What Makes People Commit Benefit Fraud?

What Makes People Commit Benefit Fraud? Introduction Benefit fraud is, according to some members of the government and some media sources, committed by dishonest people and is a blight on our nation which sucks up huge amount of money that could otherwise be used for the improvement of public services. Another perspective might argue that benefit fraud is a symptom and reflection of our unequal society. The first view tends to place the blame on the individual while the latter tends to place the blame on society. The attitude that a textual source adopts towards this questions can provide some insight into the way in which they construct the issue. Social psychology has analysed the way in which we make decisions about why something happens in terms of attributions. Hogg Vaughan (2002) explain that attributions in social psychology describe how people make decisions about the actions of other people specifically what is it that motivates their actions? One of the most well-known of these models of attributions was put forward by Kelley (1967, 1973). Within this model, peoples behaviour is either attributed to external causes or to internal causes on the basis of how their behaviour varies with the following factors: its distinctiveness, its consistency and the consensus. Attribution theory has been further extended by the work of Weiner (1986) which breaks down how attributions are made into three categories. The first is the locus of control this refers to the boundary between internal and external causes. The second is stability this refers to the extent to which the cause is capable of change. The third is the controllability this refers to how much control a person is perceived to have over their future performance. The way in which the examined texts make attributions about peoples behaviour, in this case benefit fraud, should show their attitudes towards those types of people. For this study, four extracts from The Guardian newspaper were used. The Guardian is traditionally a politically left-leaning publication. The hypothesis for this study was that The Guardian newspaper, in its implicit explanations of the reasons people commit benefit fraud, would tend to emphasise those reasons that focussed on the effects that society has on individuals rather than on individual factors such as personal deviance. In terms of attribution theory, then, the attributions made for benefit fraud would tend to be external to people, would tend to be permanent and beyond peoples control. Method Content analysis is a type of qualitative research method that involves counting the instances of words and then making inferences from these figures. Thematic analysis, however, is a related procedure that involves looking at a text in order to discover the themes that emerge from it, but it does not have the same emphasis on word frequencies. From this difference it can be seen that a thematic analysis aims to understand the data rather than know it. The procedure used for this thematic analysis was to read the extracts relating to benefit fraud and to make notes in the margin as themes arose in the coding. The themes that arose from all the extracts were then examined in total and any potential connections between the themes were analysed in terms of social psychological theories. In carrying out this analysis, one of the most important factors was maintaining a state of reflexivity. Marks Yardley (2004) point to two important components of reflexivity in this type of study. The first is a social critique this means examining how the themes relate to power structures in society. The second is the researcher considering their own attitudes towards the subject being investigated. Results From the analyses of four excerpts from The Guardian, the following three themes emerged. Theme 1: The Catch 22 Administrative Complexity The first theme emphasises the idea that there are often high levels of administrative load involved in applying for benefits. Davies (2005) for example emphasised the amount of form-filling involved for people and how complicated the process is: Many (†¦) fear endless form-filling while moving off benefits, into tax credits and then, heaven forbid, reapplying for benefits if work falls through hoping that between the Inland Revenue, job centre and the housing office, no one misplaces their form. (Davies, 2005) This focus on the complications of the process can also be seen in Tickles (2006) article which focuses on the difficulties of the system. In particular for one 19-year old trying to put himself through the education system in order to gain A-levels so that he can get a degree, the benefits system seems to be working against him. Not only that but the administrative system has him caught in a Catch 22: According to the benefit rules, if you turn 19 and are homeless, the education game changes. You are no longer eligible for income support, which in turn entitles you to housing benefit. This benefit requires claimants to have an income. Instead, you must claim jobseekers allowance (JSA), which means declaring yourself available for work, and eventually attending government-approved New Deal training. This will very likely have nothing to do with your studies, or those you might like to begin. (Tickle, 2006) According to this account, the man in this article has clearly been caught in the administrative complexities of the situation, something for which he cannot be personally blamed. Theme 2: Social Hardship A strong theme throughout these articles emphasises the difficulty of the circumstances of many of the people that may be involved in benefit fraud. The young man described by Tickle (2006) had been forced to move out from the family home because of problems there and had moved into homeless accommodation. These points are further highlighted in the letters page of The Guardian which points to some of the social circumstances of those who might be claiming benefits fraudulently. Serwotka (2005) points out