Exposure to Violence and the Link to Aggression in Children
At any given moment during the past two weeks, endless reports of child abuse as well domestic violence flooded the popular press. From the newspaper article on the NFL player knocking his girlfriend unconscious in a brutal assault to the ABC News report on the NFL player beating his four year old son with a “switch” to the point of drawing blood and leaving scars to the early morning news broadcast of the child abuse and heart-breaking death of two year old Colton Turner of Leander, violence is running rampant within our society. Every year, all across the United States, adolescents are subjected to violence within their own homes, schools, and communities. According to the …show more content…
Edwin Sutherland penned the phrase “differential association” to explain how people learn deviance. According to Sutherland’s theory, the environment plays a monumental role in people deciding which norms to violate. People learn their norms from family, parents, friends, teachers, and others within their community. People learn antisocial, criminal, or delinquent behavior, like other behaviors, from their interactions with others, especially in the close-knit circle of family and friends. According to Sutherland, people exhibit deviant behavior because they associate with people who behave in a deviant manner. One aspect of Sutherland’s theory, as stated in “Juvenile Delinquency,” provides that “criminal behavior, like other behavior, is learned from others” and is “not an inherited trait but rather an acquired one” (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 108). It has been reported that an increasing number of lower income families are living in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of crime, violence, and drug use and sales (Koblinsky, Randolph, & Roberts, 1996). Thus, it would be safe to believe that many children witness acts of violence within the world they live in on what would appear to be a daily basis. Sutherland …show more content…
Within the studies, literature, and the differential theory and social learning theory reviewed, there is an overwhelming common thread among the data reviewed that supports the claim that said exposure to violence has a detrimental impact on the development and behavior of a child. This powerful evidence reinforces an already well-established direct link between exposure to violence and aggression in children. Researchers have provided significant insight into the resulting outcome of a child’s repeated exposure to violence and Sutherland, along with Bandura, support such insight. Realizing the potential risks of this exposure is imperative to battling the subsequent effects. Thus, further investigation is necessary in order to protect children from the damaging consequences of the aforementioned
At any given moment during the past two weeks, endless reports of child abuse as well domestic violence flooded the popular press. From the newspaper article on the NFL player knocking his girlfriend unconscious in a brutal assault to the ABC News report on the NFL player beating his four year old son with a “switch” to the point of drawing blood and leaving scars to the early morning news broadcast of the child abuse and heart-breaking death of two year old Colton Turner of Leander, violence is running rampant within our society. Every year, all across the United States, adolescents are subjected to violence within their own homes, schools, and communities. According to the …show more content…
Edwin Sutherland penned the phrase “differential association” to explain how people learn deviance. According to Sutherland’s theory, the environment plays a monumental role in people deciding which norms to violate. People learn their norms from family, parents, friends, teachers, and others within their community. People learn antisocial, criminal, or delinquent behavior, like other behaviors, from their interactions with others, especially in the close-knit circle of family and friends. According to Sutherland, people exhibit deviant behavior because they associate with people who behave in a deviant manner. One aspect of Sutherland’s theory, as stated in “Juvenile Delinquency,” provides that “criminal behavior, like other behavior, is learned from others” and is “not an inherited trait but rather an acquired one” (Bartollas & Schmalleger, 108). It has been reported that an increasing number of lower income families are living in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of crime, violence, and drug use and sales (Koblinsky, Randolph, & Roberts, 1996). Thus, it would be safe to believe that many children witness acts of violence within the world they live in on what would appear to be a daily basis. Sutherland …show more content…
Within the studies, literature, and the differential theory and social learning theory reviewed, there is an overwhelming common thread among the data reviewed that supports the claim that said exposure to violence has a detrimental impact on the development and behavior of a child. This powerful evidence reinforces an already well-established direct link between exposure to violence and aggression in children. Researchers have provided significant insight into the resulting outcome of a child’s repeated exposure to violence and Sutherland, along with Bandura, support such insight. Realizing the potential risks of this exposure is imperative to battling the subsequent effects. Thus, further investigation is necessary in order to protect children from the damaging consequences of the aforementioned