Why do kids kill?

[Insert name of student]

[Insert name of Instructor]

[Insert course]

15 November 2007

Why Do Kids Kill

Just last month , a 14-year old student from SuccessTech Academy in Cleveland , Ohio shot four people before turning the gun on himself (Leonard . Fortunately , no one other than the gunman died in the incident . Although this would not be the first case of juvenile school shooting in history , it still leaves us with questions about what could prompt a person to exhibit such violence at a young age

One possible cause is violence

in television . When a child sees a violent act on television , he would then tend to copy this violent act This is called Observational Learning ' and is primarily based on the work of the renowned psychologist Albert Bandura . Bandura performed a series of experiments known as the Bobo Doll ' studies which showed that children ages 3 to 6 changed their behavior simply by watching others (Huitt . The 1999 U .S . Senate Judiciary Committee Staff Report supports this as it says that television alone is responsible for 10 of youth violence (qtd . in Violence in the Media . 10 may not seem like a big number but considering that this is only for television alone , it is a percentage worthy of consideration . Other than television shows violence in video games is also to be considered

In 2003 , around 60 of the American population play video games regularly and more than 80 of the video games in the market contain some form of violence or another (Gale . This shows that a large portion of the American population is exposed to violence in video games and children may well just imitate what they see in these video games . In fact , video games are being used by the U .S . military to aid in the training of soldiers for combat (Gale . If adult soldiers can be influenced by video games , then most likely , children can be influenced too . As Bandura showed in the Bobo Doll ' studies , children are likely to imitate what they see

Despite the sheer amount of violence in the media , juvenile violence cannot be attributed to that alone . Another factor could be the brain chemistry of a person . In other words , the tendency towards violent behavior may actually be influenced by ones genes and /or diet . William J . Walsh , a scientist , conducted a study that involved 24 pairs of brothers , one average and one violent . His research showed that there were patterns in the brain chemistry of the violent brother which could not be found in the average brother (Bad brain chemistry . This means that violence could be said to be in the nature of a person . Also , this means that violent tendencies could be influenced by a one 's diet since this the nutrient intake of a person affects his brain chemistry . In fact , in a study conducted at the Aylesbury jail in U .K , the offenses committed by the prisoners dropped by 37 when they were fed with all the...