Conference turris::womannotes-v1

632.0. "Violence in America" by MAY20::MINOW (Je suis marxiste, tendance Groucho) Sat Jan 02 1988 09:26

The following is extracted -- without due regard to context -- from a
front-page article in today's Boston Globe.  The article is titled
"After murders, a look back" and discusses a recent series of family
murders in the Boston area.  I'm posting this both in Womannotes
(RAINBO::WOMANNOTES) and Soapbox (BETHE::SOAPBOX_1988).  Someone might
consider posting it in MENNOTES, which I don't read.

Martin.
------

Research has shown that most perpetrators of [family violence] exhibit
abnormal behavior from early childhood....

Unfortunately, these signals of trouble are too often ignored... Instead,
American society condones and encourages violence among its young -- by
tolerating parental abuse, by encouraging children to "fight it out on
the playground" and by "celebrating violence" on television, in music
videos, and by marketing warlike toys.

"Ours is a society that blesses male expressions of aggression and accepts
a great deal of violence as being normal,"  Said Dr. Eli Newberger, a
pediatrician at Children's Hospital in boston and an authority on child
abuse.  "Do you realize that between the age of 5 and 15 the average American
child witnesses the killing of over 13,000 people on television?" ...

Recent studies have indicated that certain behavioral patterns appear
in violent criminals early in childhood. ... as early as third grade.
"What they found is that aggression is as stable as IQ," said Ronald
Slaby, a psychologist at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and
Children's Hospital.  "The third-grader who is overtly aggressive is
very likely to grow up into the 28-year old who has a tendency for spouse
or child abuse or who is criminally aggressive." ...

"The violent offenders were more likely to perceive hostility on the part of
another person," Slaby said.  "They were less likely to seek out facts that
would change their perception that the other person was out to get them,
and they were more likely to choose a violent or aggressive solution without
considering other solutions."  ... [Slaby and his collegues suspect that
early intervention can prevent violent criminal behavior later on.]

"In some of the most violent male offenders, you often find deeply felt rages
at not having been sufficiently protected from sexual and physical abuse,"
said Newberger. ... One study of abusive men revealed a striking result:
Those who were themselves victims of violence in childhood were less likely
to become violent criminals than those who had watched their mothers being
beaten.

"Being exposed to your mother being beaten stimulates a tremendous fear and
rage in a child and an overwhelming sense of powerlessness," Newberger noted.
"and very often when kids feel powerless, particularly boys, they compensate
by doing things that make them feel powerful."

At the same time, children are barraged by powerful messages that endorse
violence on television, in music videos, and in the sale of toys that
simulate violence and other commercial products.

"Rock music extols physically and sexually destructive fantasies," Newberger
said.  "And then there's the pornographic posturing on MTV, the overtly
provocative costumes and the relationships on TV involving sex and violence.
Kids are exposed to a whole lot of this today.  Yet this is not the case in
other industrialized societies.  It is unique to the U.S."

------

    I wonder if being exposed to seeing one of your parents or siblings
    being emotionally abused doesn't predispose one to emotionally abusing
    a partner or other peer, or to either unconsciously seeking or
    tolerating an abusing partner or peer.