violence problems and solutions essay

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• Introduction

Types of violence

Causes of violence, effects of violence, prevention of violence.

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• Academia - Violence as an Essentially Contested Concept
• National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Violence: a glossary
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violence , an act of physical force that causes or is intended to cause harm. The damage inflicted by violence may be physical, psychological, or both. Violence may be distinguished from aggression, a more general type of hostile behaviour that may be physical, verbal, or passive in nature.

Violence is a relatively common type of human behaviour that occurs throughout the world. People of any age may be violent, although older adolescents and young adults are most likely to engage in violent behaviour. Violence has a number of negative effects on those who witness or experience it, and children are especially susceptible to its harm. Fortunately, various programs have been successful at preventing and reducing violence.

Violence can be categorized in a number of ways. Violent crimes are typically divided into four main categories, based on the nature of the behaviour: homicide (the killing of one human being by another, sometimes for legally justifiable reasons), assault (physically attacking another person with the intent to cause harm), robbery (forcibly taking something from another person), and rape (forcible sexual intercourse with another person). Other forms of violence overlap with these categories, such as child sexual abuse (engaging in sexual acts with a child) and domestic violence (violent behaviour between relatives, usually spouses).

Violence can also be categorized according to its motivation. Reactive, or emotional, violence typically involves the expression of anger—a hostile desire to hurt someone—that arises in response to a perceived provocation. Proactive , or instrumental, violence is more calculated and is often performed in anticipation of some reward. The American psychologist Kenneth Dodge found that those two types of violence involve distinct physiological states: a person engaging in reactive violence experiences increased autonomic nervous system arousal (i.e., increased heart rate and breathing, sweating), whereas a person committing an act of proactive aggression experiences low autonomic arousal.

Another method of categorizing violent behaviour involves distinguishing between predatory and affective violence. Predatory violence involves planned acts of hostile force. Affective violence is more impulsive and unplanned. Other types of violence have been suggested, including irritable violence (motivated by frustration) and territorial violence (motivated by intrusion into one’s perceived territory or space).

One point that all researchers seem to agree on is that violence is multicausal, meaning that no single factor is responsible for violent behaviour. Instead, violence results from a combination of factors, including those originating in the violent person’s social or cultural environment and those representing immediate situational forces. Researchers have examined multiple factors within a person that may contribute to violence, including genetic predisposition, neurochemical abnormalities (e.g., high testosterone levels), personality characteristics (e.g., lack of empathy for others), information-processing deficits (e.g., the tendency to view others’ actions as hostile), and the experience of abuse or neglect as a child.

Regardless of its cause, violence has a negative impact on those who experience or witness it. Violence can cause physical injury as well as psychological harm. Several psychological disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder , dissociative identity disorder , and borderline personality disorder , are associated with experiencing or witnessing violence. Other psychological symptoms, such as depression , anxiety , and mood swings ( see bipolar disorder ), are common in victims of violence.

Children seem to be particularly susceptible to the negative effects of violence. Those who experience or witness violence may develop a variety of problems, including anxiety, depression, insecurity, anger, poor anger management, poor social skills, pathological lying, manipulative behaviour, impulsiveness, and lack of empathy. As such examples show, some children may respond to violence in “internalizing” ways, such as by developing feelings of insecurity, anxiety, and depression, whereas others may react in “externalizing” ways, such as by feeling angry and behaving in an antisocial manner. Although some of the effects of violence may manifest themselves during childhood, others may not appear until adulthood. For example, abused girls are more likely than nonabused girls to have substance-abuse problems as adults.

Moreover, exposure to violence can increase violent behaviour in children. The American psychologist Albert Bandura showed that children often imitate violent behaviours, especially if those acts are committed by trusted adults (e.g., parents). Children also imitate violence shown on television and in other forms of media. Those exposed to greater amounts of media violence are more likely than other children to become violent adults. This is particularly true if the child identifies with the violent characters and if the child believes that media violence represents reality.

Because the tendency to behave violently develops during childhood, most prevention programs target young people. Many such programs are school-based, although some involve the family or the community . The most-successful violence-prevention programs are those that target all children, not just those who are considered to be at risk for violence. In addition, the most success has been found in school-based programs with committed and involved teachers and programs that include parent training.

A variety of programs have been developed to reduce or prevent violence in individuals who have already shown a tendency toward violence. For example, a number of prison-based programs attempt to reduce the likelihood of reoffending among violent and nonviolent criminals. Such programs often involve a variety of components. Violent offenders may receive training to improve parenting and other relationship skills. A mental-health component, such as substance abuse treatment , may be included. Job training is another common component of prison-based prevention programs. Occasionally, drugs such as antidepressants , beta blockers , or benzodiazepines may be used in addition to other methods. Overall, the most-successful programs for preventing violence are those that effect behavioural changes.

Gun Violence Must Stop. Here's What We Can Do to Prevent More Deaths

Listen to "How Communities Can Prevent Gun Violence," a Prevention Institute podcast episode

Time and again, we are heartbroken by the news of another mass shooting. Part of our healing must be the conviction that we will do everything in our power to keep these tragedies from happening in a nation that continues to face a pandemic of gun violence. It's not only the high-profile mass shootings that we must work to prevent, but also the daily death-by-guns that claims more than 30,000 lives every year.

We know that these deaths are a predictable outcome of our country’s lack of political will to make a change and an underinvestment in prevention approaches that work. Through a public health approach that focuses on drawing from evidence and addressing the factors that increase or decrease the risk of gun violence, particularly in communities that are disproportionately impacted, we can save lives.

Each time a major tragedy occurs, the discourse tends to focus on addressing a specific venue. In the wake of the deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School in Parkland, Florida on February 14, 2018, there is an understandable focus on school safety. We strongly support broad engagement of community members, including young people and other survivors of gun violence, policymakers, and others, in insisting that schools be safe. We must also insist on that same level of safety for our places of worship, shopping malls, movie theaters, concert venues, nightclubs, workplaces, neighborhoods, and homes.

We are listening to young people from all races, classes, and sexualities, in Florida, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and throughout the country, who are unifying to speak truth to power. We have renewed hope that, together, we can prevent gun violence— not just in the case of mass shootings but also in the case of domestic violence, suicide, community violence, and violence involving law enforcement. We first developed this list after the Sandy Hook tragedy in 2012. The public health approach has evolved since then, and we have now updated it, including more attention to addressing multiple forms of gun violence.

The recommendations below begin with attention to reducing immediate risks related to guns, broaden to address the underlying contributors to gun violence, and then address the prevention infrastructure necessary to ensure effectiveness. We also include recommendations related to new frontiers for research and practice, to ensure that we continue to learn, innovate, and increase our impact over time. The set of recommendations illustrate that one program or policy alone is not going to significantly reduce gun violence, but rather, through comprehensive strategies, we can achieve safety in our homes, schools, and communities. 

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS

Gun safety: Reduce the imminent risk of lethality through sensible gun laws and a culture of safety.

1. Sensible gun laws: Reduce easy access to dangerous weapons.

2. Establish a culture of gun safety.

• Reduce firearm access to youth and individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others.  
• Hold the gun industry accountable and ensure there is adequate oversight over the marketing and sales of guns and ammunition.  
• Engage responsible gun dealers and owners in solutions.  
• Insist on mandatory training and licensing for owners.  
• Require safe and secure gun storage.  

Underlying contributors to gun violence: systematically reduce risks and increase resilience in individuals, families, and communities. 

