Youth violence tied
to media, adolescence

‘We need to quit being so blase
about gun violence,’ a
UH expert says

By Debra Barayuga
Star-Bulletin

The high-profile coverage that shootings by teens get from the media may be driving the "copycat" phenomenon, experts say.

Since last October, a series of shootings where youths wielded firearms to lash out on school campuses has riveted the nation's and the media's attention.

"Kids see the media attention it got and see it as a solution," said Meda Chesney-Lind, University of Hawaii professor who researches juvenile delinquency.

For people who feel they have no control over their lives, "The drama suggests they may have the same kind of attention to their problems," said Chesney-Lind.

The latest school shooting in Oregon should serve as a warning that there is a serious problem with kids and guns, Chesney-Lind said.

While the public becomes more critical about the tobacco industry and its threat to kids' health, they should be just as outraged about the gun industry, the experts say.

"We need to quit being so blase about gun violence," said Meda Chesney-Lind, a University of Hawaii women's studies professor who does research on youth violence. "If these incidents don't push us in that direction, I don't know what will."

A day after he was suspended from school for carrying a gun, 15-year-old Kip Kinkel strode into a cafeteria at Thurston High School in Springfield, Ore., and opened fire. Police later found his parents' bodies at Kinkel's home.

The boy's sister, Kristin Kinkel, a senior majoring in speech pathology at Hawaii Pacific University, yesterday asked reporters to respect her family's privacy while they deal with this tragedy.

"She's just beside herself right now," said a friend and co-worker, Michelle Cournoyer.

According to Cournoyer, Kristin visited her parents for two days during winter break in January and hadn't seen them since. She hadn't seen her brother in a year.

Adolescents between 11 and 15 are at their most vulnerable because they're experiencing more physical and emotional changes than at any time in their lives, said Dana Davidson, who teaches classes in adolescence and early adulthood at the University of Hawaii.

These children worry about the changes they're going through and about the future. They react strongly and dramatically to things and are more inclined to fight and lash out. They're afraid of failing in school, failing to belong or make friends.

Youth experts call this stage "pseudo sophistication" -- when kids see a lot and seem to know a lot but don't have the wisdom and experience to understand, Davidson said.

Combined with fast reflexes and strong emotions, "If you have a kid who doesn't know how to deal with those feelings, then you have a real time bomb," she said.

Chesney-Lind said it's no surprise schools are settings for youth violence, because schools are a big part of kids' worlds. And it's no mystery that kids see the use of guns as a way to solve problems, because they are continuously exposed to television and movie images of young men resorting to violence.

"Young children don't have the cognitive ability to understand what shooting someone means. They're only seeing and imitating," she said.

Despite the recent slew of high-profile shootings involving American youths -- three in the last three months -- juvenile homicides are not on the rise, Chesney-Lind said.

A study by the Justice Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. -- in response to the Jonesboro, Ark., school shooting in April -- showed that the juvenile homicide rate has dropped by 30 percent in the last three years.

However, in the United States the number of youths younger than 15 who die as a result of firearms is 12 times higher than that of 25 other industrialized countries, Chesney-Lind said.

Parents who have firearms in the home need to reassess their choice in light of the recent shootings, she said. "They're deluding themselves if they think they can keep guns out of kids' hands."

Chesney-Lind said gun manufacturers know their products are getting into the hands of wrong people but aren't doing much to prevent it or have successfully blocked efforts to do so.

While mediation and violence prevention efforts are under way in schools, parents need to talk to their children about their anxieties and show them there are healthy ways to cope, Davidson said. "People have not been paying clear and close attention as to how real these feelings are and how dangerous they can become."