Cause and effect: The Vicious Cycle of Violent Inner City Crime

[Pandamonium]

How is affordable child care is necessary to stop the vicious cycle of violent inner city crime. Please elaborate

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Economic independence. Means what exactly? We already discussed the fact that unfortunately tax revenue has a lot to do with the quality of education in a particular school district. What could be done to change this?

The majority of those in the work force have no control over the days/hours that they work. There are no “sick days”. Therefore, the inability to obtain flexible affordable child care contributes to a myriad of problems specifically related to poverty which in turn relate to crime:
1. It can and does keep people out of the workforce. If one cannot obtain money legitimately there is the more opportunity and a basis for reasoning to obtain it utilizing illegal methods. (Crime).
2. Children are left home alone and, subsequently, picked up by Department of Family Services and placed in foster care. The difference between poverty and neglect is that neglect is a choice.
3. An older child will often care for younger siblings while the mother or guardian is at work. This means that the older child may be trdy to a first hour class repeatedly because he/she ahs taken the younger siblings to school. Excessive tardiness leads to failure of a class or suspensions. If an elementary school has half days or days that they are closed that do not coincide with the middle or high school then the older sibling will stay home to care for those children. This teen may receive suspensions. This teen may fall farther behind. This teen may drop out. This may result in a Truancy charge which means entry into the system. This teen may also wind up in a juvenile correctional facility were they will most definitely make new friends.
Teens that become pregnant are more likely to drop out of school. One of the reasons for dropping out is inability to obtain flexible affordable child care. Again, we have already noted the role education plays in poverty and that there is a correlation between poverty and crime.
There are instances where a child may be raised within the family and extended family is relied on. This can and does work out exceptionally well. The nuclear family is not a universal concept. This is something that needs to be recognized. One example: This means that in some cultures the woman that is called Tia may not be the aunt that recognize that relationship to be. The relationship that we would recognize it as is the mother’s second cousin. However, the view point of an individual in that culture would consider the second cousin as equally deserving of the respect given to an aunt and will consider them to be, for all intensive purposes, Tia.
There are other instances where at teen mother will attempt to rely on child care within the family and extended family. Those relatives may initially step forward and offer, however, they soon find that it is too much of a burden for them and become increasingly undependable. The teen mother then drops out of school.
There are schools that recognize that daycares combined with parenting classes within the school allow the teen mother to continue her education and help her adjust to the changes of her role. This is not the norm in most communities. Some communities may offer day care for the teen mother, if they qualify, however, the mother does not have the money to get from point A to point B.
One of the contributing factors that we have not acknowledged is the impact of Zero Tolerance policies, in-school arrests and expulsions/suspensions. The rise of the School Based Officer (SRO) has created more problems than has solved them. There is a relationship between suspensions and dropping out, lack of education and poverty, poverty and crime.
Zero Tolerance policies must be in place to receive federal funding. However, there is room to move that is, often, not recognized by administrations. It has since been expanded for all school policies. This results in suspension for violations and expulsions are for many more items and far longer than the mandatory year. Some problems used to be handled by the principle, and in some inner city schools there are two principles. One whose job is to handle all disciplinary problems. Now a portion of the discretionary power from the principle.
Some schools would rather pursue criminalizing some children to avoid acknowledging learning disabilities or provide services to fully address LD students. You will find that a high number of children with disabilities are truant. You may find a high rate of suspensions that occur around standardized testing times. You may find high rates of drop outs with learning disabilities that go undetected.
Therefore, because many schools fail to/refuse to address what is needed the child is handed over to the courts and may be sent to a facility that cannot begin to address those needs. The end result is that these children may wind up illiterate. Once again the connection between education and poverty, poverty and crime.
Often, when a SRO is present he/she will automatically arrest the child/children even if a school official steps in and advises otherwise. This means that a shoving match turns into an arrest for both and a record. This means that if a child is bullied and strikes back both children are arrested and now have a record. This means that if a child swears then he/she is arrested. This means that if a child gives any lip to an officer he/she is arrested. There is a reason that this has been referred to as the School to Prison Pipeline.