that: We also see from estimates reported to the public accounts committee that while benefit fraud is declining, errors in payments are on the increase. As the union representing the workers who have to implement these tough conditions, PCS does not believe that getting tough is the best way of helping some of the most vulnerable in society to obtain and keep jobs. (Serwotka, 2005) This places benefit questions within a wider context of lowering rates of fraudulent behaviour and the implicit persecution of those who are the most vulnerable. Theme 3: Fraud Despite Labelling A consistent way in which the writers in The Guardian talked about benefit fraud was in reference to the negative effects of labelling. The implication of this was that while reasons for benefit fraud might include social circumstances and administrative complexity, as discussed above, fraud was carried out despite the strong negative connotations attached to it by the government and others. Davies (2005), for example, points out that many people: †¦feel targeted and blamed for anti-social behaviour, benefit fraud, scrounging on incapacity benefit. They fear being punished for their childrens school attendance, accused of bad parenting and having their children put into care. (Davies, 2005). A culture of fear is emphasised by Beresford (2005) in that vulnerable people are consistently bombarded by messages that fraud should be avoided. Reporting on a Department of Health study it was found that: One of the strongest messages from the study is the real commitment of many people who have been written off as dependent to make a contribution to their community. But this is hindered by official talk of benefit cheats; of getting a million people off incapacity benefit; a preoccupation with paid employment; and an often inflexible and unsupportive labour market. (Beresford, 2005) Implicit within this analysis is the idea that people who do commit benefit fraud must have a good reason for doing so because the social pressure created by the government not to carry out fraud is so great. Discussion The themes found in this textual analysis of why people commit benefit fraud points to the involvement of a number of established social psychological theories. Each of the themes examined clearly shows how social and systemic reasons were seen, by these articles in The Guardian, to be at the root of why people commit benefit fraud. The first theme of administrative complexity tended to attribute the causes for fraudulent benefit claims to administrative dilemmas and catch-22 problems. This clearly places the reasons for behaviour outside a persons locus of control and implicitly places the cause for the behaviour onto the system. As the system is being blamed this will tend to be a relatively stable factor that will continue into the future. Finally, administrative factors are largely beyond the control of the individual as they are decisions made by the state. The second theme of social hardship is not quite as clear-cut as the first but there are similar tendencies in the analysed attributions. Here social hardship is seen to act as an external force but the decision of the man discussed in this case to commit benefit fraud is seen, to some extent, to be internal. The reasons given for this, however, are external in that it is the system, again, and its complexities and apparent loopholes, that has forced him to take this decision. The final theme did not fit easily into the ideas provided by attribution theory, but, is better suited to those of conformity. Asch (1952) posited that people tend to form the norms for their own behaviour by looking at those around them and come to a conclusion about how they should act based on this. What was clear from Aschs (1952) experiments is that people are highly affected by other peoples behaviour. The third theme, therefore, tends to emphasise the stigma attached to benefit fraud. It follows that people who do commit benefit fraud must have very good reasons for doing so as they are fighting against the normalising pressure of what is generally considered right. Taking a step up in level of analysis, the way that The Guardian makes attributions about people committing benefit fraud can be examined in terms of in-group and out-group attributions. Researchers have found that when making in-group attributions, people tend to display a self-serving bias (Hewstone, 1989). It is assumed that The Guardian newspaper, as it has been traditionally considered a politically left-wing newspaper, is likely to view itself as at least sympathetic to those committing benefit fraud. This would be explained in the ideas of intergroup attribution theory as a self-serving in-group bias. In general then, the hypothesis that textual extracts from The Guardian would tend to defend those committing benefit fraud was supported. This was analysed in terms of attributions with the results showing that they tended to be outside a persons locus of control, tended to be ongoing and permanent. Through these attributions the causes, or even blame, for peoples actions tended to be situated externally. From the perspective of power structures, the idea that The Guardian should defend those who are most vulnerable in society was also consistently supported. References Asch, S. (1952) Social psychology. New York: Prentice Hall. Beresford, P. (2005) No-win situation. Guardian [online] 19 October. Available from: http://society.guardian.co.uk/secondopinion/story/0,,1594942,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Davies, M. (2005) Stop blaming the poor. Guardian [online] 4 April. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1451473,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Hewstone, M. (1989) Causal Attribution: From Cognitive Processes to Cognitive Beliefs, Oxford: Blackwell. Hogg, M. A., Vaughan, G. M. (2002) Social Psychology, Third Edition, London: Prentice Hall Kelley, H. H. (1967) Attribution in social psychology. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 15, 192-238. Kelley, H. H. (1973) The processes of causal attribution. American Psychologist, 28, 107-128. Marks, D., Yardley, L., (2004) Research methods for clinical and health psychology. Sage, London. Serwotka, M. (2005) Blunketts branding of benefit claimants (Letters to the editor). Guardian [online] 13 October. Available from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,1590682,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Tickle, L. (2006) Between a rock and a hard place. Guardian [online] 10 January. Available from: http://education.guardian.co.uk/egweekly/story/0,,1682421,00.html [Accessed 29 March 2006] Weiner, B. (1986) An attributional theory of motivation and emotion. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Differences between Chinese and American food culture Essay