3. Public health solutions: Recognize gun violence as a critical and preventable public health problem.

4. Comprehensive solutions: Support community planning and implementation of comprehensive community safety plans that include prevention and intervention.

5. Trauma, connection, and services: Expand access to high quality, culturally competent, coordinated, social, emotional, and mental health supports and address the impact of trauma.

Prevention Infrastructure: ensure effectiveness and sustainability of efforts

6. Support gun violence research: Ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others have the resources to study this issue and provide science-based guidance.

7. Health system: Establish a comprehensive health system in which violence prevention is a health system responsibility and imperative.

New Frontiers: continue to learn, innovate, and increase impact through research and practice

8. Community healing: Prevent community trauma.

9. Mental health and wellbeing: Invest in communities to promote resilience and mental health and wellbeing.

10. Support health y norms about masculinity: Explore the pathways between gun violence and harmful norms that have been about maintaining power and privilege.

11. Impulsive anger: Explore the linkages between anger and gun violence.

12. Economic development: Reduce concentrated disadvantage and invest in employment opportunities.

13. Law enforcement violence: Establish accountability for sworn officers and private security.

14. Technology: Advance gun safety and self-defense technology.

FULL RECOMMENDATIONS for Preventing Gun Violence

Gun safety: Part of a public health approach to gun violence is about preventing the imminent risk of lethality through sensible gun laws and a culture of safety.    

• Sensible gun laws: Reduce easy access to dangerous weapons by banning high capacity magazines and bump stocks, requiring universal background checks without loopholes, instituting waiting periods , and reinstituting the assault weapons ban immediately.  
• Establish a culture of gun safety: As the nation on earth with the most guns, we must make sure people are safe.  
• Reduce firearm access to youth and individuals who are at risk of harming themselves or others . This includes keeping guns out of the hands of those who have been violent toward their partners and families, and those with previous violent convictions, whether through expanding lethality assessment and  background checks  or supporting  domestic violence bills , and gun violence restraining orders .  
• Hold the gun industry accountable and ensure there is adequate oversight over the marketing and sales of guns and ammunition . Five percent of gun dealers sell 90% of guns used in crimes, and must be held accountable to a code of conduct . Further, states can pass laws requiring sellers to obtain state licenses, maintain records of sales, submit to inspections and fulfill other requirements. Unlike other industries, gun companies have special legal protections against liability leaving them immune from lawsuits. There is a need to repeal gun industry immunity laws in states that have them, and resist their enactment in states without current immunity laws. Increasingly, in the absence of legislative action, organizations are divesting from companies that manufacture firearms, and consumers are pressuring companies directly. More and more companies are setting new policies about what they are selling to the public and/or who they are selling products to.  
• Engage responsible gun dealers and owners in solutions. For example, some gun dealers and range owners are already being trained in suicide prevention .  
• Insist on mandatory training and licensing for owners . This training should include recurring education to renew permits, with a graduated licensing process at least as stringent as for driver's licenses.  
• Require safe and secure gun storage. For example, in King County, Washington, public health has teamed up with firearm storage device retailers. In addition to safe storage being tax exempt in Washington, through the LOK-IT-UP initiative , residents can learn about the importance of safe storage, purchase devices at discounted rates and learn how to practice safe storage in the home.  

Underlying contributors to gun violence: Risk and resilience. A public health approach to preventing gun violence expands solutions beyond gun access to reduce additional risk factors associated with gun violence and bolster resilience in individuals, families, and communities.  

• Public health solutions: Recognize gun violence as a critical and preventable public health problem. Gun violence is a leading cause of premature death in the country. Yet, unlike other preventable causes of death, we haven't mustered the political will to address it. Gun violence is most noticed when multiple people die at once, but it affects too many communities and families on a daily basis whether through suicide, domestic violence, community violence, or other forms. Data shows that risk for firearm violence varies substantially by age, race, gender, and geography, in patterns that are quite different for suicide and homicide. Through a public health approach, we have learned that violence is preventable across all of its forms. The public health approach studies data on various forms of violence and who is affected and identifies the biggest risk factors and what’s protective, and develops policy, practice, and program solutions in partnership with other sectors and community members. Many communities and groups have adopted a public health approach to preventing violence such as Prevention Institute’s UNITY City Network and Cities United , a growing network of over 100 mayors.  
• Comprehensive solutions: Support community planning and implementation of comprehensive community safety plans that include prevention and intervention. A growing research base demonstrates that it is possible to prevent shootings and killings through approaches such as hospital-based intervention programs , the Cure Violence model , and Advance Peace . A growing number of safety plans across the country include upstream strategies such as youth employment , neighborhood economic development, safe parks , restoring vacant land , and reducing alcohol outlet density . Following the implementation of Minneapolis’ Blueprint for Action to Prevent Youth Violence , which prioritized prevention and upstream strategies, the City experienced a 62% reduction in youth gunshot victims, a 34% reduction in youth victims of crime, and a 76% reduction in youth arrests with a gun from 2007-2015. Yet too many communities lack the resources to do what is needed. We must commit to helping communities identify and implement solutions.  
• Trauma, connection, and services: Expand access to high quality, culturally competent, coordinated, social, emotional, and mental health supports and a ddress the impact of trauma.  Too often gun violence is blamed on mental illness, when in fact in most cases people who carry out shootings do not have a diagnosable mental illness. However, throughout a community, members often recognize individuals who are disconnected and/or otherwise in need of additional supports and services. It is critical to reduce the stigma associated with mental health needs and support our children, friends, family members, and neighbors in seeking and obtaining appropriate supports. For this to work, communities need resources to assess and connect individuals at a high risk for harming themselves or others to well-coordinated social, emotional, and mental health supports and services, particularly in critical times of crisis and high need. Further, trauma can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the life course, especially during key developmental stages such as early childhood and adolescence, and can increase the risk for multiple forms of violence . We need to do more to recognize trauma, develop trauma-informed protocols, including for law enforcement, and support healing and treatment for individuals who have experienced or are experiencing trauma, including from exposure to violence in any form.  

Prevention Infrastructure: Beyond addressing the risk and underlying factors of gun violence, a public health approach also entails building a prevention infrastructure with mechanisms for scale, sustainability, and effectiveness. The UNITY RoadMap is a tool to support prevention infrastructure.  

• Support gun violence research: Ensure that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and others have the resources to study this issue and provide science-based guidance. The CDC, the nation's public health agency, has long been restricted from conducting the kind of research that will support solutions to reduce gun violence. CDC can track, assess, and develop strategies to prevent gun violence, just as we do with influenza and tainted spinach. In the absence of sufficient tracking and evidence at the federal level, California launched the Firearm Violence Prevention Research Center at UC Davis, and other states are proposing to establish research centers as well.  
• Health system: Establish a comprehensive health system in which violence prevention is a health system responsibility and imperative. The Movement towards Violence as a Health Issue , which consists of over 400 individuals representing more than 100 organizations across the country dedicated to a health and community response to violence has proposed a framework for addressing and preventing violence in all of its forms. Moving away from the current, fragmented approach to violence that leans heavily on the justice system, this unifying framework encourages and supports extensive cross-sector collaboration. The framework includes 18 system elements such as public health departments, primary care, behavioral health care, law enforcement and the justice system, schools, and faith-based institutions, which together can move the nation toward safety, health, and equity.  

New Frontiers: A public health approach includes continuous learning and innovation to increase impact through research and practice. These emerging areas require further examination and are important additions to reducing the impact of gun violence in our society.  

