Society must learn to tackle violence among the youth to prevent deaths

Every year, over 200,000 people aged between 10 and 29 years die from homicide, according to the World Health Organisation. Sadly this makes homicide the fourth leading cause of death in this age group. Even more worrying is that 83 per cent of the victims are male.

It is also worth noting that for every person who escapes death, many more sustain life-threatening injuries.

The bottom line, however, is that youth violence has caused many unnecessary deaths and it is time we urgently addressed this issue.

Youth violence takes many forms — from homicide assault, physical fights, bullying to emotional abuse.

One of the causes of youth violence is from children struggling in school. Parents have every right to have great ambitions for their children.

GREATER DEMANDS

However, parents also need to appreciate that as children progress higher in their education, their workload increases, placing greater demands on them.

It should not come as a surprise if the child’s performance drops as they try to manage the workload.

Continuing to place achievement pressure on the children without due consideration of the change in their circumstances, leads children to commit violence as a way of acting out.

Regrettably, youth violence is a global public health problem with severe consequences. Millions of young people are hospitalised each year with serious injuries arising from youth violence. The subsequent injuries lead to higher health costs as well as legal and judicial implications, not to mention destruction of property. 

Beyond the visible physical injuries, youth violence has a long-term impact on the victim. Worryingly, many young people are too scared to disclose that they have suffered violence.

MENTAL HEALTH

This, subsequently, leads to mental health problems such as depression and, in some instances, suicide. Victimisation can also lead to abuse of substances such as tobacco, drugs and alcohol. The upshot is that the young victim of violence is more predisposed to engage in physical violence as an adult.

Youth violence is also harmful to the community as it precipitates fear and anxiety and erodes social cohesion.

Fortunately, something can be done to prevent youth violence. During early childhood, for instance, parents should build open channels of communication with their children. All too often, children suffer violence at the hands of their peers and adults, but they are cautioned not to report it to anyone or they will suffer more violence. If we teach our children that they can their parents all their problems, we will avoid the violence that ensues from them being subjected to violence.

Additionally, both the church and education institutions can encourage children to attend life and social skills programmes to help them resolve conflicts, interact with others and build healthy relationships.

BULLYING

A particular area that society has neglected to address is teaching children how to interact with those who have disabilities, including those affecting learning and speech. Their condition does not warrant anyone to bully or physically attack them.

Of even greater importance is for schools to have violence prevention programmes to tackle bullying and physical fights. And in this age where cyber bullying is becoming all too common, there is a collective responsibility for parents and teachers to have a co-ordinated approach to quickly address this issue. Parents have the paramount duty of monitoring their children’s mobile phones and online activities to avoid them becoming victims of violence but to also ensure they are not the ones instigating violence.

Lastly, where children exhibit anger problems, this should not be ignored as a non issue. Some children do make good their threats of violence against themselves or others. It is worth considering therapeutic interventions when such behavioural problems are exhibited consistently. 

Luckily, youth violence is predictable and the good news is that we can all work towards preventing it.

The writer works with international businesses on commercial litigation. [email protected]