Why Are Youth Often the Victims - Coursework Example

Media Watch Project STAB ATTACKS: WHY ARE YOUTH OFTEN THE VICTIMS? INTRODUCTION Over the last quarter century, violence has become a common occurrence among youth in many countries, especially so in the western countries. Violence as a part of daily life has become a serious problem, with young people being the most vulnerable to violent attacks, especially those related to knife crime (Marcus, 2005: 442). The essay will examine the reasons for victimization of youth in racist attacks, hate crimes, gang rivalry, robbery and other occurrences by looking at various current theories of victimization such as the dependent status of juveniles, social structure, juvenile delinquency, life stress, economic disparity, and the routine activity and lifestyle-exposure of youth including high-risk and criminal lifestyles. The reasons for why youth are often the victims may be several, but the main implication is that young lives are tragically cut short or left permanently impacted by the violent attacks. The purpose of this media watch project is to focus on stab attacks in which youth are often the victims, as observed from reports in newspapers, magazines, the news on television, and other sources. The reasons for youth being the victims will be identified and discussed. DISCUSSION Media accounts of stabbing attacks on youth in the United Kingdom have brought this issue into focus, in the nation’s consciousness. The untimely, violent deaths of young people; and the far-reaching emotional consequences among survivors because of victimization, such as psychological disorders and incapacitation are increasingly becoming a problem of great concern to society. The question arises regarding why youth are often the victims of stabbing attacks which have become a regular occurrence in daily life, with incidences being reported by the media on a regular basis, both nationally and internationally. Hashima & Finkelhor (1999: 799) attempted to understand the characteristics of juvenile victimization through a comparison of the rates of violent victimization of youth from twelve to seventeen years and adults. The conventional definition of childhood is “under eighteen”, and forms the legal definition of a juvenile. The researchers found dramatically high rates of serious crimes against youth, and that the overall violent crime victimization for juveniles was slightly higher (116 for 1000) than the rate for young adults. Youth victimization had originally been considered to be less violent and less threatening than adult victimization, but conclusive evidence reveals that youth are as likely as adults to sustain serious knife and gunshot wounds during the course of a crime. Hundreds of young people marched through north London to the place where 16-year-old Ben Kinsella was stabbed to death, to protest against knife crime. Ben was attacked during a dispute in York Way, Holloway, and died of multiple stab wounds to the torso. “According to the British Crime Survey (BCS), overall violent crime has decreased by 41% since a peak in 1995. Knives are used in about 8% of violent incidents, a level that has largely remained the same during the past decade” (BBC News, 1st July, 2008). However, young people under sixteen years of age are not included in the survey. Richard Garside, the director of the Centre of Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London stated that the statistics regarding knife victims in the last ten years has remained comparatively stable, although the figures did spike up at particular times. However, there was clear evidence that the demographic of knife crimes had changed, the average age of homicide victims going down steadily with younger and younger people becoming victims. Why Youth are Often the Victims of Stab Attacks Dependency The dependent status of youth, especially juveniles may make them more vulnerable to attacks in homes severely afflicted by conflict and abuse by adults who are known to the victim. Further, absence of choice over people and environment because of living in dangerous neighbourhoods increase juveniles’ vulnerability to street crime. It is clear that though risk taking and delinquency in youth result in victimization, risk taking and delinquency problems also arise as a result of victimization, that is, the cause and effect can be both ways. Another vulnerability factor is that formal laws against youth victimizations are weak in nature. “Much youth violence is excluded de jure or de facto from formal systems of social control. Most cases of juvenile-on-juvenile violence and many cases of adult-on-juvenile violence are not treated as crimes or even serious offences by the public and other agents of social control” (Hashima & Finkelhor, 1999: 817). This means that compared to adults, youth have less access to protection from being victimized. Youth violence is largely considered to be schoolyard fighting and the like, and is considered to be outside the purview of the police and criminal justice system. Life Stress Life stress, both chronic and acute has been observed to be associated with later emotional and behavioral maladjustment among youth, as well as problems in cognitive and social functioning. It is imperative to assess life stress especially for disadvantaged, inner-city youth, because of the higher levels of daily stressors and chronic social problems caused by living in unsafe and unpredictable environments. From the research conducted by Weist et al (2001: 187), they found that life stress was the most consistent predictor of violence exposure, and