Violence in Schools and Social Development Essay

Violence in Schools and Social Development - Essay Example While many methods have been utilized to address this issue, they generally fall somewhere between the liberal ideals regarding rehabilitation of the perpetrators of violence because they have had a disadvantaged childhood to the conservative approach which advocates punishment and restitution to the victim. Generally speaking, the liberal view supports compassion while the conservative believes strictly in the individual accounting for their actions. Violence in schools is being viewed more and more as not only a social injustice issue for children but also as a public health concern. Violence creates an atmosphere of fear that affects the victims, the offenders and the surrounding public. This cycle of fear and mistrust propagates both antisocial and self-disparaging patterns of behavior. For the offender, studies have concluded that there often is a progression of aggressive and violent behaviors over time. Victims of violence, especially young people, carry with them throughout their lives the emotional scars usually in the form of self-criticism. Those kids that perpetually commit violent acts towards classmates are more likely to use drugs and alcohol, to quit going to school altogether and go on to be involved in criminal behaviour later in life. Children who are often the victims of schoolyard violence tend to experience more stress in their lives which leads to higher levels of anxiety, depression, physical illnesses and thoughts of suicide than those that do not. For both bully and bullied, these actions negatively affect learning potentials and retards personal development. The seemingly never ending cycle of intimidating actions works to tear apart the underpinnings of a civil society from the bottom up. The reason children act out violently towards others is because they have been treated with disrespect or have been bullied themselves. A pattern of poor social adjustment perpetuates itself