• Community healing: Prevent community trauma. Community trauma can result from experiencing violence and it can also increase the likelihood of violence, contributing to a mutually reinforcing cycle. Let’s support healing and resilience through strategies that rebuild social relationships and networks, reclaim and improve public spaces, promote community healing, and foster economic stability and prosperity. Prevention Institute’s Adverse Community Experiences and Resilience Framework , provides an approach for addressing and preventing community trauma.  
• Mental health and wellbeing: Invest in communities to promote resilience and mental health and wellbeing. Mental illness is not at the root of our country’s high rate of gun violence, in fact, people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. However, we know we can do more to foster mental health and wellbeing in the first place . Through our national initiative, Making Connections for Mental Health and Wellbeing Among Men and Boys , with communities across the US, we’re learning that there are pillars of wellbeing that promote wellbeing which is supportive of efforts to prevent multiple forms of violence, including belonging/connectedness, control of destiny, dignity, hope/aspiration, safety and trust. We are also seeing community members come together to change their community environments to promote mental health and wellbeing, including as a suicide prevention approach.  
• Support healthy norms about masculinity: Explore the pathways between gun violence and harmful norms that have been about maintaining power and privilege. The majority of men do not perpetrate gun violence; however, the majority of people who use guns against others and themselves are boys and men. For instance, the majority of the mass shooters over decades have been men. How do expectations about masculinity in different cultural contexts that promote, domination, control, and risk-taking connect to distress, bias and discrimination, and gun violence perpetration? How do gaps in expectations of power and privilege versus reality play into this? Why does our dominant culture permit a destructive desire for power over others? Answering questions like these can glean important insights and help us move toward a culture of equitable safety.   
• Impulsive anger: Explore the linkages between anger and gun violence. More research is needed to examine patterns of impulse control, empathy, problem solving, and anger management across shootings, as well as interactions of these functions with the harmful norms described in the previous recommendation. Through a public health approach, we want to understand who is at a greater risk for violence as a means to creating long-term solutions to stop the issue in the first place. Further analysis may provide answers regarding particular linkages and what to do when functions are compromised.  
• Economic development: Reduce concentrated disadvantage and invest in employment opportunities. As Rev. Gregory Boyle has long said of his work in East Los Angeles, “Nothing stops a bullet like a job.” Lack of employment opportunities increases the risk for gun violence, and on the other hand, economic opportunity protects against violence. Promoting equitable access to education programs, job training, and employment programs with mentorship for residents of neighborhoods with concentrated disadvantage, especially young people can be effective in reducing gun violence. For example, a study of One Summer Chicago Plus , a jobs program designed to reduce violence and prepare youth from some of the city’s most violence neighborhoods for the labor market – saw a 43% drop in violent-crime arrests of participants. Further, neighborhood-based economic development strategies such as Business Improvement Districts that bring public and private partners together to invest in neighborhood services, activities, and improvements, have also been shown to reduce violence, including gun violence.    
• Law enforcement violence: Establish accountability for sworn officers and private security. Ensure that police and security industries examine disparities regarding who they protect versus who is most often harmed as a result of their actions. With this information, these sectors should develop effective approaches to reduce harm in those populations, including unarmed African American men and people with mental illnesses. Current approaches being explored include implicit-bias training , problem-oriented policing , and restorative justice . Moving forward, it’s important to determine and understand the most effective strategies.     
• Technology: Advance gun safety and self-defense technology. As the call for gun safety continues to increase, we must consider the role of new technologies . Just as cars continue to have new safety measures embedded in the technology, from fingerprint scanners to PIN codes and RFID chips, there are ongoing developments to increase the safety of guns and gun storage that require further analysis to assess effectiveness. In addition, technologies that are alternatives to guns are being developed to support self-protection to reduce the perceived need for a firearm for self-defense.

As our families, communities, and country reel from terrible daily tragedies, we must vow to change our culture and our policies and to stop this cycle of violence. We should be able to live in our homes, send our children to first grade, pray in our houses of worship, shop in our local malls, and walk through our streets and neighborhoods without being shot. Together we can take action in the memory of those who died and insist that this never happen again. Please take action and support changes like those outlined above to prevent gun violence.  

Learn more about preventing gun violence from other organizations and resources we’ve found helpful:

American Journal of Public Health

American Public Health Association

American Psychological Association

Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Everytown for Gun Safety

Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence

Harvard T.H. School of Public Health

Hope and Heal Fund

Interdisciplinary Group on Preventing School and Community Violence call to action

International Firearm Injury Prevention and Policy

Movement towards Violence as a Health Issue

Pew Research Center Americans’ views on guns and gun ownership

RAND Corporation

Smart Tech Challenges Foundation

Smarter Crime Control: A Guide to a Safer Future for Citizens, Communities, and Politicians.

Speak for Safety campaign for Gun Violence Restraining Order

States for Gun Safety Coalition

The Joyce Foundation

University of California, Davis – Violence Prevention Program

Violence Policy Center

If you have additional resources we should add to the list, email [email protected] .

Supported by a grant from the Langeloth Foundation

Related Publications

Prevention institute summary of recommendations to prevent gun violence, prevention institute full recommendations for preventing gun violence.

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How Should Americans Deal With the Problem of Gun Violence?

A tragic week of mass shootings managed to shake a nation where such horrors have become familiar. What, if anything, can be done?

By Jeremy Engle

Tragedy upon tragedy.

It’s been a heartbreaking and increasingly all-too-familiar week of mass shootings in America. What would be a rare horror in any other developed country is tragically typical here.

On Saturday, a gunman killed 11 people and wounded at least 10 others at a dance hall in a predominantly Asian American community in Monterey Park, Calif., as they celebrated the Lunar New Year.

Two days later came another deadly mass shooting in California . A gunman, who the authorities said was a 66-year-old man, killed seven people and seriously wounded at least one other person in Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco.

And on Tuesday, a gunman killed three people at a convenience store in Washington State .

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than three dozen mass shootings this year, killing at least 69 people .

What is your reaction to these deadly events? How has gun violence affected you or your community? What, if anything, do you think can be done to address this terrible but increasingly familiar epidemic of violence?

In “ A Smarter Way to Reduce Gun Deaths ,” Nicholas Kristof, a Times Opinion columnist, argues that we can’t eliminate gun deaths in the United States, but we can reduce them. He offers a “smart approach” to gun policy:

Once again the United States is seared by screams, shots, blood, sirens and politicians’ calls for thoughts and prayers. Two shootings in California since Saturday have claimed at least 18 lives, leaving Americans asking once again: What can be done to break the political stalemate on gun policy so that we can save lives? For decades, we’ve treated gun violence as a battle to be won rather than a problem to be solved — and this has gotten us worse than nowhere. In 2021 a record 48,000 Americans were killed by firearms, including suicides, homicides and accidents. So let’s try to bypass the culture wars and try a harm-reduction model familiar from public health efforts to reduce deaths from other dangerous products such as cars and cigarettes. Harm reduction for guns would start by acknowledging the blunt reality that we’re not going to eliminate guns any more than we have eliminated vehicles or tobacco, not in a country that already has more guns than people. We are destined to live in a sea of guns. And just as some kids will always sneak cigarettes or people will inevitably drive drunk, some criminals will get firearms — but one lesson learned is that if we can’t eliminate a dangerous product, we can reduce the toll by regulating who gets access to it.