This brings me to culture and education. This is not about victimization nor is there a culture that is predisposed to crime. Remember that it is the lack of education and poverty that we are discussing and poverty has a correlation to crime. We have had and continue to have people that immigrate from all over the world that are highly skilled or have marketable skills and are highly literate in their own language. Often, they will have encountered the English language at some point. English is an extremely difficult language to learn, however, it is far easier to learn if you are literate in your own language.

When there is a large population that moves from one country into ours at a specific time and again at another time we refer to this as waves. Often, but definitely not always, it is the first wave of immigration that contains the professionals and those that are either highly skilled or have marketable skills. Often, but not always, this group will hire tutors (to learn English) outside of school to ensure the academic success of their children.

Often, but not always, it is the second or third wave of immigration from a country that will have people that lived in poverty in their country of origin and did not have access to any schools. They enter the country with no marketable skills. Therefore, they are, often but not always, illiterate in their own language. Therefore, even if they were provided with written materials in their own language they will not understand it. This means that if there are children that go to school, there is no available help from parents. Nor can the parents effectively deal with the institutions. They may live in fear of those institutions. (It should be noted that there are teachers that recognize this problem and try very hard to work around and with this problem.)

Some languages do not contain personal pronouns or articles or few vowel sounds. Inflection, tonal qualities, and if the primary language is polysyllabic, monosyllabic or disyllabic impacts learning the English language. Students will drop out due to alienation and isolation.
There are gangs that prey on their own community knowing full well that the people will not come forward for 1) bringing shame on themselves and community and 2) fear of immigration status or institutions. Easy targets.
In some instances, you will find that another cultures values do not coincide with the American education system or society as a whole. One such value is filial piety. For instance, some cultures value complete and unquestionable obedience to parental authority. There are things that are done in the US that are taboo in another culture. Some children will not maintain eye contact with a teacher because it is considered disrespectful. They may not raise their hands and give an answer because it is disrespectful to assume one is more knowledgeable than the teacher. They become embarrassed if they are praised or criticized in the classroom in front of others. Some do not learn effectively in large group work. Some feel an unusually high amount of stress (to the extent of suicide) living up to a “positive stereotype” alternately they may internalize negative stereotypes. Often, teens may feel marginalized at school because of their ethnicity and then criticized at home for becoming too Americanized. The parent or even community may in fact criticize the teen because the parents carry an expectation of a cultures values to be upheld but forget that the teen does not know what those values are. They have not been taught in the country of origin. They have been taught in the US. This creates a high level of tension between parents and children.

Everything else I will contend with later.

[SCGranny]

Originally Posted by LuckyGem

I have spent a little time reading other threads and decided to pose this question to you:

Does exposure to violent crime in an urban socio-economically depressed city, have an effect on young people becoming desensitized to violence, which causes them to turn to a life of crime.

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Please attempt to keep the discussion focused only on the parameters I am outlining below. I am thinking only of the United States with regard to this question and I would prefer that race, and ethnicity not be discussed in this thread - but I know some of you cannot resist.

I personally believe that violence and crimes are committed by individuals, and not by "races" of people. Crimes and violence occur in communities of people of any ethnicity, in all cities on planet earth.

My questions are as follows:

1. Do you believe that urban areas of cities with socio-economically depressed residents produce more children born out of wedlock that then grow up to commit violent crimes?

2. Can it be said that single mothers with little education and/or work skills are at a higher risk of giving birth to a child who will turn to a life of crime and violence because of her socio-economic status and the absence of a father?

3. Looking at reasons why a teen female gives birth out of wedlock, does it follow that she came from a home where self-worth was not reinforced in her by her father, and as she develops into a young woman she sees herself as a sexual object before she sees herself as a person because of external influences (friends, television, media advertising)?

4. Do you believe that young teen females who are shunned, abandoned or ignored by their natural fathers will become vulnerable to engage in sexual activity before she is mature enough to understand the consequences?

