Aggression and Youths

Violence and Aggression
Among Youths
By: Tawania Lyles Miller
Course: Psychology 325
Instructor: Andy Edelman
Date: November 14, 2011
　

Violence and aggression have been steadily on the rise for decades now. Every year it seems as if the ages of violators and perpetrators as well as victims are younger than ever. The media and the amount of time children spend on multimedia activities do have an influence on violence and aggression among children and teens.
I have two sons. My oldest is almost six years old, and my youngest is seventeen months. There seems to be much agreement that watching violence on television and violent video games contribute to violent acts among children and teens. I would like to see what the research has to say so that I can be better informed and hopefully make good choices about what I let my children watch on television and which video games I allow them to play.
This paper will cover aggression in small children and teens and factors that may contribute to violence among them, with the hope that if precautionary measures are taken to decrease exposure to violence among youths, then acts of violence and acts of aggression such as bullying among youths will decrease also. If nothing is done to impact the problem, one can expect it will not get any better.
      We all remember the worst massacre of students by students in the history of the United States. It occurred on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold were heavily armed and angry at the world. They walked into their school and went on a killing spree. When it ended, the two shooters lay dead, along with thirteen others; and twenty-three others were injured. This was only one occurrence of eighteen school rampage shootings that happened just before and after the beginning of the new millennium (Miller, 2004, p. 470).
Aggression has many faces, and everyone has experienced aggression at some point in their... [continues]

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