Mr. Kristof offers a variety of ways to reduce gun violence in his essay. Here, he looks at how to keep guns away from risky people:

In many facets of life, we’re accustomed to screening people to make sure that they are trustworthy. For example, consider the hoops one must jump through in Mississippi to vote or adopt a dog:

How to vote

How to adopt a dog.

And now consider what someone in Mississippi must do to buy a firearm. For a private purchase from an individual, nothing is needed at all, except that the buyer not be obviously underage or drunk. For a purchase from a gun store, here’s what’s required:

How to buy a gun

Long arc of smoking-related deaths, smoking deaths have declined as cigarette warnings, taxes and public health restrictions have reduced tobacco use..

deaths per 100,000

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Deaths from firearms versus traffic accidents

25 deaths per 100,000

Motor vehicle deaths

Firearm deaths

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How to Identify and Prevent School Violence

Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

Ann-Louise T. Lockhart, PsyD, ABPP, is a board-certified pediatric psychologist, parent coach, author, speaker, and owner of A New Day Pediatric Psychology, PLLC.

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Recognizing the Signs of School Violence

School violence refers to violence that takes place in a school setting. This includes violence on school property, on the way to or from school, and at school trips and events. It may be committed by students, teachers, or other members of the school staff; however, violence by fellow students is the most common.

An estimated 246 million children experience school violence every year; however, girls and gender non-conforming people are disproportionately affected.

"School violence can be anything that involves a real or implied threat—it can be verbal, sexual, or physical, and perpetrated with or without weapons. If someone is deliberately harming someone or acting in a way that leaves someone feeling threatened, that‘s school violence,” says Aimee Daramus , PsyD, a licensed clinical psychologist.

This article explores the types, causes, and impact of school violence and suggests some steps that can help prevent it.

Types of School Violence

School violence can take many forms. These are some of the types of school violence:

• Physical violence , which includes any kind of physical aggression, the use of weapons, as well as criminal acts like theft or arson.
• Psychological violence , which includes emotional and verbal abuse . This may involve insulting, threatening, ignoring, isolating, rejecting, name-calling, humiliating, ridiculing, rumor-mongering, lying, or punishing another person.
• Sexual violence , which includes sexual harrassment, sexual intimidation, unwanted touching, sexual coercion, and rape .
• Bullying , which can take physical, psychological, or sexual forms and is characterized by repeated and intentional aggression toward another person.
• Cyberbullying , which includes sexual or psychological abuse by people connected through school on social media or other online platforms. This may involve posting false information, hurtful comments, malicious rumors, or embarrassing photos or videos online. Cyberbullying can also take the form of excluding someone from online groups or networks.

Causes of School Violence

There often isn’t a simple, straightforward reason why someone engages in school violence. A child may have been bullied or rejected by a peer, may be under a lot of academic pressure, or may be enacting something they’ve seen at home, in their neighborhood, on television, or in a video game.

These are some of the risk factors that can make a child more likely to commit school violence:

• Poor academic performance
• Prior history of violence
• Hyperactive or impulsive personality
• Mental health conditions
• Witnessing or being a victim of violence
• Alcohol, drug, or tobacco use
• Dysfunctional family dynamic
• Domestic violence or abuse
• Access to weapons
• Delinquent peers
• Poverty or high crime rates in the community

It’s important to note that the presence of these factors doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will engage in violent behavior.

Impact of School Violence

Below, Dr. Daramus explains how school violence can affect children who commit, experience, and witness it, as well as their parents.

Impact on Children Committing Violence

Children who have been victims of violence or exposed to it in some capacity sometimes believe that becoming violent is the only way they‘ll ever be safe.

When they commit violence, they may experience a sense of satisfaction when their emotional need for strength or safety is satisfied. That‘s short-lived however, because they start to fear punishment or retribution, which triggers anger that can sometimes lead to more violence if they’re scared of what might happen to them if they don’t protect themselves. 

Children need help to try and break the cycle; they need to understand that violence can be temporarily satisfying but that it leads to more problems.

Impact on Children Victimized by School Violence

Victims of school violence may get physically injured and experience cuts, scrapes, bruises, broken bones, gunshot wounds, concussions, physical disability, or death.

Emotionally speaking, the child might experience depression , anxiety, or rage. Their academic performance may suffer because it can be hard to focus in school when all you can think about is how to avoid being hurt again.

School violence is traumatic and can cause considerable psychological distress. Traumatic experiences can be difficult for adults too; however, when someone whose brain is not fully developed yet experiences trauma, especially if it’s over a long time, their brain can switch to survival mode, which can affect their attention, concentration, emotional control, and long-term health. 

According to a 2019 study, children who have experienced school violence are at risk for long-term mental and physical health conditions, including attachment disorders, substance abuse, obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and respiratory conditions.

The more adverse childhood experiences someone has, the greater the risk to their physical and mental health as an adult.

Impact on Children Who Witness School Violence

Children who witness school violence may feel guilty about seeing it and being too afraid to stop it. They may also feel threatened, and their brain may react in a similar way to a child who has faced school violence.

Additionally, when children experience or witness trauma , their basic beliefs about life and other people are often changed. They no longer believe that the world is safe, which can be damaging to their mental health.

For a child to be able to take care of themselves as they get older, they need to first feel safe and cared for. Learning to cope with threats is an advanced lesson that has to be built on a foundation of feeling safe and self-confident.

Children who have experienced or witnessed school violence can benefit from therapy, which can help them process the trauma, regulate their emotions, and learn coping skills to help them heal.

Impact on Parents

Parents react to school violence in all kinds of ways. Some parents encourage their children to bully others, believing that violence is strength. Some try to teach their children how to act in a way that won’t attract bullying or other violence, but that never works and it may teach the child to blame themselves for being bullied. 

Others are proactive and try to work with the school or challenge the school if necessary, to try and keep their child safe. 

It can be helpful to look out for warning signs of violence, which can include:

• Talking about or playing with weapons of any kind
• Harming pets or other animals
• Threatening or bullying others
• Talking about violence, violent movies, or violent games
• Speaking or acting aggressively

It’s important to report these signs to parents, teachers, or school authorities. The child may need help and support, and benefit from intervention .

Preventing School Violence

Dr. Daramus shares some steps that can help prevent school violence:

• Report it to the school: Report any hint of violent behavior to school authorities. Tips can be a huge help in fighting school violence. Many schools allow students to report tips anonymously.
• Inform adults: Children who witness or experience violence should keep telling adults (parents, teachers, and counselors) until someone does something. If an adult hears complaints about a specific child from multiple people, they may be able to protect other students and possibly help the child engaging in violence to learn different ways.
• Reach out to people: Reach out to children or other people at the school who seem to be angry or upset, or appear fascinated with violence. Reach out to any child, whether bullied, bullying, or neither, who seems to have anxiety, depression, or trouble managing emotions. Most of the time the child won’t be violent, but you’ll have helped them anyway by being supportive.

A Word From Verywell

School violence can be traumatic for everyone involved, particularly children. It’s important to take steps to prevent it because children who witness or experience school violence may suffer physical and mental health consequences that can persist well into adulthood.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing school violence .

UNESCO. What you need to know about school violence and bullying .

UNESCO. School violence and bullying .

Nemours Foundation. School violence: what students can do .

Ehiri JE, Hitchcock LI, Ejere HO, Mytton JA. Primary prevention interventions for reducing school violence . Cochrane Database Syst Rev . 2017;2017(3):CD006347. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006347.pub2

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Understanding school violence .

