What causes a child to react hostile and/or violent?

What causes a child to react hostile and/or violent?

Prelude

Gang violence has become a number one concern that threatens public workplaces and/or public schools.

My idea is that we can observe the features of a kitten to learn what causes a child to react hostile and/or violent.

Empirical Observation

Observe the features of a kitten before and/or after it has been prompted with a threatening situation.

1. Before being prompted by a threatening situation, we may observe that each feature of a kitten appears relax or calm.

2. After being prompted by a threatening situation, we may observe acute change in each feature of a kitten that appears tensed or stressed.

Noticeable features

Noticeable features of the kitten will modify to a defensive or combat-ready posture (e.g. jaws tighten, claws and/or fangs protrude, spine haunches over, tail curls, hair stands up on its back, eyes squint etc.).

Real vs. Perception

1. Real is when a kitten is really under attack or is being harmed.

2. Perception is when a kitten perceives that someone or something is about to harm it.

Fight/flight Defense Mechanism

The hypothalami area of the brain controls our fight or flight defense mechanism. The latter activates our autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls the type and amount of painkillers, stressors or clotting agents that enter the bloodstream. These neurotransmitters will have side effects that either accelerate or decelerate motor skills.

Child compared to a kitten

Threat affects the hypothalamus of a child the same as the perception of being harm does with a kitten. The difference is that a child may suppress his or her feelings. Thus, the overt features are less pronounced in a child than a kitten.

A child who drops out of school and/or joins a gang

A child who drops out of school and/or joins a gang is harboring a hatred against society for allowing him or her to be punished or mistreated. Gang members lure the child with a false sense of security.

Harboring feelings through adolescence or adulthood.

A child may harbor feelings of hatred or anger through adolescence or adulthood. The hatred or anger may have resulted from real or perceived events that occurred during childhood. He or she may reflect back on his or her childhood with phrases such as: I hated my home and/or school (i.e. parents, teachers, principals or classmates etc.).

Society

Society, as a whole, may wish to consider ways to supplant the doctrine of punishment with rewards. Rewards may benefit reducing violence in public workplaces or public schools.

External links:

Wikipedia
Wiktionary

 

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Hmm, for thousands of years, parents and society punished children for wrong-doing and there wasn't nearly the same rates of youth-gang violence that there is today.

Perhaps parents in the old days had it right, huh? Punish the kid for wrong-doing, reward him for right-doing ...just like training a dog or horse or any other animal.

He knows he can do it and get away with it ...that no one will punish him no matter what the hell he does! Older gang members have begun to use underage kids to perform murders because our society won't punish them for it!

Yep, perhaps the old folks had it right in the first place. And I don't know how you can argue against the statistics, either ...thousands of years surely can't be dismissed so easily, can it?

Baron Max

 

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You have statistics going back thousands of years?

 

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It's called ........history.

Baron Max

 

Baron's pretty much right on this one, though sociologists today don't quite link the lack of punishment to gang behavior.

If parents punish their children (as opposed to abusing their children), then it shows the children they care about them. Joining gangs is widely accepted as a way for young people to find families that they wouldn't otherwise have.

The existence of punishment is largely a byproduct of good parents. Good parents punish their children for misbehavior. Bad parents don't punish their children, as they don't pay attention to their kids.

As a semantic issue, note that I don't mean punish as in retribution, but providing consequences to unwanted behavior in the children.

 

VIOLENCE... is natural.

controlling ones self from being violent... is something we are taught.

if we are not taught to be nice... effectively.

then we are likely to be willing to be violent as men.

its always the parents fault.... it was their resposibiblity.


but... since we dont live in tight helping hand communities anymore.. and instead live in cold unfeeling commercial sectors... its no wonder.


-MT

 

It could be the parents fault. It could be peer pressures. It could be a skewed perception of reality based on the persons general environment. It could be a natural reaction to the persons actual reality. It could be that the person is naturally hyperactive and maybe a bit stupid as well, which breeds frustrations that they can only express through violence or disobedience.

It's more than likely a combination of all the above.

 

its easier.... to drop out and join a gang... and have fun.
than it is to control yourself, and go to college.

parents... must teach their kids to want more out of life, and to have the strenght of heart and mind to controll their own lives and decisions.

if they dont...

the kid will often times... follow the path of least resistance... which is the problem.

successful people... dont take the easy path.

and once your on the easy path... the hard path... becomes more and more un-accessable... until at somepoint.... the person must turn completely around.. and go back, in order to start anew on the hard path.... and few ever want to do that.


they all... instead go forward on the easy path,. and hope for a bridge that will get them across to the path of success... without having to turn around and do all that work.

that is the fundamental problem.

-MT

 

And I think that comment is just one of many excuses that people make for those who are uncontrollable and/or violent ....and it's exactly that attitude which leads to the kids thinking (knowing?) that no one will punish them for any-fuckin'-thing they do! So why shouldn't they "have a little fun", and beat the shit outta some kid they don't like, or rape some girl they think is hot? See? We just continue to make excuses for the violent behavior, and never or seldom punish them for it.

Baron Max

 

Geez, Bells, even in agreeing with me, you type up a long, involved post! If you talk as much as you type, I feel sorry for your husband. ...you do still have one of those things, don't you?

Baron Max

 

The second i saw this thread name, i was almost instantly reminded of Happeh

 

Why do you see it as an excuse? I'm not trying to justify the reasons, just stating the obvious the way I see it.

 

Then why not just say that the little bastards reacted violently ...when they shouldn't have, and should have known better ...and should be punished for their wrongs? No, you made excuses for that behavior!

Oh, sure, you can call it whatever you want, but those violent little bastards did wrong ...and should be punished for it. If, after they've been punished, you wish to know why, then please be my guest. But don't make excuses for their behavior, it only lends support for the same behavior in others.

Baron Max

 

Who is disputing the fact that they are acting violently? Did I ever dispute it... did I?

The question of this thread is: What causes a child to react hostile and/or violent? And I gave the reasons. That they are acting violently or hostile, is a given... that's what the thread's about, so why should I say it again? If you could understand what you read the first time around, there'd be no need for all this backwards and forewards waste of fucking time.

I have already stated quite clearly that I did not make excuse or justify their behaviour in any way, manner or form, and neither did I make any suggestion that they should go unpunished (because punishment is not the subject of this thread), but you are obviously extremely challenged when it comes to understanding the message of the written word.

 

Conflict amung kids teaches them limits. Without learning this they can go right to lethal violence. Maybe they should be gin big cloves to get it out of there system

 

OMG, I'm soo glad that everyone agrees with the Baron Max in this thread.

 

all children exhibit some kind of violent behaviour, some more than others.
their behaviour is detirmined mainly how their parents deal with such behaviour.

children do what they see, if they see violence on television they will act it out.
if they see violence between their parents they will act it out.
a childs behaviour is shaped for their lifetime in the first 6 years.