was seen to contribute to the prediction of all the categories of violence criteria. Stress caused by living in households where an adult is the victim of violence: In this connection, a research study conducted by Mitchell & Finkelhor (2001: 962), revealed that youth who lived in households in which an adult has experienced either domestic or nondomestic violence, are at increased risk for violent victimization. Besides high levels of life stress in the affected juvenile, this also occurs due to reduced quality of supervision and parenting of the youth, when one parent is under the stress of coping with one’s own physical abuse. In such cases, the safety, guidance and protection of the youth is impacted due to the parent’s psychological unavailability for the juvenile’s care. Further, the psychological consequences of witnessing the violence or its effects, and many times being secondary victims of the violence perpetrated on the adult in the home may also make them vulnerable to victimization. Poverty Social structure theory: The “culture of poverty” coined by sociologist Oscar Lewis (1966) refers to the fact that lower class people form a separate culture with their own values and norms, which are not in alignment with that of conventional society. The term includes the crushing poverty experienced by the urban poor and is characterized by their apathy, cynicism, and mistrust of institutions such as the police and government. The resulting permanent underclass has members with little chance of life improvement. Their hopeless situation induces many youth to take to the path of delinquency which ultimately makes them vulnerable to victimization of violent attacks (Siegel et al, 2005: 108). Racism Most occurrences in which youth from minority communities are victimized, are among the impoverished and low income groups. Violence due to hatred focused on particular communities is perpetrated regularly in the western world, as seen in news reports and television news channels. An example in the United Kingdom is the BBC News channel report regarding eighteen-year-old Frederick Moody from Ghana being found with stab wounds to the abdomen, in Guildford Road, Stockwell. “Police believe the victim was attacked by up to eight males who were described as wearing hooded tops and had bikes. The victim died in hospital later” (BBC News, 18th July, 2008). Moody is believed to have had an argument during a water fight earlier that day. “A post mortem gave the cause of death as a stab wound to the heart” (UK News, 20th July, 2008). In another instance, on 27th June, 2008, in the report: Talented teenage immigrant stabbed in racist attack, “an industrious young schoolboy and gifted teenage rapper who fled the Congo for a better life in Scotland has become the latest victim in an ever increasing catalogue of brutal race attacks in Glasgow. Christopher Ikolo, the 15-year-old black victim of the crime, was accosted in the street as he returned to school from his lunch-break last Friday, called a “black bastard” and knifed in the back in broad daylight in Govanhill on Glasgows southside. Last year 168 race attacks perpetrated by youths were reported in Glasgow. In the past three years there have been 433 incidents” (Sunday Herald, 2008). Another incident in which racism is considered to be the reason, occurred in the U.K. on 11th January, 2008, as reported by the Sun newspaper. “A white youth stabbed to death may have been the victim of a race-related revenge attack, even though the alleged attackers are also white, cops said yesterday. The 19-year-old, named locally as Alex Holroyd, was knifed outside some shops. Two of Alex’s friends who were with him when he was attacked on Wednesday have told cops the two killers were white. Detectives are investigating if the stabbing is linked to a local gang fight between whites and Asians last May, when a teenager’s skull was fractured”. A West Yorks Police source said: “The fact that both he and the two people we are looking for are white does not necessary rule out some connection with that gang attack”. (The Sun, 2008). The systemic racism facing the Filipino community in Canada is exemplified in the 14th April, 2008 fatal stabbing of a 24-year-old Filipino youth, Charle Dalde, followed by intensive harassment of the victim’s family by the police, and refusal to allow them to see the body of their dead son (OFW News, 2008). Such racist discrimination and harassment occur regularly. Juvenile Delinquency Juvenile delinquency and victimization: Delinquency among adolescents is a major cause of victimization and violent attacks. Delinquent youth engage in risky activities, which cause reduced guardianship, thus putting themselves at considerable risk for victimization. The most often cited risky activities include: associating with other persons who are violent or have criminal inclinations, engaging in behavior that is aggressive or provocative thus inviting retaliation, “using substances that impair judgment and self-protective capacities, staying out late, frequenting dangerous locales, and forfeiting through behavior and attitude the protective shield of law enforcement, authorities, or supervisory adults” (Cuevas et al, 2007: 1582). Some theories related to delinquency in youth and consequent social behaviour are as follows: The routine activity theory: Attributing juvenile delinquents’ risky behavior as one of the causes, the authors use routine activity theory, a criminological theory that explains victimization as being a function of: “whom people associate with, where they live and where they spend their time” (Miethe & Meier, 1994: 35). This is similar to the The social development model which is that living in a disorganized area weakens social bonds and initiates delinquency in youth. The choice theory holds that youths will engage in delinquent and criminal behavior after evaluating the consequences and benefits of their actions. “Delinquent behavior is a rational choice made by a motivated offender” who perceives that the chances of gain outweigh any chances of punishment or loss (Siegel et al, 2005: 66). The latent trait theories hold that some underlying conditions present at birth or soon after controls behavior. The suspect traits include low IQ, impulsivity, and personality structure. The continuity of offending is because of this underlying trait which continues through the life span. Due to aberrant physical or psychological traits that govern behavioral choices; delinquent actions are impulsive or instinctual rather than rational choices (Siegel et al, 2005: 66). Thus, a major cause of victimization of individuals in violent crimes such as stab attacks, is delinquency. The choice theory as well as the latent trait theory explain the recent stabbing spree in Tokyo, on June 8th, 2008, by a twenty-five year old man which stunned the world. This mass killing occurred in “Tokyos Akihabara district, a popular shopping area for consumer electronics. The youth plowed a rented truck into an intersection full of pedestrians, then began stabbing bystanders at random. The rampage, which left seven dead and ten injured, was another reminder of a violent side of Japan that is not often discussed”. Such occurrences are not uncommon, though Japan has one of the lowest crime rates in the developed world. “The gap between wealth and poverty has widened for the past five years,” says Mitsuyuki Maniwa, professor emeritus of criminal sociology at Shizuoka University. Societys have-nots “lose everything, from hope to motivation in life, pride, and self-esteem” (Time & CNN, 2008). Another stabbing incident which exemplifies the choice theory and the latent trait theory is: Lifestyle The lifestyle-exposure theory of victimization developed by Hindelang et al (1978), as quoted in Miethe & Meier (1994: 35), is based on the premise that demographic differences in the likelihood of victimization are attributed to differences in lifestyles. Variations in lifestyles include the differing exposure to dangerous places, times and other situations in which there are high risks of victimization. From this perspective, an individual’s lifestyle is the critical factor that determines risks of criminal victimization. In this context, lifestyle is defined as routine daily activities that include both vocational, such as: work, school, keeping house, and other work, as well as leisure activities. An individual’s lifestyle may enhance the likelihood of his finding himself exposed to risky or vulnerable situations which in turn increase an individual’s chances of victimization. For example, youth between eighteen and thirty years old, male, not married, low income and black, would be at high risk of violent victimization because they engage in a great deal of public activity especially at night, spend less time with family members, and very likely associate more frequently with people who have offender characteristics. High-risk lifestyle: Siegel (2004: 60) adds that individuals with high-risk lifestyles which include drinking, taking drugs and getting involved in crime, have a much greater chance of victimization. For example, young runaways are exposed to street life, and the longer the duration of such exposure, the greater their risk of becoming crime victims. Similarly, teenage males have a very high victimization risk because of hanging out at taverns at night, since fights and assaults occur at places that serve liquor. Those adolescents who routinely engage in delinquency by getting involved in gangs, carrying guns, and selling drugs, have increased possibilities of being victims of fatal stab attacks and of being shot and killed. Further, lifestyle risks continue into young adulthood. College students who frequently party or indulge in taking drugs are at higher risk of being victims of violent crime than others who avoid risky lifestyles (Siegel, 2004: 60). Examples for lifestyle being the cause is seen in the fatal stabbing of three teenagers in a series of incidents in London. The Times Online, 27th June, 2007 reports that “A teenager was stabbed to death in North London last night, the latest victim of a wave of knife attacks blighting the capital. The murder of the teenager, who was white, comes after the shooting dead of Annaka Keniesha Pinto, a 17-year-old girl, during a fight at a bar in North London in the early hours of Saturday, and the fatal stabbing of Ben Hitchcock in a fight between two groups of youths in Beckenham, South London. Ben, 16, died when he was attacked by twenty youth after he and a group of six friends had been banned from a party. It is thought that he and his friends, members of a teenage gang called the Penge Block, were ordered to leave the party, possibly after a row over a girl. A rival group of teenage boys followed them and attacked with bats, bricks and bottles. Ben was stabbed and left dying in the street as the crowd fled at about 11.30pm. Fourteen teenagers aged between 13 and 16, were arrested in connection with the murder and released on police bail” (The Times Online, 2007). The above stabbing incidents reflect the risky lifestyles and gang involvement of the victims. Criminal lifestyle: A continued involvement in a criminal career is