Theories of Social Violence Question Answers
Question # 1:
Answer:
Violence is a state or a pattern in which an individual express a particular behavior with the physical force intended to hurt the other people or person. Violence includes the intentions to hurt someone, damage something, or kill someone as well. Non-violent behavior is the pattern in which one accepts the oppression by someone else, or it is an armed struggle against the oppression. According to the concept of Gandhi, the non-violent behavior is the one in which one avoid being violent in severe circumstances with a positive mind and to win the heart of opponents (“BBC – Ethics – War: Non-violence,” 2018). Defining violence is difficult due to its unpredictable occurrences, such as bullying, abuse, harsh words, wrongs acts (Alvarez & Bachman, 2017) and many more. It depends on one’s nerves that how one can deal with the issues that leads him to the act of violence. For example, in one scenario, a child who is black faces bullying consistently during the school time by his white mates. This could lead to the act of violence when the acceptance level of the child will end and results hurting the white mates. Another example includes the usage of firearm violence which is popular in the United States (Monuteaux, Lee, Hemenway, Mannix & Fleegler, 2018). One person who consecutively faced abuse at an office, and not able to complain about it to the employers, leads him to distress and tension scenarios. Moreover, at the same time, the person is facing personal issues that are provoking him to a suicide attempt, and one day was bursting with distress, one attempted suicide. In this example, one person’s violence leads him to death. In both examples, people led towards the act of violence, and the severity of violence leads one person away from the nonviolent behavior.
Question # 2:
Answer:
Robert Merton provided his arguments for strain theory. In his viewpoint, society makes a culture of a specific goal similar to the American dream, and it could be any other. In this way, members of the society, work within the defined culture of community and also try to work in the achievement of certain defined goals (“Merton’s Strain Theory: Definition & Examples – Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com,” 2018). According to this theory, if any society is not able to provide better education, living condition, or job opportunities, then it might lead to distress and stress of the people. The stress results in five factors including conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion. In the general strain theory by Agnew, the concept of stress is the same, but it leads to the generation of negative emotions such as depression, tension, anger or any other violent behavior. These emotions lead a person towards the acts of crime (Brezina, 2017). The prison violence occurred in three different scenarios, including deprivation model, importation model, and the coping model. These all models are linked with the GST theory (Blevins, Johnson Listwan, Cullen & Lero Jonson, 2010). It provides a complete framework that explains the complete understanding of the misconduct and prison violence. The GST theory best explains the violent behavior and provide the reasons that led the violence towards the crimes.
Question # 3:
Answer:
Strain theories are helpful to determine the reasons behind the violent acts. Many times the needs that are not fulfilled blocked, or stopped and similarly the desires that are not completed leaded a person to act on violence and criminal activities (Alvarez & Bachman, 2017). Steven Messner and Richard Rosenfeld provided a theory named anomie theory of crime. In this theory, the social behavior of the societal members is related to their acts of crimes. The authors provided the fact that in the US society the violence is high to the presence of American dream in which people strive to work hard and when they failed to achieve the goals they consider that they should achieve their dreams by committing the crimes. This theory targeted the stress factors with the economic factors of the people. Later this theory, updated with the new strain theory presented by Agnew and named as general strain theory. In this theory, the author focused on several factors other than the economic factors that lead one person to the act of violence and crime. Three main factors are the ones that could raise the stress and strain level in a person. It includes the hindrances that occur in the ways to achieve a goal, a person is threatened by something, or something unwanted occurred or imposed on an individual that does not require by the individual (Alvarez & Bachman, 2017). So, in my opinion, the developed form of anomie theory, the GST theory best defines any act of violent behavior. It also includes deprivation model, importation model, and the coping model that shows a complete understating behind the prison violence and misconduct (Blevins, Johnson Listwan, Cullen & Lero Jonson, 2010). For example, one person who is facing financial issues, and have to support his six children, will face the state of depression. His store manager fired him on a small mistake, and there is no other way to find a job instantly. He needs to provide food to his children. Due to stress and the state of depression he is forced to steal a purse of women and buy food for his children with the money. The stress led him to a violent act and later committed a crime.
Question # 4:
Answer:
Many people like to watch violent TV shows, and in the modern world today, children are the ones who like to play the violent video games. Children age between 8 to 18 plays violent video games 1.2 to 7.5 hours per week (Alvarez & Bachman, 2017). The children are more fascinated towards the violent video games as compare to the physical sports. Children, who are aged between 8 to 18 are going through their age of learning. Their cognitive skills develop during the age, and they are more enthusiastic towards the learning environment. When children enjoy the violent games, then it means that they are promoting their behavior in the violent ways. For example, a child who likes to play a violent video game and like one game most in which one person hurts the several ones and accomplishes a mission. This will develop the mentality of the child that in real life, it could be possible to hurt the other people with the same methods that were used in the video game. The children who enjoy playing these games are the ones who became aggressive as compare to the children who do not like to play video games. The aggressive behavior emerges through the use of violent video games, and many times leads to the emergence of violent behavior of the children. The children who learn through the environment learn to hurt someone, act aggressively, and act violently through the consistent usage of video games. This could lead to the disastrous measures and circumstances in which the violence will lead the children towards the occurrence of crimes.
Question # 5:
Answer:
War on drugs is not new in the United States, and the country is struggling for many years on this issue. The war on drugs in the United States has failed, and it is time for a new strategy based on regulation. It’s been several decades since the United States is busy dealing with the issues and problems of drugs. In the country, there is a huge rate of drug users and drug addicts who are consistent users of drugs. The war against drugs showed no satisfactory results and every year tens of thousands of people die due to the overdose of drugs. The on-crime policies are implemented in the country to decrease the rate of drug users. The black markets of drugs in Mexico become the reason of numerous people dies on an annual basis which is an explicit representation of the failure of the government against the drugs measures. The rate of drug users does not have much decline for several years despite the fact that the government put numerous efforts to deal with the issues of war. The goal of the War on Drugs was to reduce drug usage and create tougher laws on not only suppliers but those using. Even though convictions of drug crimes have increased and there have been countless task forces to end large-scale drug rings, we are no closer to a solution than we were in the beginning. The United States has spent billions of dollars to eradicate the drug problem yet every day our streets and cities are filled with drug dealers and addicts. Over the years we have made some great strides in this war, but it’s a losing battle because even when you catch one drug supplier, another one pops in their place reaping the rewards from the competition. Our local and federal law enforcement agencies are also tainted as some within the ranks accept bribes and get kickbacks from major drug dealers to stay off their tail.
References
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BBC – Ethics – War: Non-violence. (2018). Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 30 March 2018, from http://www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/war/against/nonviolence.shtml
Blevins, K., Johnson Listwan, S., Cullen, F., & Lero Jonson, C. (2010). A General Strain Theory of Prison Violence and Misconduct: An Integrated Model of Inmate Behavior. Journal Of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 26(2), 148-166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1043986209359369
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