Ferrara P, Franceschini G, Villani A, Corsello G. Physical, psychological and social impact of school violence on children . Italian Journal of Pediatrics . 2019;45(1):76. doi:10.1186/s13052-019-0669-z

By Sanjana Gupta Sanjana is a health writer and editor. Her work spans various health-related topics, including mental health, fitness, nutrition, and wellness.

5 Essays about Gun Violence

Gun violence impacts every part of society. There are certain places in the world where it’s more prevalent. According to a 2018 report, the United States had the 28th highest rate of gun violence deaths in the world. That puts the US above other wealthy countries. Gun violence is also a major issue in places like the Caribbean, Central America, and Venezuela. Here are five essays that address the financial and emotional impact of gun violence, how people use art to cope, and how the problem can be addressed.

“What Does Gun Violence Really Cost?”

Mark Follman, Julia Lurie, Jaeah Lee, and James West

This article opens with the story of a woman and her fiance shot on their way to dinner. After being close to death and staying in a hospital for five months, Jennifer Longdon couldn’t move her body from the chest down. After more hospitalizations, the bills got close to $1 million in just the first year, forcing her to file for personal bankruptcy. More expensive hospital stays followed for problems like sepsis, while wheelchair modifications for her house added up, as well.

For many people, their knowledge of gun violence comes from the news or movies. These venues tend to focus on the moment the violence occurs or the emotional impact. The long-term financial consequences as a result of health issues are less known. This article examines the existing data while telling a personal story.

“I Think of People Who Died At Sandy Hook Every Day”

Mary Ann Jacob

In this essay from 2016, Mary Ann Jacob remembers the horrific elementary school shooting from 2012. She worked at the library at the time and recalls hearing shouting from the intercom on the morning of December 14. Believing someone had pushed it by mistake, she called in, only to have the secretary answer the phone and shout, “There’s a shooter!” Mary Ann Jacob lived through one of the deadliest school shootings in US history. The essay goes on to describe what happened after and the steps survivors took to advocate for better gun control.

“You May Not See Me On TV, But Parkland Is My Story, Too”

Kyrah Simon

In 2018, a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killed 17 students and wounded 17 others. Several students became vocal afterwards, challenging the lack of gun control in the face of such violence. They founded an advocacy group and many of the young people became household names. Kyrah Simon, a senior at the school, lost one of her best friends. She also wanted to speak up and share her story but realized that the media wanted certain speeches, certain faces. She writes, “I was just a girl that lost her friend. And it wasn’t enough.” Raw, honest, and enlightening, this personal essay is a must-read.

“Mexican Artist Transforms 1,527 Deadly Guns Into Life-Giving Shovels To Plant Trees”

In Culiacan, Mexico, the city with the highest rate of deaths by gun violence in the country, an artist and activist began a special project. Pedro Reyes used local media and TV ads paid for by the city’s botanical garden to advertise his gun-trading project. In exchange for bringing their weapons, people received electronics and appliances coupons. Reyes made over 1,500 trades. What came next? The guns were crushed by a steamroller and melted down. Reyes used the material to create shovels. He made the same number of shovels as guns, so each gun was represented as something new.

Turning guns into art is not an uncommon action. Reyes has also made instruments while other artists make sculptures. The transformation of an object of death into something that plays a part in fostering life – like planting trees – sends a powerful message.

“Forum: Doing Less Harm”

David Hemenway

What is the best approach to gun violence? David Hemenway, a professor of health policy and director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center and Harvard Youth Violence Prevention Center, advocates for a public-health approach. He believes gun violence is a public-safety problem and a problem-health problem, but gun lobbyists dismiss both claims. The gun lobby focuses on the shooter – the individual – so attention is diverted from the firearms industry. In focusing so much on who to blame, prevention is left out of the equation.

A public-health approach returns the attention to prevention and asks everyone to work together on the issue. Hemenway uses motor-vehicle injury prevention as a blueprint for why gun violence prevention can work. Not sure what prevention could look like? Hemenway provides examples of how actors like healthcare workers, consumers, and the federal government can work together.

Learn about the consequences of gun violence in America and which interventions are most effective to reduce gun violence in homes, schools and communities!

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About the author, emmaline soken-huberty.

Emmaline Soken-Huberty is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon. She started to become interested in human rights while attending college, eventually getting a concentration in human rights and humanitarianism. LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, and climate change are of special concern to her. In her spare time, she can be found reading or enjoying Oregon’s natural beauty with her husband and dog.

Take action: 10 ways you can help end violence against women

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Ending violence against women is everyone’s business. Here are ten ways you can make a difference, safely and effectively. The article includes links to useful resources and helplines should you be worried about a woman or girl's safety. 

1. Listen to and believe survivors

When a woman shares her story of violence, she takes the first step to breaking the cycle of abuse.

It is on all of us to give her the safe space she needs to speak up and be heard.

It is important to remember that when discussing cases of sexual violence, a victim’s sobriety, clothes, and sexuality are irrelevant.

The perpetrator is the sole reason for assault and must bear the responsibility alone. Call out victim-blaming and counter the idea that it is on women to avoid situations that might be seen as “dangerous” by traditional standards.

Survivors of violence are speaking out more than ever before, and everyone has a role to play to ensure they can have justice.

Do not say, “Why didn’t she leave?”

Do say: “We hear you. We believe you. We stand with you.”

2. Teach the next generation and learn from them

The examples we set for the younger generation shape the way they think about gender, respect, and human rights. Start conversations about gender roles early on, and challenge the traditional features and characteristics assigned to men and women. Point out the stereotypes that children constantly encounter, whether in the media, on the street, or at school, and let them know that it is OK to be different. Encourage a culture of acceptance.

Talk about consent, bodily autonomy, and accountability in an age-appropriate way to boys and girls. For example, discuss the importance of a clear “yes” from all involved, the fact your body is yours and you make choices over what happens to it, and of how we must always take responsibility for our actions. It is important to also listen to what children have to say about their experience of the world. By empowering young advocates with information and educating them about women’s rights, we can build a better future for all.

3. Call for responses and services fit for purpose

Services for survivors are essential services.

This means that shelters, helplines, counselling, and all support for survivors of gender-based violence need to be available for those in need.

Every year, the 16 Days of Activism campaign calls for united, global action to end all forms of violence against women and girls.

This year the United Nations, together with our partners, are demanding increased investments to end violence against women and girls.

Join us in calling on governments to bridge funding gaps to address violence against women and girls , invest in prevention initiatives, ensure essential services for survivors of violence are maintained, implement prevention measures, and invest in collecting the data necessary to adapt and improve life-saving services for women and girls.

4. Understand consent

Freely given clear consent is mandatory, every time.

Rather than listening for a “no”, make sure there is a clear “yes”, from all involved. Adopt clear consent in your life and talk about it.

Phrases like “she was asking for it” or “boys will be boys” attempt to blur the lines around sexual consent, placing blame on victims, and excusing perpetrators from the crimes they have committed.

While those that use these lines may have fuzzy understandings of consent, the definition is crystal clear. When it comes to consent, there are no blurred lines.

Learn more about consent .

5. Learn the signs of abuse and how you can help

There are many forms of abuse and all of them can have serious physical and emotional effects. If you’re concerned about a friend who may be experiencing violence or feels unsafe around someone, review these signs and learn about the ways to help them find safety and support.

If you think someone is abusing you, help is available . You are not alone. If you’d like to talk with a trained advocate at a helpline, we compiled this list of resources around the world .

