Sport Killing: Teens Victimizing the Homeless

On Tuesday. February 20, a CNN report noted the increasing frequency of what criminologists call "sport killings," teenagers beating and murdering the homeless. According to this report, in 2006, 122 homeless were attacked and 20 were murdered by a group of teenagers described as "largely middle- class teens, with no criminal records, attacking the homeless with bats, golf clubs, paintball guns." I commented on two blogs discussing this disturbing trend in teenage violence. The first, at NC Mental Hope News, is an objective summary of the CNN report. The second blog, "Sport Killing Brought on by Lack of After School Programs?" at Voteswagon.com takes a political and cultural look at the etiology of teen sport killing. My comments follow.

My comment at NC Mental Hope News:

Thank you for such a thorough post. This CNN report certainly unveils an extremely disconcerting and all too unnoticed trend of violence among teenagers. Reading this made me wonder if these teens like Billy Ammons, Tom Daugherty, and Brian Hooks, pictured left, really get lost in the moment and fail to realize what they are doing, or if they are calculating and cold individuals who simply enjoy battering the defenseless homeless. Evidence that the teenagers get swept away by the violent fantasy before they realize what they've done can be found in the American Psychological Association findings that violent video games and music can increase aggression. This finding may also explain why the sport killers are almost entirely boys, since boys are found to play violent games and listen to violent music more than girls. There are also many individual, family, and community risk factors that can predispose a young person to aggression. However, I find it hard to believe that these teenagers have no idea that they are committing horrific acts as they humiliate, beat, and sometimes kill our nation's homeless. If teens simply could not help themselves, they would all be out killing homeless people. I think evidence for premeditation and awareness of the acts lies in Billy Ammon's statement that the beating of Norris Gaynor "felt like teeing off."

My comment at Voteswagon.com:

This is a very interesting and thought- provoking view on the cause of the increasing frequency of teen sport killings. I do not think that most people would take this sort of political and cultural look into teen violence. I agree that the teenagers of present America are suffering due to cut-backs in after-school programs and supervision. This theory is backed up by an American Psychological Association Monitor on Psychology article, in which Robert W. Blum states that, "Too many kids- rich and poor- are left to their own devices. Kids need structure to grow and to be healthy." Blum found that academic performance, amount of structure during free time, and family relationships play a much larger role in teenage risky behavior than do race or family income. According to a survey by the Afterschool Alliance, during the 2005/2006 school year, 75% of after-school programs operated at or above maximum capacity, and 87% of respondents said that there were children in their communities who needed after-school programs but had no access to them. The survey also reports that fewer than half of the respondents felt secure about their funding for the next two years, and only 20% felt secure about funding for the next three to five years. Does this mean that the sport killings will only continue to become more and more frequent? A report released today by the Alliance announces that President Bush plans not to increase funding in 2008. Rather, there will be $981 million in funding out of the requested $56 billion, and forty- four education programs are targeted for elimination. If Blum is correct, it seems that, with this further cut- back in after- school program funding, the amount of unsupervised teenagers will continue to rise, along with violent and risky behaviors such as sport killing.

Who Has Been Stealing from Mom's Medicine Cabinet: Teens Frequently Caught With Their Hands in the Medicinal Cookie Jar

A report released on Wednesday, February 14 by director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy John Walters, pictured right, concluded that teenagers' use of prescription drugs is remaining stable if not increasing even though their use of marijuana has declined in the past three years. A PDF version of the report is available at the ONDCP website. Walters' office found that 2.1 million teenagers abused prescription drugs in 2005, and the most commonly misused drugs are stimulants such as Adderall, painkillers such as OxyContin and Vicodin, and anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax. In an article in the University Daily Kansan, a college sophomore named Sarah describes her former addiction to Adderall, saying, "I took it pretty much before every single test, any time I needed to concentrate and get something done. I'm a really big procrastinator, so it was really easy when I took it because I could just knock something out in an hour."

Adolescents taking stimulants regularly to improve school performance and cut down studying time is much more dangerous than they know. NIDA, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, reports that stimulants can have serious consequences including cardiovascular failure and lethal seizures. Painkillers, or opioids, also sometimes have extreme side effects, examples of which are respiratory depression and death. Anti-anxiety drugs, or central nervous system depressants, such as Xanax, often cause withdrawal symptoms such as seizures.

