I Could Kill You

1. I Could Kill You Presentation about Violence Among Children

2. Bullying

3. What is it? • Bullying is an aggressive behavior that involves negative and unwanted actions, a pattern of behavior that is repeated over time, and an imbalance of power and/or strength. • Types of bullying: physical, sexual, verbal, racial, cyber, social exclusion or isolation, taking money, or damaging the victim’s property and things, threatening and being forced to do something one doesn’t want to do, spreading lies and false rumors about the victim,

4. Who Bullies? • Anyone can bully, but bullies can be people who don’t get attention normally, so they get it through bullying • People who lack social skills • People who have been bullied before • People with family who doesn’t show love, or emotions towards one another • Sometimes bullies come from homes with a lot of anger

5. What Bullying does to the Victim • Effects on the people bullied: • People who are bullied can be affected in a lot of ways, and usually the effects are long-lasting. Effects: • -Health problems • - Depression • - Suicide thoughts • - Low self esteem • - Poor grades

6. The students who bully are more likely to: • -Carry a weapon • -Drink alcohol • -Steal or vandalize • -Be frequently involved in fights • -Have poor grades

7. The Effects of Bullying on Others • Bullying not only has its effects on the students being bullied, but also on the school as a whole and those who observe others being bullied. When the teachers and staff at schools don’t take the actions that they need to, to try and stop the bullying, the students experience a wide variety of feelings and emotions.

8. Effects of Bullying on Others • -The School may not feel like a safe and secure place for the students when a lot of bullying is happening. • - Students don’t like going to school, they aren’t sure of what could happen to them, they might be the next one bullied, • - The students learn to believe that the teachers and other faculty members at school don’t care for them, because they aren’t taking actions to stop the bullying, • -The students may feel like they aren’t liked because the teachers don’t get involved in bullying as much as they should, and the kids will think that the teachers don’t care if they get hurt. • - Student’s may be more distracted in class, they are worried about getting bullied or worried that people they know are getting bullied.

9. Who Gets Bullied? • -Boys and girls are equally bullied • -Everyone can get bullied, but there are traits that make certain children targets: • -Children with disabilities that are noticeable. • - Children that are socially isolated • -Children who show insecurity • - Children who get along and relate better with adults • -Children who are very emotional and tend to cry a lot • -Children who are weak and non-athletic

10. People involved in the Bullying Circle • - Students who bully • -Followers • -Supporters • -Passive supporters • -Disengaged onlookers • -Possible defenders • -Defenders • The Victim

11. Statistics About Bullying • -1 out of 4 teenagers are bullied. • -20% of high school students admit that they have considered suicide within the past year because of being bullied • -2/3 of students who are bullied, become bullies • -Every day, there are 160, 000 students who stay home from school because of bullying. • -While 60 % of middle school students say they are being bullied, only 16% of the school staff believe students are being bullied. • Question: Has anybody ever experienced bullying whether you were the one bullying, the one being bullied, or watching someone else being bullied? How did you feel, or how did it make you feel?

12. Cyber Bullying • The Cyber Bullying Research center defines cyber bullying as, “when someone repeatedly harasses, mistreats, or makes fun of another person online or while using cell phones or electronic devices.” • -Girls are more likely to be cyber bullied than boys. The type of cyber bullying done by girls and boys are different too. Boys tend to post hurtful pictures online and girls spread rumors online. • -All races are affected by cyber bullying whether it is being an offender or a victim • -1 out of 3 teens have experienced cyber bullying • -1 out of 6 pre teens have experienced cyber bullying • Sometimes cyber bullying doesn’t get as much attention as other bullying because it’s not physical and sometimes a lot of people don’t even know its happening.

13. Youth Gang Violence

14. Definition of a Gang A Street Gang is a closely or loosely structured group of individuals who express identification by adopting certain dress attire, adoption of symbolic behavior that includes nicknames of individuals, tattoos, or hand signs. It also includes the claiming of a territory in a neighborhood. The activities of this group include criminal acts of violence, threats and anti-social behavior.  A gang may be small or large in membership, with subdivisions determined many times by location of the gang or ages of the members. (Sometimes smaller gangs will be called "sets", "cliques", "posse", or "crews".)