6. Start a conversation

Violence against women and girls is a human rights violation that’s been perpetuated for decades. 

It is pervasive, but it is not inevitable, unless we stay silent. 

Show your solidarity with survivors and where you stand in the fight for women’s rights by oranging your social media profile for the 16 Days of Activism – you can download banners for Facebook and Twitter here . 

On Instagram, you can use UN Women’s face filter to spread the word and encourage your community to do the same. 

Use #orangetheworld, #16Days, and #GenerationEquality to start your own conversation about gender-based violence, or share some of the content from our social media package .

7. Stand against rape culture

Rape culture is the social environment that allows sexual violence to be normalized and justified, fueled by the persistent gender inequalities and attitudes about gender and sexuality. Naming it is the first step to dismantling rape culture.

Every day we have the opportunity to examine our behaviours and beliefs for biases that permit rape culture to continue. Think about how you define masculinity and femininity, and how your own biases and stereotypes influence you.

From the attitudes we have about gender identities to the policies we support in our communities, we can all take action to stand against rape culture.

Learn more ways to stand against rape culture .

8. Fund women’s organizations

Donate to local organizations that empower women, amplify their voices, support survivors, and promote acceptance of all gender identities and sexualities. 

UN Women works with women’s organizations everywhere to end violence against women, assist survivors, and secure equal rights for women and girls everywhere. Donate now . 

Find out more about how women ’ s organizations prevent violence against women and girls.

9. Hold each other accountable

Violence can take many forms, including sexual harassment in the workplace and in public spaces.

Take a stand by calling it out when you see it: catcalling, inappropriate sexual comments, and sexist jokes are never okay.

Create a safer environment for everyone by challenging your peers to reflect on their own behaviour and speaking up when someone crosses the line, or by enlisting the help of others if you don’t feel safe.

As always, listen to survivors and make sure they have the support they need.

10. Know the data and demand more of it

To effectively combat gender-based violence, we need to understand the issue.  

Relevant data collection is key to implementing successful prevention measures and providing survivors with the right support. 

Gaps in gender sensitive data collection have become more glaring than ever. Call on your government to invest in the collection of data on gender-based violence.

Find out at how UN Women works to bring about a radical shift in how gender statistics are used, created and promoted .

Originally published on Medium.com/@UN_Women .

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• Ending violence against women and girls

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Solutions to Gun Violence

This essay will explore potential solutions to gun violence. It will discuss a range of approaches, including legislative measures, community-based programs, mental health initiatives, and public awareness campaigns. The piece will consider the effectiveness of different strategies in various contexts, as well as the political and social challenges in implementing these solutions. Also at PapersOwl you can find more free essay examples related to Gun.

How it works

Firearms are one of the most debated issues in the United States. On the one hand are the people who demand and require more strict control in the possession and distribution of guns, and on the other side are the people who pressure the government to keep the laws as they are. Buying a gun in this country takes less than an hour. It is very sad how an individual can purchase a gun easily. It is unhappy because some people use guns to play and not to use it properly.

There have been too many doleful scenes in which a human being takes the life of others innocent creatures. If we really want to decrease the amount of terrorism, massacres, innocent people that are killed by a stray bullet and mass shootings in schools and public places, we must take action. The most effective and comprehensive solutions to decrease the problems of gun-violence deaths is to implant stricter laws; increasing the age of the people that can buy those; doing a deeply background check of the buyer; doing certain test to identify any mental illness of the purchaser; banning semi-automatic weapons and increasing more variety of punishments to those people that misuse a gun and for those irresponsible gun owners.

There are individuals who are using guns as a toy to destroy and harm others. There have been too many cases in which a human being takes advantage of the amount of people in public places, such as big events, nightclubs, schools and churches to shoot them without compassion. People that are sick and act without thinking what they are doing and the amount of hurt that they are causing to others. Nobody deserves to be killed by someone that enjoy taking away the life of others human beings without any concern, and that take advantage of the weapon that his has in its hands to decide when somebody is going to die. Folks that do not care about children when it comes to shoot. This is a big problem because firearms should not be used in this way. It takes away the life of many guiltless and defenseless creatures and that is not fair. It is a coward way to fight, hurt or kill someone. What do people gain by killing others for no reason? They must have some serious psychological illness that make them do this.

There are many ways in which these problems can be solved. First, by putting stricter gun laws, the cases of terrorism would decrease. By implanting stricter laws, the possibility of get a gun will not be so easily as it is right now. Second, by increasing the age of the people that can buy firearms, there would be fewer mass shootings in schools. A great example of why the age matters when it comes to buy a gun is because of the terrible mass shooting that happened recently at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Why a 19 years old student could have access to an AR-15 rifle? If there were stricter restriction in who can buy a rifle or a gun, that horrible tragedy would not happen, and those children would be still alive.

As Educators Morris, Charles A, MD, MPH; Miller, Jonathan B, JD. wrote, “As parents of school-age children ourselves, we can imagine, with horror, saying goodbye to our children on a nondescript school day and later realizing that those were the last words we got to say to them (Mar 22, 2018).” It is hard and sad to just think about it. Schools should have machines that detect any kind of weapons, like metal detectors, and infiltrate police to react quickly if something happen. Third, by reviewing deeply the background and the behavior of the purchaser, there would be less possibility that a criminal, or an individual with serious mental illness could have access to a rifle or a gun and misuse it.

Finally, not only doing background checks and analyzing the behavior of the buyer, but also have various penalty to punish these individuals when they make a crime using firearms as well as punishments for those irresponsible gun owners, for example, parents that do not have their gun locked and it is in a place where their children can have access to it and kill others. There are people that think they can play with these kinds of weapons as if it were a toy. People that are looking forward to hurting and destroy others human being. Folks that enjoy killing and that do not care about the life of others. So, these solutions are the best to prevent misfortunes and to minimize the cases of massacres, terrorism, suicides and the gun-violence deaths.

Researcher suggests that there are many effective solutions to solve these problems. According to the Director and Associate Professor of Bioethics, Sean Philpott-Jones, “…the solution is to enforce already existent laws that are designed to keep ?rearms away from individuals with certain types or degrees of mental ill-ness. This would include expanding the authority of law enforcement of?cers to detain those suspected of having a mental illness (Philpott?Jones, 2018).” Gun-violence is an issue that needs immediately attention. The solutions are already suggested, now it is time to act and to prevent unnecessary tragedies. As educator Sean Philpott-Jones emphasizes, “…the solution to mass shootings also needs to consider strategies that may reduce gun-violence in general. These include a variety of measures that many criminologists, lawyers, and public health experts believe are effective, including universal background checks; additional restrictions on the sale of ?rearms to violent criminals, known or suspected terrorists, and those with serious mental illnesses; and bans on military-style assault weapons, semi-automatic guns, and high-capacity am-munition magazines (Philpott?Jones, 2018).” If these solutions are implanted, it would not exist the possibility of gun-violence deaths. Students would not have to be worried about a possible school shooting and they would feel safer. People would not have to be afraid to get shot in big events or in churches.

The benefits of these solutions (shown above) are that it brings many positive results. First, the citizens of this country would enjoy any big event, nightclubs, churches, schools and more, without the fear of getting shot or killed. Second, students at school would not feel afraid of a possible mass shooting. Third, the massacres, terrorism and bad use of firearms would disappear. Finally, there would be people with serious mental illness in the right place and not trying to hurt, or destroy others, because life is not a game. And there would not be more deaths because of gun-violence, so the death by a gunshot would be minimized.