These statistics are not meaningful until they are put into the context of how teenagers feel about prescription medication misuse. A study released on January 24 by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America found that 40% of teens and 37% of parents thought that teen abuse of prescription drugs was safer than abuse of illicit street drugs. Steve Pasierb, president and CEO of the partnership, stated, "This is a case of misinformation and poor attitudes - teens seeing few health risks associated with intentional abuse - teamed with easy access at home and via the Internet. Together it's a potentially lethal combination." What is causing this scary increase in teen abuse of prescription drugs? Psychiatrist Richard Friedman believes that the media may have a great deal to do with this trend. In an article for the New England Journal of Medicine, Friedman writes, "Expenditures by the pharmaceutical industry for direct-to-consumer advertising increased from $1.8 billion in 1999 to $4.2 billion in 2004. One effect has been to foster an image of prescription drugs as an integral and routine aspect of everyday life."

Inundating teens with advertisements for prescription drugs does not send the appropriate message. It is easy to think, "What harm could it do? I just need some sleep." Another cause of the rise in teen prescription drug abuse is easy access. In the New England Journal of Medicine article, a college student named John states that, "Prescription drugs are a lot easier to get than street drugs. Kids can get then on the street, from parents and friends, or on the Internet." Aside from these personal avenues to prescription medications, teenagers also have a very easy time getting the drugs from doctors. An 18-year- old named Claire told Friedman, "You can always find a doctor who you can convince that you have a sleeping problem to get Ambien or that you have ADD to get Adderall."

To help reverse the increasing frequency of teenage prescription drug abuse, Friedman suggests educating doctors about the signs of addiction and also addressing the issue directly with teenagers, since they underestimate the dangers of using stimulants, depressants, and anti-anxiety prescription medications. The ONDCP took measures February 20th by releasing new guidelines for prescription drug disposal, which calls for putting unused or expired prescription medications in undesirable substances, sealing them in plastic bags, and throwing them away or taking them to pharmaceutical return locations. If people keep up with these guidelines, as well as the educational measures suggested above, teenagers should experience much more difficulty in obtaining these potentially dangerous prescription medications. The bottom line is, the medicinal cookie jar needs to be under lock and key, and teenagers need to know that there are consequences to sticking their hands in it.

Teen Dating: Disturbing Violent and Electronic Abuse Trends

We all know that domestic abuse exists. Husbands and wives abusing each other physically and emotionally is shocking and disturbing, but it has been happening for hundreds, maybe thousands, of years. However, there is a new, even more disconcerting trend taking place. Teenagers are physically abusing and basically stalking each other through use of cell phones and online accounts. This startling phenomenon is made worse by the fact that many teenagers are afraid to report abuse and do not know who to turn to. In honor of National Teen Violence Awareness and Prevention Week (February 5-9), new programs are underway encouraging the prevention of and education about teenage dating abuse. The first program is that of Sarah Van Zanten, pictured right, a 17 year- old from Palo Alto, California who is touring the Bay Area to educate others her age about her own terrifying experience with violence in teenage relationships. Sarah is a part of the second project, a hotline called "Love is Respect," funded by Liz Claiborne, the Office of Violence against women, and the Domestic Violence Hotline to help teenage victims of the fairly recent trend of abuse via cellular phones and the internet. I found two very interesting blogs, one addressing violence in teenage relationships, and the other addressing wireless emotional abuse. My comments on these two blogs are below.

Comment on Zendo Deb's blog about teenage violence:

To answer your opening question, boys (and girls) are getting their violent inspiration from all of those sources. Abuse tends to be a familial trait passed down through the generations, so boys are likely to hit their girlfriends if they are used to their dads hitting their moms. They are also desensitized somewhat from violent video games and movies, and they feel pressured to conform to their peers. I found a more recent study (2004) from the Department of Justice that reports that females 20-34 are now at the highest risk of nonfatal intimate partner violence. Nonetheless, the statistic from TRU that 1 in 3 teenagers know someone like Sarah Van Zanten who has been physically abused is staggering, and that is only if the victims have told anyone. I congratulate you on noting that violence does not discriminate socioeconomically. In 2005, 15% of all intimate partner homicides took place in suburban areas, just under the 20% in rural areas. Teenagers need to know that socioeconomic status does not protect them from violence.