The histories, boundaries, population, religions, politics, folks, economy of America and China are not the same, so the food culture of the two countries are not the same. Chinese culture starts from 1,700,000 years ago. When someone says something about Chinese food culture, they must praise the color, taste, smell, shape of the Chinese dish and the types of the dish. Most of people in China are used to have rice and wheat as their daily main food resource. Meat is not the major food for us. Chinese people always believe that rice, wheat, vegetable, fruit are the best for our health. In contrast, meat would give more troubles to our health, for example, heart attack, high blood pressure, and etc. It is because the population pressure, we should have the rice and wheat for the main food, we do not have enough meat to eat. We eat vegetable to help pharynx the main food, for the main food is not delicious, the function of vegetable in china is like salt. Chinese cook should decorate the food, so the food which is not delicious becomes more delicious and wonderful. Because of handicraft industry in china is develop, the technology of processing the food is the second to none in the world. These are the characters of Chinese food culture. The technology of processing the food in China is very develop, a lot of food that the foreigner thought is unable to eat can be made when you see it, your appetite will develop at once. We eat every thing if possible. we do not have any taboo. The writings about aid the famine are a lot, so we can know which potherb can be eaten when the famine comes. Dining is the first require in China, we thought eating food is a happy thing. We can not eat full and dress warm in the past years, so eating has the special position in Chinese lives. American people mostly have meat as their food resource. The most important is that they mostly have beef, chicken, shrimp, turkey, instead of pork and lamb. The food style gives American people much more energy than we have. They are much stronger than us. That is the fact! For meat is delicious in nature, American do not need to decorate their food, it limits the development of the cook. When they are rich, they use the dining tools to represent their rich. They do not purse eat because it is easy content for them, they purse love instead. Americans do not daintily the details of the food, it is not excessive too, it is in a popular style, it is voluntary the whole day. In restaurants, you can easily find hamburger, steak, ribs with a little rice and a piece of bread, because their live style are so fast. The styles that Chinese and Americans eat are very different too. In China, any dinner party has a form that everyone sits around the table. We use round table in the banquet, it means solidify, manner and having the common habits. The delicious dinner is placed in middle of the table. People toast for each other and take vegetables to others. It shows the respects and comity among people in front of the fantastic thing. Although this kind of eat method has obvious shortages in sanitation, it matches the common thought â€Å"reunion† of our race. In American dinners, though the food and wine are important, actually that is a setoff. The purpose of the party is making friends. They make friends by chat with their neighbor. It also represents Americans personality and respect. When Americans have meals, they do not allow people make a noise, they do not allow take vegetables for others, do not allow smoking, do not allow compelling others drinking wine, do not allow take off clothes in public, do not allow discuss sickening. If you have finished food in a restaurant, you should leave a ten per cent tip for lunch, fifteen per cent for dinner. The tip should be calculated on the basis of the total before the addition of tax. The method we drink tea is the quintessence of our country, it has a long standing. When we drink tea, we emphasize clear and elegant. We daintily the matching of the tea and tea cups. There are many kinds of tea cups in China. Chinese rarely hold on tea party, if there are some, the hosts themselves pour tea for the guests. Chinese like drinking tea instead of drinking coffee. But Americans like drinking coffee, they also drink tea, they hold tea parties sometimes. The conversation is the core of the party. The tea party is a place where can train the diplomat. The dining tools between the two countries are different. Chinese use chopsticks. The thin and long chopsticks cannot be used to cut food, so we usually use our teeth to act as knives. We hold our food, meat or vegetable, with the chopsticks, send them to the mouths, bite off a part of it and remain the other part on the chopsticks. That’s the usual way we eat. We are also used to hold up our bowls when having rice or soup. The etiquette in the America requests that when eating, bowls and plates cannot leave the tables. Food should be cut by knives to fit into the mouths. Of course your mouth cannot touch the plates or bowls. So the regular process is like this. You cut your steak on the plate with fork and knife, send the meat cube into the mouth with fork and nothing will be returned back but the fork alone.