5. Does it then follow that SOME single mothers may not have a desire to bond with her child in a loving way, and she may see the child as a liability and constant reminder of the sexual encounter she had with a man who had no intention of marrying her or having any participation in raising the child. Could that then lead to the child being abused or neglected by the mother or caregiver?

6. Will a child who is raised in an economically depressed violent area of a city, with no exposure to positive social reinforcement and interaction cause some children to become desensitized to violence and develop violent anti-social tendencies?

7. Even if some mothers were not physically or emotionally abusive to their offspring and they are attempting to raise their child in a loving home, and their children are thrown into the same environment with offspring from a similar socio-economic background who were subjected to negative social reinforcement, abandonment, or physically abused is it logical to say that many of these children will be influenced by violent crime in their environment and then grow up to become violent, anti-social and commit crimes.

What is your opinion, and what is the remedy for this vicious cycle of inner city violence?

1) No. Not if you are speaking per capita. Of course with a higher concentration of population, it seems that cities have the higher concentration of children born out of wedlock as well as children who commit violent crimes. But speaking as someone who has lived in cities and rural areas alike, I find that generally about 60% of every area is populated by uneducated, generationally dependent people who believe that they are 'owed' and therefore have no need to improve themselves with their own effort, but to merely continue the cycle of dependence and instant gratification.

2) yes.

3) Not necessarily. Women having self-worth - the multi-generational dependence gives them a GOAL of having babies to increase their status in the community as well as within their families. The more they breed - and the earlier they breed - the more income they place into the home - their mothers' and their grandmothers' homes. Tell one of them that she has no self worth and she'll either laugh at you or slap you across the face - they ARE worth something, and the government 'rewards' them and proves it by paying for their livelihoods. Why work when one can reproduce with much less effort and concentration, and get all of one's bills paid while doing so? To them, it is the people who get educations and careers who are the ones with no self worth!

4) No. they know the 'consequences' - and there are none. They can leave the babies with mom and grandma (or home alone) and continue their lifestyles of partying and drug indulgence as well as unprotected sex freely. They can indulge in every desire, play their lives away, and still afford to spend money on clothes and jewelry - because they get it 'for free'.

5) You're kidding, right? Few 'bond' with their children or try to teach them discipline or self-discipline or anything at all. Why should they? We used to have a saying in EMS - some people feel like the old Doritos' commercial - "Go ahead and crunch them - we can make more". Children to these individuals are chattels, a means to an end, nothing more. When you've watched a crackwh*** shrug her shoulders when she is told that her beautiful baby girl is dead, and hear her say, "Good. I didn't have time for no sick child anyway" you know exactly the value that they place on those tiny lives.

6) it is not solely the 'area' that contributes to this mindset - it is the idea emphasized in the home, and in many homes in the same family, the same area, that multigenerational attitude that no one should ever try to better themselves (because that means that sloth, ignorance, and self-indulgence are WRONG) and that education, achievement, and success actually subverts the family by NOT breeding as many little income producing get as possible as quickly as possible.

7) NO. I have knowledge of families that refused to buy into this mindset, who raised their children with love, attention, and responsibility, even when they were raped in the halls of their high schools or in the parking lots of the local shopping centers and became pregnant - the parents insisted that the children go on, and go to college and provide for themselves and their children without ever touching the easy and free handouts (from both government and criminal activity)that their schoolmates insisted were necessary. Those who survived went on to be decent parents and hardworking members of society - even though they were ostracized and even viciously and repetitively attacked by members of their own community. Usually, however - just to survive and to ensure their own children's survival - they have to move out of that community.

I would think that the answers would therefore be evident.

[LoveMiiorHateMii]

LuckyGem, in your attempt to remove race and ethnicity from your question like Pandamonium ststed you are eliminating something called worldview.

That is difference ethnicites/races have different ways or perceiving the world.

Your definition of what a family is is not the same in another culture. You are still held back by the nuclear family being of 2 people of the opposite sex having intimate realtions and 2.5 children.