a high-risk lifestyle, which results in victimization in stabbing and other fatal attacks. Convicted as well as self-reported criminals are much more likely to suffer victimization than others who are not criminals. Those youth who were involved in gangs and carried a weapon, were up to four times more likely to become victims of serious crime than non-gang members. “About forty percent of males involved in gangs and group fights had been seriously injured themselves; and among females, about twenty-seven of those involved in gang or group fights had been seriously injured (Siegel, 2004: 60). CONCLUSION This project has focused on stab attacks on youth that are reported regularly in the media. The reasons why youth are the victims in most cases, have been identified and discussed. Current, relevant theories of victimization have been outlined, which form the basis for the causes of youth vicimization: juvenile delinquency, gang rivalry, racism, hate crimes, and violent and insecure conditions in the home making youth vulnerable to criminal environments,. Also poverty, economic disparity and absence of life satisfaction are highlighed as the theories which explain the reasons for a large number of stab attacks on youth. BIBLIOGRAPHY Part 1: List of References Cited In the Essay BBC News. Teenager dies in stabbing attack. 18th July, 2008. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/7512920.stm BBC News. Hundreds march for stabbed youth. 1st July, 2008. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7483776.stm Cuevas, C.A., Finkelhor, D., Turner, H.A. & Ormrod, R.K. 2007. Juvenile delinquency and victimization: a theoretical typology. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 22 (12): 1581-1602. Hashima, P.Y. & Finkelhor, D. 1999. Violent victimization of youth versus adults in the national crime victimization survey. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 14 (8): 799-820. Marcus, R.F. 2005. Youth violence in everyday life. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 20: 442- 447. Miethe, T.D. & Meier, R.F. 1994. Crime and its social context: toward an integrated theory of offenders, victims and situations. Albany: State University of New York Press. Mitchell, K.J. & Finkelhor, D. 2001. Risk of crime victimization among youth exposed to domestic violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 16 (9): 944-964. OFW News. 2008. Fil-Canadian groups slam ‘racist’ treatment on stabbing victim’s kin. OFW News Worldwide, 22nd April, 2008. Available at: http://www.pinoyoverseas.net/news/?p=363 Siegel, L.J., Welsh, B.C. & Senna, J.J. 2005. Juvenile delinquency: theory, practice and law. California: Thomson-Wadsworth. Siegel, L.J. 2004. Criminology: the core. The United States of America: Thomson –Wadsworth. Sunday Herald. 2008. Talented teenage immigrant stabbed in racist attack. The Sunday Herald, 27th June, 2008. Available at: http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1724307.0.talented_teenage_immigrant_stabbed_in_racist_attack.php The Sun, 2008. Race link to stab lad, 19. Sun Justice, 11th January, 2008. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/justice/article675344.ece The Times Online. 2007. Teenager stabbed in third fatal attack since weekend. Times Online, 27th June, 2007. Available at: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article1990729.ece Time & CNN. 2008. Japan reeling from stabbing spree. Time in partnership with CNN. Available at: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1812808,00.html UK News. 2008. Police probe another London stabbing. 20th July, 2008. LifeStyleExtra. Available at: http://www.lifestyleextra.com/ShowStory.asp?story=US2052006M&catid=7 Weist, M.D., Acosta, O.M. & Youngstrom, E.A. 2001. Predictors of violence-exposure among inner-city youth. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology, 30 (1): 187-198. Part 2: List of Reading Sources Not Cited In the Essay Abbotsford News. 2008. Stabbing victims were the aggressors. AbbyNews, 7th January, 2008. Available at: http://www.bclocalnews.com/fraser_valley/abbynews/opinion/letters/20523229.html BBC News. 2008. Student killed in street stabbing. BBC News Channel, 29th June, 2008. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7479850.stm Cairns, R.B. 1994. Lifelines and risks: pathways of youth in our time. New York: Cambridge University Press. ChronicleLive. 2008. Youth dies in stab attack. The Chronicle, 15th May, 2007. Available at: http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-evening-chronicle/tm_headline=youth-dies-in-stab-attack&method=full&objectid=19107580&siteid=50081-name_page.html Finkelhor, D. & Asdigian, N.L. 1996. Risk factors for youth victimization: beyond a lifestyles/ routine activities theory approach. Violence and Victims, 11 (1): 3-19. Howell, J.C. 2003. Preventing and reducing juvenile delinquency: a comprehensive framework. The United Kingdom: Sage Publications. McShane, M.D. & Williams, F.P. 1997. Victims of crime and the victimization process. Great Britain: Taylor and Francis. Rapp-Paglicci, L.A., Roberts, A.R. & Wodarski, J.S. 2002. Handbook of violence. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Reuters. 2008. German youth gets 7 years for German stabbing spree. Thomson Reuters, 23rd March, 2007. Available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL23578173 Siegel, L.J. 2005. Criminology. The United States of America: Thomson-Wadsworth. The Star. 2007. Three die in stabbing attacks. Toronto Star, August 23, 2007. Available at: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1812808,00.html Read More