Violence and Victimization - Essay Example

Violence and Victimization VIOLENCE AND VICTIMIZATION Between the biological and social causes of violent behavior, I would say social ones are more dominant and have greater influence.To support that, I would begin with the biological research results. The recent breakthrough in the biological causes present three basic ways in which biology can affect violent behavior. One is related to genetics and inheritance, the second is presence or lack of neurons that suppress impulsive behavior and the third is presence or absence of neurons that cause impulsive behavior (Michael Bernstein, 2003).

However, all these causes only relate with the tendency to act violent, tendency being the key word, i.e. impulsive behavior minus any kind of cognition. Hence for people who have the biological setup that supports aggressive behavior, they would be more prone to react violently and get into fights in a conflictual situation, the focus here being on the disability to think or rationalize before acting and acting on pure instincts.Having said that, let’s now analyze the research side on violent behavior that more work has been done on, namely correlation of various factors with the probability of being victimized.

Research on violent offenders and violence gives proofs of correlation between risk of being violence victimized and violence offender with various factors of the person in question(Albert J.Reiss, Jr., and Jeffery A.roth, 1994). Among these factors the most dominant ones are: age, race, sex, marital status and socioeconomic status. This phenomenon cannot be explained by the biological causes of violent behavior because according to the biological theory, the offender would act on impulse, without thinking and get aggressive or violent when confronted with a conflictual situation, his/her impulses would not be affected by the conditions i.e. regardless of the age, gender, number and race of the to-be-victim.

The trend in the victims means there are either learned behaviors or some cognition process involved, like for example, if the probability of being a victim is greater for people below 20 years of age, it could be because the offender knows them to be weak and easy to attack. And if the male population is at a higher risk of being victimized it could be because of the social setup where the weaker sex is protected from aggressive situations.Minimizing violent behavior among specific age groups (Scott Barbour, 2011) and social classes involves identifying the root causes.

Juvenile violence is usually because of electronic media including television shows and video games which encourage youngsters to develop violent mindsets. A violent environment at home and inappropriate behaviors of those around them can trigger psychological imbalance in people. If domestic violence is avoided, children at that certain household, when they get older, are less prone to have anger issues. Injustice in the society gives rise to violence. The environmental causes are considered more important because they are more evident and can be controlled.

Altering the environmental conditions in accordance with the behavioral issues a person has can help him become less violent and less likely to show aggression if faced with a conflict.ReferencesBorduin, Charles M.; Schaeffer, Cindy M. Gullotta, Thomas P. (Ed); Adams, Gerald R. (Ed); Montemayor, Raymond (Ed), (1998). Delinquent violent youth: Theory and interventions.Advances in adolescent development. Thousand Oaks, CA, US: Sage Publications, Inc. Monahan, John. American Psychologist. Retrieved from Latest research on possible causes of violent behavior explored in C&EN article. 2003. Eureka Alert, Retrieved from