That is not the same for those of different cultures. Please look up fictive kin and extended family. Just because there is not a mother and a father married in the household, does not mean that there are 2 or more loving people in the family that are taking care of the child.

[Pandamonium]

Botox (or plastic surgery) is supposed to make you feel more secure with yourself otherwise why have it. Why do you think that selling products is based on insecurity? If it is not your choice to wear makeup, or have botox, who are you to judge a woman as being insecure if she wears lipstick or has botox injections? That's like saying someone who colors their hair, or goes to a beautician for regular hair and nail appointments is insecure. It's called maintenance and many women like to wear makeup. Yes, there are some who wouldn't be caught dead in public with a clean face, but that's their preference.

A rose by any other name.......
Yes, selling products is based on insecurity. You can call it anything that you want. It becomes internalized. Looking glass self. You see yourself through someone else's eyes. Further down, you acknowledge that just because someone can sell something in a sexy manner does not mean that they should. You know what the effect has, yet, if you call it maintenance your exempt from the effects.

Humans have a higher mental capacity for reason, and that is what separates us from our cousins the chimpanzee. If you want to use the excuse that people can't suppress sexual urges because of hormones then I guess all sexual predators shouldn't be prosecuted for their sexual abuses because they can argue their hormones made them do it. If someone makes a choice to give in to physical urges over using reason to resist the physical urge of having sex then that is an entirely different problem. People don't have to drop their pants and have sex compulsively humans can suppress any urge they want. If a teen knows it's not appropriate to have sex until they are adults, and they are given reasons why they should wait, then most teens should be able to refrain from having sex - which most do.

If most kids are able to refrain from having sex then you just spent an awful lot of time creating an argument for nothing.
I did not say that it was an excuse. What I am telling you is that it is a part of the culture. It sells movies, too. The first part of solving any problem is to recognize what the challenges are.

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Religion isn't for everyone. For some people it's everything. For some people it's dogma. I'm not going to comment on this subject because the role that religion/God plays in someone's life is personal. And whether it "perpetuates powerlessness, or someone puts their will in the hands of a deity/nature/fate/genetics" as quoted from you is totally their business, and who someone "subjugates" themself to is not my concern.
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You do not have to comment. It does not change the fact.

Please clarify. "that sexual competiveness is already on the door step because of the options available". What options are available?

Please clarify your position that "Sexual competition occurs between females and it is for male attention.". So what people are going to compete for mates. So competition for mates is a reason why there's a vicious cycle of violence in the inner city? Are you really saying that sex is a contributing factor to violence in the inner city? Is there so much value placed on sex that it causes people to murder each other?

I have already explained the contributing factors that many females play in gang violence. I did not even touch on all female gangs, female gang members as sex slaves, female gang members as property. Please go back and re-read.

You don't think it is at all plausible that a woman who has no desire to nurture a child can reject it for that reason. Do you believe that all women are nurturing even when they detest the child they give birth to and that child abuse can not arise from that?

I already answered that.

Violent bullying in school comes from a child witnessing or being emotionally or physically neglected or abused at home. The kid feels powerless at home and goes to school and exhibits behavior they learned at home in order to make another child feel small like they do.

Which means that ultimately uniforms are useless and in fact do nothing more than allow for a violation and a suspension which means more time on the street.




Actually, you will find that among certain females it has become a right of passage. This can occur to set up future boundaries and solidify alliances. If you are known on the street as being able to handle yourself (beat the bejeezes out of someone) the less likely you will be a target in the future. Even if one has to instigate it. They play a lot in the playground of he said/she said and real or imagined slights.

What do you think the hold up is?

Drop outs. I have addressed that. Further, you may find that, I think, about 38% of teen mothers are living with the father or father's family.

You will also find that there is a portion of the fathers that could easily be arrested for statutory rape.

Is this a private school? Or a charter school receiving public funds?

It is a charter school and it is not in LA. It will take me a minute but I will try to hunt it down for you.

What careers are available to you if you are an artist?

What careers are available to you if you write well? Please list all of those for me. Thanks.