What I researched and why?
After our class discussion about “Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore” greatly intrigued by the notion that childhood is now in a crisis. Is this true; are kids behaving much worse? Although there are many different ways to look at this idea, such as media trends, educational trends, and so on, I was more interested in looking at crime rates.
What I found:
For some reason I was expecting to see a great increase in crime rates, and I was actually greatly surprised to find the exact opposite. Here’s a report on juvenile crime by the Department of Justice: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/191031.pdf. <’a>. It was pretty difficult for me to find more recent trends, but I did manage to find some statistics for 2003: http://www.ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/ojstatbb/nr2006/downloads/chapter5.pdf <’a>. Also, here is an article by the Office of Child Development here at Pitt: http://www.education.pitt.edu/ocd/publications/backgrounds/31.pdf<’a>.
Some of these statistics may be a little misleading because crime greatly increased in the 80s to the 90s. However I think it is more relevant to look at the more current trends. From these graphs we can see that the time around 1993 marked a peak in the number of crimes. After that year, we are able to see an extremely rapid decline in the majority of crimes committed by juveniles including, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, various types of theft, arson, and murder.
My interpretation/ what this adds to our discussion:
In class, we were discussing how the innocence of childhood, seen in Tom and Huck, has slowly begun to disappear. In “Tom and Huck Don’t Live Here Anymore” Powers talks about how children have become increasingly more violent. While I do strongly agree that the media is becoming more violent, I would have to disagree with the notion that children themselves are becoming more violent. I find it odd that his book was published in 2001 while juvenile crimes were on the decline.
If children are, indeed, in a crisis, then what is the cause? Poor parenting? The media? Morals? I would like to gain some insight into what other think of this.
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11 comments:
I feel that the childhood in crisis is sort of like a spectrum. Society in centuries past used to be a pretty strict thing in my opinion. It seemed that when people did wrong, they got the maximum punishment. As society became more passive and relaxed, it and childhood as well seemed to get worse. It's represented in the degredation of morals and heirarchies and just simply the media making violence more accessible to children, that the quality of childhood seems to decline as well. I feel that children are still innocent from birth until they experience violent or bad things in the outside world. When they commit crimes when they are young, I feel that children really don't know what they are doing and the consequences that come with it. Like we were saying in class, it seems that children are so sheltered that they don't realize the bad things that are out there in the world. It's ironic actually that we are shielding our children from the bad in the world, but by doing that we seem to be causing much more harm. Overall, I just feel that the explanation for "bad" kids is in the problems of a modern and apathetic society and maybe even lax parenting.
From personal observation, I think some of the reason is credited to lax parenting.
I used to work in a Wal-mart's toy department, so I have plenty of "horror stories" of a certain spectrum of children.
The majority of the opinion of parents was that the toy department was the place to leave your children while you shop. It seemed that we were not so much a part of a department store, but a playground. Kids would run through the aisles, not speaking in "indoor voices", try to open merchandise, try to destroy merchandise, sit in the middle of aisles, etc.
Meanwhile, the number one question was, "where are your parents?". The ones who would actually answer us told us they had no idea, that they were to wait there.
Meanwhile, when parents would be with them, many times the parents had little to no influence over them. If the child knocked something off the shelf, they would not tell the child to pick it up. Either they did it for them, or (mostly) they left it too, figuring that's what sales associates are for.
I could go on and on and on and on and on... *sigh*
I think that access to the media plays a large role in the "decline" in childhood. I think that children might not necessarily be more violent than they were before, but that violence is just shown more in the media. The news has become more and more depressing, and I usually opt to watch something more pleasant when it is on TV. But as Mark says, I do think that more lax parenting also has a lot to do with the "childhood in crisis" dilemma. In today's society, most parents are so busy and rushed that they do not even give thought to their children. Instead of dealing with their temper tantrums in a store, they pawn them off on the toy section so that they can get a moment of peace while they are shopping. This selfishness on the parent's part is detrimental to the children, because without parental guidance, it is very difficult to discern right from wrong. I do believe that children do not have the ability to completely understand their actions, and they do not fully understand death or injury. Because children are exposed to violent situations in the media every day, they may become desensitized to it, and do not realize that it is a dangerous fact of life, with real consequences.
