1. "You Can Never Control Violence. I Mean, Some Things Just Happen": Youth Talk About Violence in their Everyday Lives.
- Author
-
Waldron, Linda M.
- Subjects
YOUTH & violence ,ADOLESCENT psychology ,ADOLESCENT health ,POPULAR culture ,SCHOOL violence - Abstract
By the time youth reach high school, they have often experienced violence personally, witnessed it, or for some, committed it in their own neighbhoorhoods, homes, or school systems. Although statitics speak volumes to the "larger picture" of the culture of violence, they do not reveal how teens come to understand violence, nor do they reveal how teens deal with the violence they experience. This is a qualitative research project that compliments telling statistics on youth violence. Interviews were conducted with youth at two suburban high schools in the aftermath of the Columbine High School tragedy. This paper reveals that youth tend to understand violence as inevitable and out of contol, and they look to individualistic explanations for violence. In many regards, their understandings of violence resonate with mainstream media accounts of youth violence. This paper further interrogates the connections between the media, youth, and their understandings of violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005