Water

Water is an essential ingredient for the existence of life as we know it. Biochemical processes occur in aqueous environments, many of which use water. Water also plays a significant role in the process of photosynthesis ( 6 CO2 + 6H2O + 672kcal -> C6H12O6 + 6O2 ). Photosynthesis is the most basic and significant chemical reaction on earth, providing the primary nutrients, directly or indirectly, for all living organisms and is the primary source of atmospheric oxygen. Without water and its unique and unusual properties, life as we know it on earth would not exist. Water is the only substance naturally present on the earth that exists in three distinct states -solid, liquid, and gas. Many of the unique properties in the take for granted include the three physical phases, transparency, universal solvents, density behavior and temperature, high specific heat, high heat of vaporization, viscosity, surface tension and low compressibility. To understand why these properties exist in water and why they are essential to life on earth it is important to look at the shape and bonding patterns of the molecule because the uniqueness of water is a direct result of its shape and bonding patterns. The shape of the water molecule In the water molecule the oxygen atom is the central atom. It has four pairs of valence electrons surrounding it. Two of these pairs are shared which form the shared pairs form covalent bonds with the hydrogen atoms. The remaining two pairs are unshared and have a greater repulsive effect than the shared pairs. The combined repulsive effect of the two unshared electron pairs produces an H-O-H bond angle that is smaller than the H-C-H bond angle (109. 47 degrees) in methane or the H-N-H bond angle (107 degrees) in ammonia. Actual measurement of the bond angle in water is 104. . If the two hydrogen nuclei were as far apart as possible the angle would be 109. 47. The unique bond angle in water is only 104. 5 degrees. The resulting shape of the molecule is referred to as â€Å"bent† or â€Å"angular†. Traditionally the VESPR model theory is used to predict molecular shape. See appendix A. Chemical bonding To understand the unusual properties of water as well as what causes them we need to have a basic understanding of the chemical bonding and the structure of the water molecule. The shape of the water molecule is determined in part by the chemical bonding that occurs. For a brief review of chemical bonding see appendix B. The water molecule consists of the elements hydrogen and oxygen. The chemical bonds in the water molecule are covalent bonds since the hydrogen atoms combine with the oxygen atoms in shared electron pairs. The oxygen atoms exerts a relatively strong pull on the shared electron pairs which causes the hydrogen atom to become electropositive regions and the oxygen atoms to become an electronegative region. The water molecule is considered a polar molecule because the positive and negative regions are not evenly distributed around a center point. The water molecule due to its polar nature is electrostatically attracted to other water molecules as well as other ions in solution. The attraction of the electropositive hydrogen atom to the electronegative oxygen atom of an adjacent water molecule is the bridging phenomenon known as hydrogen bonding and is only about 10 percent the strengths of a covalent bond. This special bond is responsible for most of the unusual properties of water: high freezing and boiling points, high heat capacity, high heat’s of fusion and evaporation, solvency, and high surface tension. Let us look more closely at the bonding patterns of water. Polar Covalent Bond When oxygen and hydrogen atoms are brought together the difference in their electronegativities is not sufficient to yield ions. Instead they must share a pair of electrons between them forming a covalent bond. Some sharing is more equal than others and oxygen’s greater electronegativity draws the electron pairs closer to its nucleus and further away from the hydrogen’s nuclei. This results in a concentration of negative charges nearer the oxygen atom and thus further from the positively charges protons that make the nuclei of the hydrogen atoms. The bond formed is intermediate between a fully ionic bond and a purely covalent bond. There is a separation of charges but not complete as in the formation of ions. The partial charge that is produced is symbolized by d. In Water, one side of the molecule, where the hydrogen atoms are, will be partially positively charged. The other side with the unshared pairs of electrons will be negatively charged. As a whole the molecule is polar. So it can be said that the water molecule has a polar covalent bond. The polarity of the water molecule makes mutual attraction between water molecules possible. The Hydrogen Bond Each molecule has a d- and d+ region. The attraction occurs between the d- and d+ regions (remember unlike charges attract). This means that each water molecule attracts four other water molecules to it. The hydrogen atom is attracted to the oxygen atom of the adjacent water molecule. Each oxygen atom can associate with two hydrogen atoms of other nearby water molecule through its unshared pair of electrons. The force of attraction between these polar molecules is not as strong as a covalent or ionic bond but strong enough to be significant. It is important enough to be called the HYDROGEN BOND. It is the hydrogen bonding that occurs between water molecules that accounts for many of the remarkable and vital properties of water that make the presence of water synonymous with life itself. Firstly, the ability of water to remain liquid over a large portion of the range of temperatures found on earth is one such vital property. Other molecules, as small as water (eg CO2), change from liquid to gas at temperatures far below that of water. It is also the