15. Gang Statistics

16. Statistics   HOW MANY GANGS AND GANG MEMBERS IN THE U.S.? • 24,500 gangs in the U.S • 750,000 gang members in 2000 and 2007 • One Million gang members in 2009 • 2. HOW OLD ARE GANG MEMBERS? • 40% are juveniles (under 18) and 60% are adults, or about 400,000 teenage gang members and 600,000 adult gang members. • 3. HOW MANY MALES AND FEMALES ARE IN GANGS? • Between 90% to 94% of gang members are male. Between 6% to 10% are female. • There are approximately 360,000 teenage boys and 32,000 teenage girls in gangs • There are approximately 560,000 adult males and 48,000 adult females in gangs

17. More Statistics Statistics for number and percent of gang members by race/ethnicity: • Black/African-American Gang members: 31% or about 310,000 • Hispanic Gang members: 47% or about 470,000 • white/caucasian gang members: 13% or about 130,000 by police survey • white/caucasian gang members: 40% by self-reported youth survey • Asian gang members: 7% or about 70,000 • Indian/Native American gang members: Not many by number, but an increasing problem on reservations

18. Why Join A Gang? • Why Join a Gang: • Actively recruited by older Gang members (Controversial fact) • Social reasons: Youth join to be around friends and family members. • Protection: Youth join for presumable safety they believe the Gang can give them. • Also reported by youth but with far less frequency is joining a gang to make money and get into selling drugs. Also rarely but still reported a forced or coerced joining.

19. Women in Gangs • HOW MANY GIRLS ARE INVOLVED IN GANGS? • There are approximately 32,000 teenage female gang members • There are approximately 48,000 adult female gang members • 60% of gangs do not allow female members. (Girls hang around, go to parties, but are not considered "members.") • 40% of gangs allow female members, but only 1 out of 10 members is a girl • There are very few all girl gangs. Only 2% of all gangs are female only.

20. Women in Gangs (cont.) • Female gang members commit fewer crimes and violence: Their incarcerations tend to be for drug use, petty theft, or domestic issues (e.g.,fights with parents and runaway). • In the U.S., there are approximately 14,000 girls in correctional placement versus 90,000 boys. The majority of the 14,000 girls have some gang affiliation, but how many is not clear. .

21. Cont.. • 70% of girls in jail report having been sexually abused or victimized as children • 65% of girls in jail have a psychological issue such as clinical depression or generalized anxiety vs 30% for boys (although this number is increasing). • 26% of girls in jail have been in special education. Although there are far fewer girls than boys in special education, girls who do have learning problems are at very high risk for gang association.

22. Gang Violence

23. Gang Violence How much crime is committed by gangs and gang members? According to surveys of crime victims, gang members commit about 6% of non-fatal violent crime, or 370,000 out of 6.6 million violent crimes in the U.S What proportion of serious and violent crime is attributable to gang members? Studies of large urban samples show that gang members are responsible for a large proportion of all violent offenses committed during the adolescent years. Rochester gang members self-reported committing 68 percent of all adolescent violent offenses; in Seattle, gang members self-reported committing 85 percent of adolescent robberies; and in Denver, gang members self-reported committing 79 percent of all serious violent adolescent offenses

24. Dangers for Women • WHAT ARE THE RISK FACTORS FOR GIRLS WHO JOIN GANGS? • School failure and learning disabilities: One out of three girls in gangs have been in special education • - Lack of involvement in extracurricular activities. • - Sexual abuse and victimization • - Family dysfunction • - Substance abuse • - Early sexual activity • - Emotional and psychological disorders • - Exposure to violence

25. Jail Time

26. Jail Time •  HOW MANY JUVENILE GANG MEMBERS ARE IN PRISON? •  15% of juveniles in prison are female and 85% are male •  90,000 boys are in some kind of detention facility, work camp, residential placement or correctional facility. • 9 out of 10 boys in detention have some level of gang affiliation •  14,000 girls (under 19 yrs.) are in some kind placement: detention, residential placement or correctional facility. It isn't clear how many have gang affiliation..

