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.