Some people argue that the laws “should be less strict” or that it has to “remain as it is”. However, it has to be stricter actually, because the fact that everybody can get a gun easily in this country is the cause of too many innocent deaths. The Congress is one of the principals responsible of putting these solutions to work in order to resolve the issues. As educator Edward W. Campion highlights, “For years under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Congress has been afraid to do anything about regulating guns, even those that are designed for mass shootings. What will it take to get some legislative action? A shooting of 1000? 5000? Such mega-horror scenes are now clearly feasible (W. Campion, 2017).” Professor Campion is totally right. What can be done to pay attention to one of the most important issues in the United States? This issue needs to be solved, and clearly one of the solutions is not putting gun laws less strict. In order to decrease the amount of tragedies that happen in this country because gun-violence, the laws should be stricter.

The comprehensive solutions to the problems of gun-violence deaths are stricter laws, changing the age in which an individual can own a gun; doing background checks to the buyers; doing psychological test to these costumers before buying a gun; and banning semi-automatic and assault weapons, and increasing the punishments to those people that misuse a firearm and for those irresponsible gun owners. These solutions are the best to reduce the amount of innocent deaths by a gun shot. The goal of these solutions is to prevent innocent deaths and to pay attention to those people with serious mental illness and do something about it. By putting in work each of these solutions, misfortune tragedies would be minimalized in this country and the issue of gun-violence would disappear. 

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Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions Essay

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Introduction

Community safety issues and their solutions, works cited.

The well-being and peaceful state of a society depend on the nature of community safety intervention measures adopted not only by law enforcement agents within that community but also by the society itself. This is because, although law enforcing agents or safety maintaining bodies, for example, fire stations may put in place measures to prevent the occurrence of accidents, health hazards and crimes, the overall role of ensuring such intervention measures succeed depends on society members’ willingness to cooperate with such bodies.

It is important to note that, in any societal setting occurrence of deviant behaviors and accidents is a common phenomenon hence, the need for a society to implement measures necessary to deal with such accidents and deviant behaviors any time they occur. Implementation of such measures is of great significance to a community for it helps to ensure that any act of deviance or accident does not disturb a society’s patterns of living, modes of operation, and peaceful coexistence (National Community Safety Network 1)

Primarily the practice of community safety entails the overall process of preventing, minimizing, or alleviating chances of activities occurring that are likely to jeopardize the peaceful coexistence of a society or threaten peoples’ societal rights. Besides, community safety involves the practice of offering assistance to individuals with specific unsociable behaviors as a mechanism of ensuring they cope with their mental and social conditions.

Depending on the forces behind the occurrence of such activities, such activities can be environmentally, socially, or politically driven hence, the need for cooperation between all individuals in a society. Through co-operation, a society can receive the desired guidance, funding, and help from governmental and non-governmental organizations hence, not only helping itself to combat occurrences of deviant behaviors but also helping the government deal with crime and other societal issues. In it important to note that enforcing community safety measures is a function of not only the local authority, but rather it involves all societal members, who include local authorities, academicians, and any individuals involved actively in combating crime and accidents (National Community Safety Network 1).

For communities to deal properly with any safety threats that surround them, it is of great significance for such communities to firstly identify any safety issues, which are of great risk to its existence. Through early identification of such threats, individuals can be able to formulate not only individual mechanisms of dealing with such threats but also it will give them a chance of collaborating with others and seeking higher-order intervention measures from local authorities. It is important to note that the practice of ensuring society is safe should be a collaborative activity because safety threats are not selective but, rather they affect the entire society in many different ways.

Domestic Violence

One primary community safety issue that affects society is domestic violence. Domestic violence is one of the primary safety issues that are of great concern to many societies. Since time memorial, although societies have come up with measures of dealing with domestic violence, this is one of the most unpunished crimes in societies because most abused individuals do not report their abusers to the authorities.

Globally, more than 40% of women deaths occur annually as a result of domestic violence; a number that increases with an increase in suicide cases associated with domestic violence. The majority of battered individuals suffer silently due to fear of intimidation, a fact that increases most battered individuals’ suffering hence, the suicidal tendencies of most domestic violence victims.

One primary reason why domestic violence is one of the primary threat to society is that, unlike other forms of abuse that cause physical harm, its effects are not only physical, but also they are psychological, emotional, economic, and of great harm to an individual’s sense of being. Perpetrators of domestic violence are many ranging from spouses, both nuclear and extended family members, and in some cases caretakers (Advocates for Human rights 1).

Although in most cases, most individuals associate domestic violence with adults, the practice affects young children very much, them being primary recipients of effects resulting from family breakages and problems. In addition to children, as research studies indicate, animals are not either spared when it comes to domestic violence, as some individuals sometimes vent their anger on animals. Primary causes of this form of violence include marital problems, alcoholism, and drug abuse; practices that pose may other security threats to the peaceful coexistence and integration of a society.

Therefore, because of the aggression associated with the practice, in most cases effects resulting from the abuse are very fatal and devastating hence, making it necessary for a society to have appropriate measures of dealing with the practice. Common effects of domestic violence include increased susceptibility to sexually transmitted infections, chronic pains, psychological trauma, and death, in most untamed cases (Pallito 1-7).

Considering the death of effects resulting from domestic violence, it is of great significance for society to work in close collaboration with local authorities in dealing with domestic violence. It is because, through close collaborations, chances of unreported cases going unpunished are minimal, as a result of individuals ensuring their neighbors have the required protections. It is important to note that, although men are victims of domestic violence, the majority of the sufferers are women and young children; they being the most vulnerable members of society.

Therefore, to deal with the problem adequately, there is a need for the formulation of prevention and early intervention measures necessary for offering the required justice to sufferers of domestic violence. Common strategies of dealing with domestic violence include formulating reporting mechanisms, offering training and education opportunities to the vulnerable members of the society, and offering the necessary support to victims of abuse. In addition to this, there is a need for the government in collaboration with organizations that deal with domestic violence to give employers guidelines necessary to ensure workstations are free from domestic violence and employee intimidation (Suffolk County Council 1).

Child Safety

Child safety is another community safety issue that is of great concern to any societal member. Children are the most vulnerable group to most crime perpetrators because, in most cases, they are easy to convince and lure into traps. In addition to them being easily convincible, with the current technological innovations and because of the availability of computers and internet connections in most homes, most children are victims of internet crimes, for example, bullying and kidnappings.

On the other hand, most school transport services are easily susceptible to gang attacks because of the lack of required security patrol systems in some communities. It is important to note that child safety encompasses all safety measures within and outside the schools and homes because even within school premises, there exist many safety issues that administrations should take note of. For example, in dealing with an emergency, an outbreak of a fire, or a deadly infection, a school must ensure it has in place measures necessary for ensuring it averts risks associated with the spreading of such a calamity (National Association of School Psychologists 1).

In addition to safety in learning institutions, child abuse is another society practice that greatly jeopardizes greatly child safety. As research studies show, more than 56 % of adolescents at one time in their life, they were victims of child abuse. Child abuse takes many forms ranging from simple pain infliction to the worst form of child abuse that involves child labor and sexual abuse in form of prostitution or asking for sexual favors from children. All these forms of abuse cause extreme suffering to children, and in case caretakers fail to recognize such abuses, the likelihoods of most children committing suicide are high because most of them lack mechanisms of coping with the pain (Matthews 1).