27. Getting Out • Research has documented that former gang members, especially marginal and short-term ones, typically left a gang without complication or facing any serious consequences (Decker and Lauritsen, 2002; Decker and Van Winkle, 1996). • However, for more long-term and/or core members, the process of leaving a gang is likely to be more gradual and met with greater difficulty—particularly for youths in more highly organized gangs that have a firmer foothold in a community or neighborhood. • Other situational factors that make leaving a gang more difficult include greater dependence on or personal status in the group, continuing perceptions by others (e.g., rivals) that the person is a core member of the gang, and the lack of viable lifestyle alternatives

28. Prevention http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOhX2mOBH5c

29. Child Soldiers Around the World

30. What is a Child Soldier? According to UNICEF, a child soldier is defined as "any child - boy or girl - under 18 years of age, who is part of any kind of regular or irregular armed force or armed group in any capacity, including, but not limited to: cooks, porters, messengers, and anyone accompanying such groups other than family members. It includes girls and boys recruited for sexual purposes and/or forced marriage.” (“Factsheet: Child Soldier”)

31. History of Child Soldiers • Spartans used boys as young as 7 in their army • Ottoman Turks turned young captive boys into soldiers • Many child soldiers served in both the revolutionary and civil war • The Polish Resistance used child soldiers in WWII • (“Child Soldier Victims”)

32. Where are child soldiers? • Somalia • Sudan • Uganda • Burundi • Central African Republic • Chad • Democratic Republic of Congo • Guinea • Liberia • Rwanda • Bosnia • Vietnam • Afghanistan • India • Pakistan • Indonesia • Myanmar (Burma) • Philippines • Nepal • Sri Lanka • Nepal • Sri Lanka • Colombia • Palestine • Iran • Iraq • (“child soldier victims”)

33. Why Use Children as Soldiers? Easy to Capture/Recruit Easy to Brainwash/Influence Gives them the advantage, it is hard for soldiers to shoot at or kill a child who could very well be their younger siblings schoolmate

34. What Children are at Risk? Children who are separated from their families Displaced from their homes Live in areas where war is occurring Have limited access to education Those children who are struggling to survive Children living in areas where society encourages them to join armies (“Factsheet: Child Soldier”)

35. Lord’s Resistance Army • LRA abducts children from homes, schools, and marketplaces • Often times these children are orphans living in orphanages or on the street • Estimates say that 90% of the LRA’s troops were abducted as children • http://www.invisiblechildren.com/videos/28628155

36. Taliban • Recruit children to attend madrassas (religious schools) where they teach the Koran • After the students have memorized the Koran they are taught different Taliban procedures • How to torture and kill a spy • How to execute a suicide bombing • They are then given combative training to prepare them for fighting

37. Reasons Children Join the Taliban • The Taliban target poor families and offer their children shelter, food, and an education at a Madrassa • Sometimes the family will even receive a stipend to send their child to the Taliban school • When American missiles strike civilian structures the Taliban use it as an opportunity to recruit new members • Young boys who view Americans as the source for the destruction of their country will willingly join the Taliban • Taliban use commercials as propaganda to encourage young children to enlist

38. Taliban’s view of Children • Taliban leaders and teachers view children as “sacrificial lambs” • To the Taliban, the children are merely the means god has provided them by which they can win this war

39. Effects of Being a Child Soldier Child soldiers suffer many psychological and physical effects They are separated from their families Removed from homes Exposed to violence and death Suffer many physical injuries including: hearing loss, blindness, loss of limbs, and often death

40. What’s Being Done To Prevent Child Soldiers? In 2011 President Obama deployed 100 armed military advisers to help combat the LRA Many activist groups, such as Invisible Children, have formed to draw attention to the issue

41. References Blonc ,J. (2011). Child Soldiers Victims – Assailants. http://kabiza.com/Childsoldiers.htm Factsheet: Child soldiers. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/childsoldiers.pdf Invisible children. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.invisiblechildren.com/history-of-the-war Third world traveler. (July). Retrieved from http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Life_Death_ThirdWorld/Child_Soldiers.html