What’s happening to children in the developed world? Aren’t childhood and young adulthood supposed to be the most carefree periods of one’s life packed with new and exciting experiences? Yet almost every day, we read of young people committing suicide, knifing or shooting their peers, terrorizing neighborhoods and bullying the elderly. So much aggression; so much despair!
Last week, for instance, there were five school shootings across America. The most deadly was on the campus of Northern Illinois University where a former student randomly opened fire, killing six and wounding 16 before ending his own life. The attack took place without warning. The shooter was said to be a nice guy, known for being particularly bright. There was no advance warning, no telltale personality traits and no suicide note. His actions remain a mystery.
In Britain, investigators are attempting to tackle another mystery involving youngsters. The Welsh town of Bridgend is suffering from a spate of inexplicable suicides. Last Wednesday, a 15-year-old boy was found hanged and on Friday his 20-year-old cousin was found dead in a bathroom with a rope around her neck. These deaths bump up Bridgend’s youth suicide toll to 16 in less than a year. Nine occurred within a two-month period. There are suggestions the victims made a suicide pact or are members of a sinister suicide cult but the police insist that all suicides are unrelated. During the same week, a 10-year-old boy hanged himself in the Yorkshire town of Doncaster just days after discussing the Bridgend suicides with his mother.
In the case of the campus shooter and those of the Bridgend suicides, there are fingers pointing to Internet chat rooms, how-to sites promoting suicide and others where weapons can be bought online.
But surely youngsters with healthy minds wouldn’t be so easily seduced into oblivion when they have their entire lives before them shimmering with so much adventure and opportunity.
It’s a similar story in the US where, according to research undertaken by Dr. James W. Prescott, “more children and youth (ages 5-24 years) have committed suicide in the past ten years than the total number of American combat lives lost in the ten-year Vietnam War. “Yet little or no public attention has been given to this reality and what it represents,” he says.
It’s sometimes thought that children who suffered deprivation are more vulnerable to suicide than their wealthier friends. In other words, poverty is to blame. But this theory isn’t backed up by World Health Organization tables of suicide rates worldwide.
For instance, the rate of suicide in Syria per 100,000 of population is 0.2. In Egypt, it’s even less at 0.1, while in Iran it’s a low 0.4. Compare these rates to those of rich developed countries: Australia — 21.2; France — 26.1; Japan — 36.5, and Sweden — 19.7.
Teenage violence, street crime and vandalism are also on the up-and-up in Britain. As Minette Marin reports in the Times, last week, “three teenagers in Leeds kicked and punched Paul Heppner into unconsciousness because he refused to buy them cigarettes”. And “a man in Manchester was violently attacked by eight hooded teenagers for no reason”.
“More than three-quarters of knife crime is committed by 12— to 20-year-olds”, while “almost 1,300 teenagers were injured in shootings, muggings, stabbings, knifepoint robberies and rapes in London between April and November last year,” writes Marin.
It’s got so bad that Britain’s police will now be issued with portable metal detectors for use outside schools, clubs and pubs. Moreover, the government wants children to submit to impromptu body searches within schools after recently released figures show convictions of children aged between 10 and 17 have tripled over the past decade. When challenged, the children say they have resorted to carrying knives and broken bottles to defend themselves against bullies.
Many of these crimes have been linked to underage drinking and a culture of booze. A Daily Mirror YouGov poll finds that 70 percent of Britons are afraid “to go out after dark” for fear of drunken teens hanging around the streets. More and more children in the US are being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Indeed, Columbia University found the disease had increased 40-fold between 1994 and 2004 among youngsters, some as young as two-years old!!
No one seems to be an authority on why these downhill trends are occurring. Everyone concerned is, instead, lashing out in the hopes of finding scapegoats. There are theories and research galore. Take your pick! I’m no expert but I’ll take mine.
It may be unscientific but I blame parents.
They are the ones ultimately responsible for nurturing and disciplining their kids and they are the primary role models. If they discover the environment where they live is adversely affecting their children, then they should move. If they believe television, computer games or Internet sites are unduly influencing their offspring, those items should be confiscated.
Teachers and social workers are mere band-aids for Deep-rooted societal problems. Parents must take responsibility before the unhappiness sickness that is endemic in Western societies takes permanent root.