Globally, according to the World Health Organisation research studies on child abuse, more than fifty-three child abuse murders occur annually; more than two hundred and eighteen thousand children actively participate in child labor, and more than two hundred and seventy-five million children are victims of domestic violence annually. Appropriate children protection policies should safeguard children’s rights from their homes to school and in all activities children engage themselves in (Usborne 1).

Considering all these threats to child safety, communities have to engage themselves actively in the formulation of policies necessary for ensuring children receive the desired protection from any forces within the society that threatens their security. Right from homes to learning institutions parents, and should collaborate with local council authorities in ensuring their children receive required protection from gang activities or any form of abuse. It is achievable through adopting patrol security measures to safeguard children in their traveling ventures. Within the school’s premises, school administrations should implement measures necessary to ensure all they minimize all threats to children’s security.

Such measures should include the construction of safe buildings, constructing evacuation channels, and health methodologies of preventing the spread of infectious diseases in case they occur. In addition to these measures, it is important for parents in collaboration with school administrations to offer educational training and guidance to children. This is one of the primary mechanisms of ensuring that children are aware of the nature of security threats they are likely to encounter in their daily endeavors hence, minimizing the chances of most of them being victims of gang activities (Matthews 1).

On the other hand, because of the serious nature of child abuse, there is a need for all community members to take a central role in ensuring children receive the required protection. Although individuals report some child abuse cases, most cases of child abuse go unpunished, because some societies lack appropriate reporting mechanism, necessary for ensuring all child law enforcing agents hold all child abusers accountable for their crimes. Therefore, this makes it necessary for a society to have good and secure reporting procedures, crucial in safeguarding all children’s rights (United Nations Children’s Fund 1)

Gang Violence

Another community safety issue that greatly jeopardizes the well being of individuals in society is gang violence. Although the majority of individuals associate gang violence with joblessness adults, in some communities some students may be involved in gang violence, a fact that makes the scenario worse because most students follow mob psychology. Gang violence is one of the worst security threats to a community because, in most cases, most gang activities end with the loss of numerous lives and destruction of property.

It is crucial to note that most gang activities are well organized, and in most cases, criminals will target innocent individuals, for example, mothers and young children. Therefore, considering this, it is of great significance for societal members to work in close collaboration with law enforcement agents; it is the primary mechanism of ensuring the government meets their security needs (Bania 90-92).

Closely related to gang violence is prostitution and drug abuse. These are two other primary threats to a society’s security, because in most cases, as research studies show, there is a close relationship between criminal gangs, prostitution, and substance abuse. Considering the nature of outcomes from gang activities and the impacts of such activities on the societies, firstly, parents should ensure they monitor their children’s activities, for it may provide a mechanism of realizing early gang warning symbols, for instance, tattoos and languages. The monitoring initiative should go beyond the normal family monitoring to monitoring children’s acquaintances, a fact that is only achievable through close collaboration with neighbors (Veale 1).

On the other hand, at the communal level, there is a need for all community members to cooperate amongst themselves through community policing programs in addition to collaborating with law enforcement agents. This is one of the primary mechanisms of discovering the reality behind criminal activity hence, formulating appropriate mechanisms of dealing with such activities. For governments and local authorities to deal with criminal gangs’ activities, there is a need for authorities to formulate criminal activity reporting mechanisms that will ensure reporters and witnesses of criminal activities receive the desired protections. This is one of the primary mechanisms of reducing chances of intimidation from criminal gangs hence, a mechanism of ensuring individuals report all criminal activity (Veale 11

As compared to other community safety issues, fire safety is of great concern because of the destructive nature of fires. Fire hazards range from simple home fires to complex fire scenarios that involve vast tracks of land or property. Hence, considering the destructive nature of fires, there should be many governmental initiatives to sensitize the public on the importance of maintaining a fire-free environment. Such initiatives involve the need for all occupied structures and building to have fire fighting gadgets and evacuating tunnels necessary for fighting fires and avoiding dangers of fire in case they occur.

In addition to fire fighting equipment, there is a need for individuals to ensure their houses have working smoke detectors connected to fire alarms, necessary for providing early warnings of a fire outbreak in case it occurs. It is crucial to note that the availability of fire fighting and prevention equipment is of no use without proper training on how individuals should handle fires. Hence, to ensure every individual, including children, have the required know-how on fire fighting mechanisms, there is a need for all society members in collaboration with local authorities to develop training programs, necessary for ensuring all individuals have the required fire fighting skills (Direct government 1).

To avoid small fires from occurring or spreading as a result of carelessness, there is a need for individuals to learn fire safety rules for all electrical appliances and the necessity of fire retardant cloth ware necessary for avoiding small home fires. Finally, for homes to access the services of firefighters in case the situation goes out of hand, it is necessary for local fire helplines to be functional and to be known to all home occupants (Direct government 1).

In conclusion, regardless of any community safety issue, the overall role of ensuring a community is safe lies in the hand of community members. It is because it is the community members who understand problems that face them; hence, they can easily formulate mechanisms of dealing with such issues, even without the help of local authorities. It is important to note that community issues are inevitable hence, the need for societies in collaboration with local authorities to formulate appropriate methodologies of handling such issues whenever they arise.

Advocates for Human Rights. Effects of domestic violence . Advocates for Human Rights . 2006. Web.

Bania, Melanie. Gang violence among youth and young adults: (dis) affiliation and the Potential for prevention. IPC Review, 3 (2009): 89-116.

Direct Government. Fire safety in the home. Direct Government. 2010. Web.

Matthews, John. School safety tips. School Safety Institute. 2009. Web.

National Associations of School Psychologists. Tips for school administrators for Reinforcing school safety. NASP. 2010. Web.

National Community Safety Network. NCSN guide to CDRP/CSP working 2009: An NCSN induction guide for practitioners. NCSN. 2010. Web.

Pallito, Christina. Domestic violence and maternal, infant, and reproductive health: A critical review of the literature. 2010. Web.

Suffolk County Council. Domestic violence. 2010. Web.

United Nations Children’s Fund. Stop violence against children in communities: Safety tips-what you can do. 2007. Web.

Usborne, David. UN report uncovers global child abuse. The Independent . 2006. Web.

• Deviance: Social Problems of Youth Gangs
• Gang Violence: Discussing the Problem of Gang Membership
• U.S. Prison Gangs: A Threat to Internal Security
• Reporting Decisions in Child Maltreatment: A Mixed Methodology Approach
• Domestic Violence in Australia: Budget Allocation and Victim Support
• Workplace Violence in the Modern United States
• Female Violence Victim's Perceptions in Singapore
• Domestic and Family Violence: Case Studies and Impacts
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2021, February 3). Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions. https://ivypanda.com/essays/violence-as-community-safety-issues-and-solutions/

"Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions." IvyPanda , 3 Feb. 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/violence-as-community-safety-issues-and-solutions/.

IvyPanda . (2021) 'Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions'. 3 February.

IvyPanda . 2021. "Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions." February 3, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/violence-as-community-safety-issues-and-solutions/.

1. IvyPanda . "Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions." February 3, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/violence-as-community-safety-issues-and-solutions/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Violence as Community Safety Issues and Solutions." February 3, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/violence-as-community-safety-issues-and-solutions/.

Home / Essay Samples / Social Issues / Violence Against Women / Breaking the Silence: Shedding Light on Violence Against Women

Breaking the Silence: Shedding Light on Violence Against Women

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• Topic: Domestic Violence , Sexual Abuse , Violence Against Women

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