Understanding and reducing gun violence among young people in the US should be a top concern for the country. The current rise in gun violence incidents in inner city streets and schools is evidence of how social order and confidence have been compromised. Notably, the definition of gun violence includes both murders and assaults with a firearm. Additionally, self-harm injuries resulting primarily from successful suicide are included in the definition of gun violence. (Parsons & Johnson, 2014) Notably, gun violence also includes unintentional gun injuries that take place, for instance, when young children find firearms and shoot at their playmates. An important research body proposes that youth engagement in the most severe forms of violence is firmly connected to the interaction and overlapping of individual, peer, school, as well as community and family risk components.
Risk factors are classified as being able to increase the probability of youth violence, however, there is no specified risk factor or a combination of these risk elements that can foreshadow who will probably engage in any violent behavior. In any case, the more individual, compeer, family, community and school risk factors present in the youth's life, the greater the likelihood of youth violence. Since there is little research conducted on particular risk factors for youth gun violence however when discussing youth gun violence the risk factors associated with severe youth violence should be considered. Amon g the obvious risk factors for youth viciousness, violence exposure, emotional distress, alcohol use as well as peer misconduct have been specifically connected to youth gun violence. Of these risk components, the most grounded and most steady indicator of youth gun brutality is the history of violence or the exposure to any violence. The availability and accessibility of firearms increase the probability of gun-related violence among the youth. This paper will discuss the exposure to violence, access, and availability and personality traits as some of the reasons that influence youth gun violence.
Exposure to Violence
The research proposes there are a total impact of risk components across family, school, community, individual and peer areas that expands the likelihood of gun-related violence among the youth. The circumstances and events characteristic of the environment such as home, school and community have an impact on the advancement of the individual risk components. For instance, in a given year the United States’ reports about 60 percent of its youth are exposure to some kind of violence. (Parsons & Johnson, 2014) Exposure to violence encompasses direct exposure which involves personal victimization as well as indirect exposure which entails witnessing a traumatizing event. In the event that teenagers see savagery at home, in the motion pictures, in computer games, or in the city, they are more disposed to duplicate such practices.
Others, who encounter harassing or prodding, wind up plainly sufficiently chafed to start carrying on in requital. This can be another reason for adolescent brutality. Recent studies propose a critical connection between the introduction of weapons and shootings and psychological trauma. Violence exposure can also be associated with anxiety, depression as well as posttraumatic stress disorder. (Parsons & Johnson, 2014)However, these psychological trauma that is associated with the introduction to violence is frequently disregarded yet this is dangerous since most important indicator of future violent conduct for both male and female young adults is a background of violence.
Access and Availability to Firearms
Additionally, the access, as well as easy availability of firearms, is also a contributing factor in gun violence. (Parsons & Johnson, 2014)Some portion of what empowers young people to advance to all the more dangerous types of viciousness is identified with their access to and the accessibility of guns in their homes and communities. Youths who live in homes where guns are available however not securely put away will probably be included in some type of firearm brutality. Weapons have turned into a critical component in the murder and suicide deaths among high schoolers. Young people who have seen brutality in their surroundings will probably wind up noticeably required in assaultive conduct and convey weapons. Youth who live in risky hindered neighborhoods and have been presented to viciousness will probably convey weapons. Therefore, the availability of firearms increases the likelihood of being involved in youth gun violence
Personality and Behavioral Traits
Among the main personality and behavioral components that may foreshadow youth related violence are impulsiveness, hyperactivity, and attention problems and poor behavioral control. Anxiety and nervousness, however, are contrarily identified with violence. (Parsons & Johnson, 2014) As indicated by the Centers for Disease Control, youth violence can likewise be brought on by frustration because of learning disorders, attention deficits or emotional distress sadly the youth don't know how to suitably channel their dissatisfactions and act out in rage as a way of release. Further, violence in neighborhoods makes youths to fear and make them walk around with guns. Additionally, factors such as social rejection from groups have been contended to be a major causative factor of school shootings.
References
Parsons, C., & Johnson, A. (2014). Young guns: How gun violence is devastating the millennial generation. Center for American Progress.
