are exposed to domestic abuse, robberies, stabbings, shootings, and many other situations in which they, or the people around them can get hurt. Violence knows no class or ethnicity. Although levels of exposure may be higher in urban communities, children in the suburbs are also unquestionable subjects of violent incidents, such as school shootings. In a study on elementary school children in the suburbs shows that “40 percent reported being witness of at least one violent crime in the past year and a high percent of them show fear of a possible violent act happening at their school. (Osofsky 1992, as cited in Chiland & Young, 1994, p.111).

Children who are exposed to severe acts of violence present problems in their psychological, emotional, social and cognitive development. Being exposed to such a world causes for children to fear for their lives and for that of their family members. They don’t feel safe at home, school or anywhere. This insecurity causes stress on the child and therefore contributes to the malnourishment of their emotional stability, social relationships and ability to learn. Research shows evidence of the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in elementary school children and adolescents who are exposed to violence (Chiland & Young, 1994, p. 110). PTSD occurs in response to some recognizable, extreme stressor, and it is characterized by specific behaviors that fall into the categories of re-experiencing the event, avoidance of reminders, psychic numbing, and increased arousal (Osofsky, 1997, p.15). It manifest it self through disrupted patterns of eating, sleeping, fearfulness and as well as the lack of ability to pay attention or relate to others. Unfortunately, if a child does not present symptoms of trauma immediately after the incident, it does not mean they do not suffer of PTSD. Symptoms can take months, and up to years to develop, or they may only surface once the child is mature enough to comprehend and understand the implications of the incident.

Children shape their perception of the world base on what they experiment and perceive from their environment regardless if it is positive or negative. Consequently, children who are exposed to on-going violence perceive the world as a violent place and may see violence as a societal norm. According to Mcalister (2002, p. 31) “Exposure to violence changes the emotional landscape for children by distorting their emerging view of the world and their place in it…It lays the foundation for later behavioral and emotional problems.” Because children many times are not taught that violence is bad, they tend to adapt it as well as other behaviors that they feel are useful to assimilate to the world they live in. “Too often, they learn that violence is an acceptable way to resolve conflict” (Osofsky, 1997, p. 2). If the world in which children have to survive is hostile, they will then be hostile. Children who are exposed to violence at a young age, are forced to grasp a reality that they should not have to understand and are too young to bear. They are awakened to the sad and cruel fact that they are responsible for their own survival; and at a young age they are forced to adapt violence as a defense mechanism and a way of life. Therefore, as children start gaining understanding of their surroundings and need for survival, ‘the terrorized infant become the terrorizing adolescent’” (Mcalister, 2002, p. 38). Research shows that this is the devastating reality. Many adolescents who first become delinquent and later develop into criminals, show sings of exposure to much violence earlier in their lives (Osofsky, 1997, p. 5). Consequently, children exposed to violence, as adults, are subjected to a psychological, emotional and social imbalance.

When we talk about cognitive effects, we are talking about those that take part in the child’s brain. According to Dr. Bruce Perry (as cited in Tortoricy, 2002, p. 25), a chief of psychiatry a Children’s Hospital and faculty member of the Child Trauma Academy, a child who is subject to cruelty, brutality and abuse, presents profound and perhaps permanent changes on the chemistry of his or her brain. He explains that the brain changes in response to how it is used. Therefore, if a child overuses the primitive, life-preserving parts of the brain, they become overly developed, at the expense of the cognitive and social learning areas. The child’s lack of development in the cognitive area of the brain, affects the child’s ability to acquire knowledge and process information. When a children’s brains are constantly thinking and acting on the basis of survival, children become less receptive to learning the lessons being taught in the classroom and more receptive to any sings of danger. Their defensive mechanism is always on the look out and can be easily trigger by any unexpected sound or movement. “Children who grow up exposed to violence, may spend all their time in the classroom either in a state of anxiety or dissociation- a defense against extreme stress. They may never achieve the relaxed alertness that makes a child receptive to learning” (Tortorici, 2002, p.25). Children who are expose to on-going violence, cannot be children. They are unable to enjoy life because the thread of violence is always roaming on the back of their minds; and they unable to explore their full potential because of their difficulty to achieve academic success.

Well, now that you are aware of the horrific reality that our children are living, there is only one question left. What can we do about it? Well, the first step is to educate people who are not aware of the problem. People need to know far beyond what the news tells them. It is not enough to know what is happening on the streets of our neighborhoods. It is far more important to find out who are the people affected by what is happening and how can we help them. A way to get involve could be through non-profits who are fighting towards better resources for children who have been victims of violence. A great organization is Save: Students Against Violence Everywhere

The second step is to become better listeners and to seek those voices that are never heard, the voices of the innocent victims of violence. Children who are expose to violence need tell the world their powerful and impacting stories. People can see violence through their eyes so that they can understand the cruel reality that we are allowing to take over the innocence of our children. A great organization that provides a forum for these voices to be heard is talkingwithkids.org. Listen to these voices and share with others what they have to say.

The third step is to get involve in our policy making. We need to fight for better gun control reforms. Although this is not the solution to the problem, I am a firm believer that “less guns equals less violence”. This is proven by looking at other countries that have adapted stricter gun reforms and consequently have presented a lower rate on homicides. How can a child be an incidental victim of a gun shooting if there are no guns? We need to explore why our government does not fight for something that can only be beneficial to our society. They would not want to get their most important supporters angry, now would they?

And the last and most important thing is to never loose hope. We must have faith. If we all take responsibility for what is happening, collectively we have the power to change the course our society is taking. We need to spread the love and fight violence with peaceful acts not with more violence. I will like to share this memorable story of how others are doing it.


References

Chiland, C., & Young, J. (Eds.). (1994). Children and Violence. New Jersey: Jason Aronson, Inc.

McAlister Groves, B. (2002). Children Who See Too Much. Boston: Beacon Press.

Osofsky, J. D. (Ed.). (1997). Children in a Violent Society. New York: The Guilford Press.

Payne, R. K. (2001). Thinking in a culture of Poverty. In Costa, A. L. (Ed.), Developing Minds: Resource Book for Teaching
(229-232). Virginia: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Penn, H. (2005). Understanding Early Childhood. New York: Open University Press.

Tortorici, L. J. (2002). Helping Children Learn: The Legacy of Violence. Leadership, 24-27.