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Understanding Youth Violence

Patterns of Adolescent Violence

Tolan and Guerra cite the 1986 work of Elliott and his colleagues in stressing that "not all adolescent violence is of the same form or cause or will be best addressed by the same response" (1994, p. 7). They go on to cite other researchers as they delineate four patterns of adolescent violence:

I. Situational Violence

Situational violence is related to specific situations that apparently function as catalysts that lead to the violent act and increase its seriousness. Among these catalysts are extreme heat, weekends, times of social stress, frustration in pursuing planned events, unavoidable accidents or events, poverty, social discrimination and oppression, availability of handguns, and alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. This type of violence accounts for more than 25 percent of adolescent violence in the United States.

II. Relational Violence

Relational violence "arises from interpersonal disputes between persons with ongoing relationships, in particular among friends and family members" (p.9). Children who witness violence between their parents are at increased risk to act violently toward and among other children. For adolescents, dating violence is an especially serious form of relational violence. Relational violence accounts for about 25 percent of adolescent violence, and it apparently has its basis in both social and psychological factors.

III. Predatory Violence

Predatory violence, which accounts for only 5 to 8 percent of total adolescent violent acts, includes crimes such as muggings, robbery, and gang assaults that are "perpetrated intentionally to obtain some gain or as part of a pattern of criminal or antisocial behavior" (p.9). It is estimated that about 20 percent of adolescents commit some acts of predatory violence, but that only 5 to 8 percent of males and 3 to 6 percent of females in this group are responsible for most predatory violence.

Predatory violence has been studied more than any of the other three types of violence. Researchers have found that it is often part of a pattern of serious chronic antisocial behavior, is predictable, and generally starts in early adolescence and develops slowly over time. It lasts long after adolescence, is dependent on multiple risk factors, and requires intensive and early prevention and treatment interventions (p. 9).

IV. Psychopathological Violence

Psychopathological violence accounts for less than 1 percent of adolescent violence in the U.S., but it is a particularly virulent form. It is generally more repetitive and extreme than the other types of violence, and it is the clearest example of individual psychopathology that is probably related to neurological deficits and/or psychological trauma. It is generally seen as a by-product of mental illness rather than as a response to situational factors or a sign of a developing criminal career. Unlike interventions appropriate for perpetrators of other types of violence, psychopharmacology and various management techniques are often indicated for this population. (p. 11)

Implications of Patterns of Violence for Interventions

Interventions have not usually taken into account these four patterns of adolescent violence, even though the patterns differ markedly in stability, prevalence, causes, and appropriate interventions. Interventions effective for one type often are not effective for other types. Moreover, the best timing of interventions for different patterns probably differs. For example, signs of predatory and psychopathological violence may show up quite early in a child's life and interventions that begin in elementary school or before may be indicated while the optimal age for interventions to prevent situational and relational violence may be early adolescence (Tolan and Guerra, 1994).

Perspectives on Violence

Traditionally, most research on youth violence has been conducted by criminologists. For the collection of essays in Violence in American Schools: A New Perspective, the editors asked the various authors to consider the social-ecological perspective, the developmental perspective, and, whenever longitudinal research existed, to include a life course perspective. The overall framework for the collection is the public health model (Elliott, Hamburg, and Williams, 1998).

I. Social-Ecological Perspective

The social-ecological perspective maintains that behavior results from an individual's past history, personality traits, and disposition interacting with characteristics of the social setting, which may trigger, facilitate, or inhibit the overt expression of violence for that person. Many violence prevention programs have failed largely because they have focused only on trying to change the individual and have ignored "social contexts in which persons learn attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors as they interact with parents, siblings, relatives, neighbors, teachers, and other youth." The social-ecological perspective is bolstered by current research that demonstrates that an "effective intervention is one that changes the nature of interactions by changing the person, the context or both." In keeping with the goals of the CMHS initiative, interventions that target social contexts will include "attempts to change the characteristics of the family situations and neighborhoods in which children grow up and attend schools" (1998, p. 18).

II. Developmental Perspective

The developmental perspective focuses on three main issues:

1.  Negative effects of violence on children's developmental processes

When violence and the fear of violence occur in schools and communities, they interfere with normal learning processes and arrest or delay the successful completion of the developmental tasks of childhood and adolescence. A corollary is that when resilience-enhancing interventions are introduced they can set in motion protective processes which promote healthy development and prevent violence.

2.  Developmental progression of violent behaviors

Drawing from longitudinal data provided by the National Youth Survey (NYS), Elliott and his colleagues determined that the "hazard rate" for initiating serious violent offending (SVO) was less that 0.5 percent through age 11. Beginning at age 12, it increased sharply to 5.1 percent at age 16, then declined sharply to 1.0 percent or less for ages 21 to 27. Over 60 percent of all males who engaged in SVO by age 27 were actively involved by age 17. While serious violent offenders constituted less than 5 percent of the NYS sample in 1980, they accounted for 83 percent of index offenses and half of all offenses reported. Early age of onset is particularly ominous as 45 percent of those initiating SVO before age 11 continued their violent careers into their twenties (Elliott, Huizinga, & Menard, 1989; Elliott, 1993).

Violent behaviors often show a developmental progression, as offenders tend to add more serious offenses to their behavioral repertoire over time. The initial behavior is usually minor forms of delinquent behavior or alcohol use. About 70 percent of the time, such behavior precedes the onset of marijuana and/or polydrug use. In terms of SVO, aggravated assault precedes robbery in 85 percent of cases and rape in 92 percent. Robbery precedes rape in 72 percent of cases. Thus, the typical sequence of SVO is from aggravated assault to robbery to rape.

3.  Need for developmentally appropriate interventions

To be effective, interventions must take into account the emotional and cognitive levels of the children and adults being targeted, as well as the developmental tasks appropriate for different ages. Elliott, Hamburg, and Williams (1998) give the following examples:

Dyadic parent-child training programs may be effective with young children and early adolescents at risk for adopting violent coping strategies, but they are not appropriate or may have negative effects for older adolescents who are seeking independence from parents and look to peers for approval and status. Likewise, attempting to teach elementary school children how to deal with peer pressures for engaging in sex, violence, or drugs before they experience the onset of puberty is not likely to be effective because they have no understanding of the intense need for peer approval, badges of adult status or establishing sexual identity that emerge with this developmental stage (p. 19).

III.  Ecological-Developmental Perspective

Elliott and his colleagues (1998) ultimately argue for a combination of the social ecological and developmental perspectives. "A clear understanding of the interactions of individual characteristics and contextual conditions that facilitate escalation in violence levels over the life course," they say, "will allow us to design targeted and timely interventions for preventing, interrupting, and terminating these processes" (p.18 ). Furthermore, of special importance in considering interventions is Elliott's conclusion that the "stability of aggressiveness-violence over the lifespan is due more to a stability in the nature of social relationships and social contextual factors than to some underlying individual predisposition" (1993, p. 16).

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