Hydrogen bond which is responsible for the large amount of heat energy needed to convert water from liquid to gas. Water is therefore a great stabilizer of temperature which is essential to the survival of life on this planet. It accounts for more moderate temperatures near large bodies of water. This property is also exploited by many living organisms. Sweat, and its evaporation is a vital cooling process for biological mammals and depend greatly on the large amount of heat energy required to break the hydrogen bonds between water molecules. Hydrogen bonding maintains the integrity of the water molecule during chemical reactions. Other compounds undergo chemical changes (ionization), where as water will maintain its chemical integrity. As a result water is a poor conductor of electrical current. Hydrogen bonding is the reason for the lower density of ice relative to water. In conclusion, three main unique features which are the consequences of hydrogen bonding in water are: melting point, surface tension, density. These and other unique properties of water are responsible for the important role that water plays in life. Water’s Important Role Water is the single most abundant molecule in living things. It provides the medium in which most biochemical interactions occur. Some biochemical reactions water is involved in are: cellular respiration, digestion, and photosynthesis. Water is the home for many animals, plants and micro-organisms. Water is involved in the cycling of all other material by living things both on a local and global scale. Water has a number of unique and unusual properties that are responsible for its important roles it plays in the biosphere. BOILING AND MELTING POINTS. Water has unusually high boiling and freezing points compared to other compounds with similar molecular structure. A comparison of boiling and freezing points can be seen in the following chart. Notice only water has a boiling and melting point that exists within the range of life. The boiling point of water is a unique 100oC results is and the freezing point is a remarkable 0oC due to the fact of the polar nature of the water molecule and hydrogen bonding. Two important, but not unique, properties of water for life are that water is liquid at normal temperatures over much of the earth and that water is transparent. If water were not liquid, nutrients could not flow from soil to the roots of plants, blood could not circulate, and bodies of organisms would be so rigid that they could not move. If water were not transparent, light could not penetrate through cellular protoplasm into chloroplasts to drive photosynthesis in plants, you would be blind because light could not penetrate through the vitreous humor to the retina of your eyes, and light could not penetrate into lakes to allow growth of phytoplankton. Clearly life cannot exist without the amazing properties of water. SOLVENT CAPABILITY. A solvent is a substance capable of dissolving another substance (solute) to form a homogeneous mixture (solution) at a molecular level. The polar nature of water makes it an excellent solvent especially with other polar compounds such as salts, alcohols, carboxylic compounds and many more. As a solvent water is unsurpassed in it’s ability to dissolve a wide range of inorganic and organic substances. More substances dissolve in water than any other known substance. The versitility of water as a solvent allows it to serve as the medium of transport for so many materials. This is true both for individual organism and for the biosphere as a whole. The essential transport systems including blood, lymph, and urine are all water based. Without water’s solvent capabilities to make three systems work, life could not exist. A LESS DENSE SOLID FORM. Water exists in liquid form over a wide range of temperatures outside of which life processess are slowed down or halted completely. Between 4?c and the freezing point at 0?c, an amazing thing happens that occurs with very few substances, Water gradually expands becoming less dense. Water is the only substance where the liquid state is heavier than the solid state. All other substances the solid form is denser than the liquid form. Since the density of ice is less than that of liquid Walter, ice floats on water. It is very significant that ice expands and floats on water because if lakes and streams froze from the bottom to the top, aquatic life would not even exist, and climate and weather patterns would be altered drastically. This is an important quality of water because as ice forms it floats on top of the water. It acts to provide a thermal blanket for the rest of the water beneath and all its many life forms. This is important because if water behaved like all other substances, water bodies would freeze from the bottom up and in most cases would never thaw completely during summer. This would have a dramatic cooling effect globally and would impact all life on earth. LARGE HEAT CAPACITY. The remarkable property of water is it’s extremely high capacity to absorb heat without a significant increase in temperature. We see examples of this all the time. For example, under the summer sun at the beach, sand will increase in temperature to the point where it is too hot to walk on, whereas the water temperature is still cool, even though both are heated by the same amount of solar heat energy. Water has the largest heat capacity of any common substance. This means that water takes more heat energy to raise the temperature of water a given number of degrees than for any other material. In cooling water gives up more heat than any other material. This property is important globally and individually. Individually, the high heat capacity buffers organisms from sudden extreme shifts in temperature which would be harmful to it. Globally, the oceans moderate seasonal temperature fluctuations. That is why coastal