Comment on Poppy's blog about high tech student abuse:

Thank you for such a thorough post. These statistics are shocking to say the least. The technological prowess of today's teenagers certainly makes it easier for them to be in constant contact with each other. However, with the amount of sleep teenagers need (about 9 hours), I'm shocked that 24% are able to contact one another every single hour between midnight and 5am. According to a report by the National Center for Sleep Disorders Research, that disturbance in their sleep pattern is very unhealthy for them, since they are not getting any REM sleep, necessary to proper cognitive functioning. Such behavior could easily wreak havoc on a teenager's academic performance, not to mention the fact that they must be text messaging each other constantly throughout their classes (10-30 times per hour). The fact that parents are not all that aware of their teens' relentless communication with their partners is not very surprising. As adolescents get older, they spend more and more time with their friends and less time with their parents. What is worrisome is the point when these cellular relationships become obsessions. Teenagers should not have to fear repercussions from their partners for not responding to the fiftieth text message that day, nor should they hide this physical and emotional abuse from their parents. At least now they will have someone anonymous to call for advice, thanks to the new National Teen Dating Abuse Helpline, loveisrespect.org.

Adolescent Autonomy Threatened: MySpace to Give Parents Access

In January, MySpace.com announced that it would soon give parents access to their children's information on the social networking site. According to the United Press International, free software named "Zephyr," set for release this summer, will allow parents to see the name, age, and location their children are displaying on MySpace. A parent would see something like the image on the right, but it would be the page of the parent's child. This move to give parents more access is apparently an attempt to prevent being sued by thirty- three U.S. attorneys general. MySpace is giving parents what they want because MySpace does not want to lose money. Unfortunately, MySpace has forgotten about the teenagers' privacy. On the surface, the decision to allow parents to see their children's MySpace names and ages seems harmless at the least. After all, law enforcement officials report that dozens of teens have been molested and some murdered by people they first met through MySpace. The problem is that the information parents will be allowed to see (name, age, location) cannot help them stop their children from meeting dangerous people online, unless of course a teenage girl decides to call herself "I want to be raped." Teenagers will continue to meet dangerous people online, and parents will gradually be given more and more access until their teenagers' web pages are no longer private forums. During human development, it is necessary to achieve certain salient developmental tasks in order to adapt in a healthy manner and move on to the next stage of development. The salient developmental tasks to be achieved during adolescent development are intimacy in friendships and romantic relationships, academic achievement, and autonomy from one's parents. The adolescent must gradually move away from the parents in order to create his or her own identity. In "What to Know About Teen Independence," Kathleen Boyce Rodgers, a former assistant professor of Family Life, reports that, "Adolescents need to explore their world more independently so they can learn to feel confident in themselves and their abilities...They may begin to experiment with new ways to dress; or spend more time with friends and less time with family." Naturally, parents struggle with their teens' newfound independence. They are tempted to remain protective and controlling. Contrary to common belief, this is not in adolescents' best interest. Rodgers advises parents to monitor the behavior of teens without being intrusive, to let teens practice decision-making with minimal parental guidance, and to provide opportunities for teens to be independent within a safe environment.

The truth is that MySpace is a safe environment. The victims of sexual assault who met their attackers on MySpace had to agree to meet these strangers in person. MySpace is simply another place for predators to find victims. It is not any different than the mall or the park. We have all been taught "Don't talk to strangers." This mantra needs to be revised to say, "Don't talk to strangers whatsoever, whether you are online or at the mall." Teenagers that fall prey to predators online are not victims of poor security, but rather victims of poor education. While parents constantly checking their kids' MySpace pages will do nothing more than aggravate teenagers struggling to achieve autonomy, pro-actively educating these same teenagers may save their lives. Furthermore, evidence shows that most teens use MySpace responsibly, not hap- hazardly. A 2006 Pew Internet & American Life Project survey of 953 American adolescents ages 12- 17 found that 66% of teens with MySpace profiles allow only approved friends to access their profiles. Moreover, most teens knew the difference between private and public profiles, and most of them who reported using MySpace to make new friends were actually referring to friends of friends that they had met, not strangers. Steve Jones, pictured on the left, is a communications professor who studies new media at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Jones states that, "One of the things to take away from this report should be a sense of 'the kids are alright.' It's clear that teens are not just willy-nilly using social networking sites and making themselves vulnerable to predators." Jones admits that there are some teenagers who are careless and some even invite trouble, but the independence of the responsible adolescents should not be intruded upon by overly concerned parents. Contrary to what most parents believe, teenagers not wanting their parents to see their web pages does not mean that the teenagers are hiding anything. They are simply trying to use MySpace for the purpose that the name suggests, to have a private place to express themselves and exert their growing independence. The money and time being spent on creating software for parents to annoy their teenagers by nagging them about their MySpace names would be much better spent on software or programs to educate adolescents about the dangers of online predators.