Katilin, on your experiences in Wal-Mart, I know exactly what you're talking about. I worked in a small town Dollar General and we would have kids come in by themselves (without any parents) and they would trash the aisles daily. But anyway, I often feel like what's going on with kids is a mix of over-sheltering them from real violence and death and over-exposing them to television or imaginary death. Kids don't see what actually happens to someone when they get shot, they only see what the tv-shows show happened. I grew up with men who hunted, so I knew before I was in school what a bullet will do to a deer or game and by association what it would do to another person. A lot of kids have never seen death outside of the neat and tidy death scenes they show on TV and movies. On TV, in a show like CSI for example, they show abstract clips of still forms on the floor, later they show the body, but the person really looks like they're asleep with colors painted on them for wounds. I think that a lot of kids are not being shown the connection between real violence and real consequences, only images they see on TV.
It's amazing to me the power media holds. I think it's definitely worth looking into, is it true our youth is tumbling down an awful spiral of immorality, violence, has the "Tom and Huck" way of life died? I don't think so, I just think we hear more about the instances where it is the case.
Honestly though, I have to do more research on the topic, a lot more research, it just seems to me that throughout history, or in different parts of the world, these things take place all the time. I don't like that that is the way it is, and I hope to do my part in stopping it somehow, but with t.v., magazines, movies, etc. available to everybody, it's unfortunate fear is what people are trying to distribute through these venues.
I think it's interesting that "Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore" uses some examples of "children" who are 15-16 years old. I have a hard time considering someone of this age to be truly a child (maybe a young adult...?), and many other/past societies would consider a person of this age to be fully mature.
I don't think this negates the importance of our modern conception of "childhood" being in crisis, but it's just another way we might be exaggerating/creating a crisis by changing our own definition of childhood...
I wonder, because of course, I don't know very much about ACTUAL childhood in the past. I mean, it seems to me that every generation has talked about the decline of childhood. Whether it be about the "rock and roll music" in the 50s and 60s, or the "grunge music" in the 90s...every generation of youths has had their own culture and customs which has made adults feel as though childhood was on the decline. If we're looking at childhood now and saying that video games and the media are the reason why childhood is in "crisis," I wonder if todays children will look back and think the same thing...that "grunge" music really wasn't the downfall of children and youths, neither were video games...and they will have a new reason why "childhood is in crisis."
I also noticed that some of the "children" in "Tom and Huck Don't Live Here Anymore" were in their mid to late teens. Also, many children who commit violent crimes come from abusive situations of some sort. This really makes me think that it's our idea of childhood that's in crisis, and that's why these stories seem so sensational. Our expectations of what children should and should not experience are what make us react to strongly to violence during childhood. It is unsettling for us to see our expectations challenged, even though it is only rational that a child with such horrible experiences would react violently. So, while I do think there is a crisis, I also think that we should examine exactly what the crisis is a bit more closely before trying to take action.
I do not believe that childhood is in crisis exactly. If anything, I believe that the children may be going through a crisis. In the media and news today, there is violence everywhere. Children can not hide from it. The role of parents also comes into play. Many children are not being cared for enough, which may lead the child to a life of crime. Even if it is not a life of crime, most children who do not have a strong role of parents tend to suffer in some way or another. If people were to say that childhood is in crisis, they need to look at the surrounding factors and not just the children themselves.
I am not sure that I agree that this childhood in crisis idea is a new development. I do not think there is a way to pinpoint the issue or when or where it began. I think it has always existed. I think there has always been those parents who just were not cut out to do their job. Ask your parents and grandparents. Trust me they will tell you they knew of parents like this in "their day." I think that children are no more in crisis today than the were 50 years ago. I think that we hear about it more, that's for sure, but that is only because of the increase in technology. There are parents who care, I know plenty. There are parents who do not care. I know plenty of those as well. I am 21-years-old and my parents always know where I am. Not because they need to know or even because they ask, but because I tell them everything. I am just so use to it because I did it for my entire life. I talk to them daily and adore them. Is that lax parenting? I don't think so!
I found it interesting that although we view childhood as being in a crisis due to rampant violent behavior, statistics do not support this. The reason I believe the concept of childhood in crisis exists, is because our society has been fooled into believing that violent behavior is outside of childrens possible behavior. I believe this and am constantly surprised when I hear of children as perpetrators of violence.
Aside from this, in response to Erica's questions, I believe that a child's environment is a top cause of the violent behavior exhibited by children. Children lead by example, and if they are constantly subjected to violence without any guidance from an adult in their life, then I believe children will behave violently.
Children are still developing and to exhibit violent behavior at such a young age leads me to believe that childhood is in crisis. While statistics do not support the high rate of bad behavior, the fact of the matter is children are still choosing violent means as a way to solve their problems when they don't even have the capacity to understand what their behavior is getting them into. That is a crisis.
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