areas are cooler than inland areas at the same latitude. These differences influence the weather globally. And without weather changes life would be very unbearable. The absorption of huge amounts of solar heat energy by water during the day and the slow release of heat energy during the night is responsible for the moderate climate in the coastal areas. A wider range of temperatures typically exist inland away from bodies of water. If not for the vast oceans on earth tempering the climate life would not exist. This property combines with the MPIBP property to create the water cycle which supports life on earth. HIGH HEAT OF VAPORIZATION. Water has an extraordinarily high heat of vaporization. On average it takes 580 calories to convert one gram of water into water vapour. A value that is higher than any other common substance. This property is of important significance to animals in regulating body temperature because of the large amount of body heat that is required to evaporate water (sweat). Without this property of water, organisms would overheat and die and the climate would be thrown into chaos. SURFACE TENSION. Water has the highest surface tension of any other liquid except Mercury. Surface tension is the attractive force exerted by the molecules below the surface on those at the liquid-air interface. The liquid is restrained from flowing by this inward force. The exceptionally high surface tension of water is due to the hydrogen bonding of water. This is demonstrated when you see an insect being able to support itself on the surface layer of water. The surface tension also leads to a higher viscosity as it doesn’t flow as easily. This is known as the clumping effect like the high melting point and boiling point the clumping effect occurs in liquid, that have hydrogen bonding. Conclusion All of these unusual properties stem from the unusual structure and bonding patterns of the water molecule. The molecule is strongly polar because of its uneven distribution of electrons. This allows water to interact easily with other polar substances which accounts for the great solvent power of water. The electronegativity difference between the oxygen and hydrogen atoms in water molecules is responsible for the establishing of hydrogen bonds between molecules. It is the mutual attraction of water molecules that accounts for the ability of water to remain liquid over a broad range of temperature (0oC-100oC) and also for its high heat of vaporization and high heat capacity. Water could not have all these special characteristics/properties without its unique shape and bonding patterns, life could not exist if not for these special properties of water, espacally the hydrogen bond. You can order a custom essay, term paper, research paper, thesis or dissertation on water from our professional custom writing service which provides high-quality custom written papers on any topic.

Solutions For The Youth Violence - 1520 Words

Solutions to Our Youth Violence Gang and youth violence has become a seemingly unfixable issue in countries around the globe. Zooming in on America, the U.S government has made efforts to keep gang violence under control through the try and failed method of mass imprisonment and also placing more policemen in affected neighborhoods to patrol the streets. Not only did the government help expand gang networks in prisons by using these tactics, but these â€Å"solutions† also made the youth living in harsh circumstances, such as poverty, feel the need to create a resistance identity to fight back against criminalization. Little did officers and police officials know that they were actually contributing to the institutionalization of gangs and making the violence worse. In essence, through years of attempts of trying to at least keep the situation under control, it has gotten worse. Now that it has become apparent that gang violence is not getting better, three authors have tak en initiative to propose possible solutions. Is there even an effective solution to the youth and gang violence? Dave Grossman, the author of Killing In America, What Are We Doing to Our Children, believes that our youth is being desensitized by the media. In particular, Grossman believes that through exposure to violence through movies and video games, our youth is being classically conditioned to enjoy violence. He states that this behavior starts off â€Å"innocently†(Grossman 312) with cartoon programsShow MoreRelated Possible Solutions to the Youth Violence Problem Essay1547 Words   |  7 PagesPossible Solutions to the Youth Violence Problem The birds are chirping, the sun is beaming down through the clouds, and you can hear the shrieks of excitement from the neighborhood park. Walking down the street, you envision raising your family on this picture-perfect street. 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Violence is often a behavioral response that children are taught to use in order to achieve their goals. On the other hand, violence can become a routine and automatic way of coping with stressful situ ations for some children (Youth Violence and Suicide Prevention Team 1999). You violence is an old problem that is frequently an issue over which there is much debate. Unfortunately, the increasing violence amongst childrenRead More Youth Violence Essay1223 Words   |  5 Pages Youth Violence   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Youth violence is an escalating problem in American society today. There are many different factors that can be blamed for this problem. During the last decade of the twentieth century people began searching for answers to this dilemma which is haunting America. Many tragic school shootings have taken place within the last decade that have gained the attention of the public. As of now, no one can give the right answer to the problem or the reason that it happens because there