|
Why Teenagers Turn to Violence
Page Three
7. Teenagers who kill have lost hope for any enjoyable, meaningful life
We see this rampant in ghetto areas and among gang members who will cavalierly shoot another human being as an initiation rite. Feeling cut off from the larger society, hopeless about ever getting ahead in life, and with nothing much to live for, they see no reason not to steal or kill or participate in a drive-by shooting. Many of these teenagers simply do not expect to live beyond their twenties so when you try to dialogue with them, they don't really seem to worry about dying. They have no hope anyway.
They have given up the dream of a better life. They have given up hope that their parents and other significant people in their lives will understand. And they have given up hope that they will ever be happy. Some school murderers even plan to kill themselves at the end of their murderous rampage. They have absolutely no additional desire to live.
8. Having lost all hope for a decent life, many violent teenagers no longer care
After years of feeling different and unloved, they have now given up hope. They no longer care about themselves, others, or the consequences of their actions. The only way they know to mask their hidden hurts and their longings to be held, known, and loved is to quit caring. So, after hundreds or even thousands of times at being ignored or hurt or misunderstood, they can't stand the pain of trying to connect again. So they mask their last vestiges of human love and concern, put on a tough, uncaring front, devalue all of life, and choose to leave at least one mark on this world, even if it is tragically hurtful for others.
9. Many violent teenagers live in subcultures that don't value human life
Although topics like euthanasia and abortion repeatedly point to a decline in the perceived value of human life, the problem actually goes much deeper. Millions of people in America scarcely value human life at all. As our culture becomes less Christian, people increasingly lose the only solid foundation for a sense of dignity, worth and value. Instead of seeing every person as created in the image of God, many now see themselves and others as chance beings in a meaningless universe.
When this devaluing of human life is combined with spiritual lost-ness, despair about the future, an incapacity to love or feel love from another human, you can see why some might turn to murder. They are depressed. They don't value human life. They have no meaning or purpose. They have no hope. And they have no deep feelings of love and concern for others. So why not lash out and kill? The life of another human being means nothing to them, and neither does their own.
10. There are often precipitating factors that lead to adolescent violence
Sometimes violence is triggered merely by children becoming old enough to gain access to a gun and the ability to plan and execute their violent fantasies. Other times, acquaintances and family members recall significant changes in the mood, friends, clothing, or use of alcohol and drugs in the months leading up to the violent outbursts. A Southern California student who recently killed himself had been a top school student until the year before he committed suicide. Then his grades fell, he changed his friends, and he began using and selling drugs. Apparently, he had felt sad and confused for years. When being a straight A student did not bring him any satisfaction, he turned to drugs, negative peers, and increasing rebellion. The drugs and peer influence added fuel to the fire of his smoldering anger. Then, when he was caught with drugs on campus, he violently ended his own life.
 Violence can also be triggered
by the loss
of a loved one,
most likely a girlfriend.
This pattern of long-standing inner sadness and emotional isolation from friends and family, followed by increasing withdrawal or association with counterculture or fringe friends, along with actual or perceived ridicule or alienation from peers, often becomes a deadly mix. During the year before the Colorado massacre, for example, the potential murderers had adopted the long hair and black clothing of the "Gothic" look, clearly identifying themselves as being profoundly against their culture. By joining a group of similarly disaffected youth, they found one place to belong. But their friends only added to their disdain and hatred of others. More and more, they were on the receiving end of ridicule from other students because of their fringe attitudes, dress and actions. Consequently, they decided to gain revenge.
Violence can also be triggered by the loss of a loved one, most likely a girlfriend. When a teenage boy, who deep down feels unlovable, finds someone who cares for him, he is like a starving man who has just found food and water. But in time she tires of his attention and may even become troubled by his possessiveness, moodiness, or other aspects of his personality. When she breaks off the relationship, it is more than he can handle. He feels abandoned, depressed and alone. He is enraged that his sole support would abandon him.
The combination of depression, rejection and revenge apparently were the major motives when a seventeen-year-old Mississippi student went on a shooting spree and murdered his mother, his ex-girlfriend and one of her friends in 1997. After the killings, the student seemed genuinely remorseful. He sobbed and apologized and said, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry," and then told how devastated he was when his girlfriend broke up with him. He said, "I didn't eat. I didn't sleep. I didn't want to live. It destroyed me."
Notice that he said, "It destroyed me." That telling comment reflects one of the best ways of understanding the mind of teenage killers. They feel they have been destroyed by life. Murder is their way of getting justice. Since they feel psychologically and emotionally destroyed, they want to destroy others.
The average child sees over 10,000
murders on
television before he
graduates from high school.
Murdering someone you love because that person rejects you seems senseless to most of us. When we love someone, why would we want to hurt or kill that person? But the potential murderer is thinking and feeling on a different level. His "love" is more "need" than love. His focus is on being loved and receiving love, not on being a loving person. And his focus is on himself, not his girlfriend. Consequently, when she breaks off the relationship, his true feelings come out. He was in the relationship for what he was receiving, not for what he was giving or for mutual love. And when he no longer receives it, he is so hurt and resentful and so convinced that he will never have another love that he strikes out in rage. Again, he feels destroyed so he destroys.
11. Finally, we live in a society where violence has become an accepted part of our entertainment industry and an acceptable way to solve conflicts
What can we say when the average child sees over 10,000 murders on television before he graduates from high school? And what can we say when nearly every day we can pick up a local newspaper, or turn on the television and receive reports of one murder after another at home and thousands of deaths by violence abroad? The accumulation of these television murders, violent films, and daily reporting of death leave their impact. We become accustomed to violent death. All of us become somewhat inoculated to tragedy until it comes to our own doorstep. But for troubled teenagers who are already prone to violence, this deadening of caring removes one of the last barriers to carrying out their angry, vengeful fantasies. In fact, rage music, murderous films and violent video games can not only give disturbed minds permission to kill-they even provide ideas and practice in how to do it.
 Continued on Page Four
|
