The Rise of Violence?
Posted Sunday, 31 July, 2011 at 6:58 AM.
With two cases of gang fights occurring within a short time frame last year, it was more astonishing when it was reported that of the arrested, there were youths aging 15 to 23 years old.
After the surface of youth violence, the government has been reviewing for suitable measures to contain this issue. Of which, the government has been looking at adjusting the current law to offer the police more authority to handle gang issues. Home Affairs and Law Minister K Shanmugam said “increased police power may be necessary since many youth offenders do not cross the threshold to be picked up under the Criminal Law Temporary Provisions Act, which allows for suspects of criminal activities to be detained without trial”.
However with stricter law, will it backfire instead? For youths who are going through a rebellious stage, they might seek to break the law simply for thrill.
To contain this problem, it should start from childhood education, rather than attempting to change fixed mindsets.
The upbringing of a child is critical, as it would determine their behaviour. It was found that children coming from broken families were “nearly five times more likely to suffer damaging mental troubles”, and children “brought up by a single parent are more likely to do badly at school, suffer poor health, and fall into crime, addiction and poverty as adults”. Before giving birth to your child, reconsider if you can remain devoted to providing for a family.
With the increasing living demands of Singapore, more families have both parents working, leaving their child to childcare centers. Although busy with their work, parents should aim to spend quality time with their child whenever they can, such as watching cartoons with their child. As the cartoon progresses, parents should make use of the program content to instill the correct belief towards violence.
Famous cartoons such as Tom and Jerry and Powerpuff Girls are just a few examples of violent cartoons. They can be entertaining and the child might be laughing at Tom’s failed antics despite using explosives, or Powerpuff Girls leaving the image that girls can beat up boys just as bad. But at the end of the day, it all leaves the child with a single message – violence is acceptable.
Rather than leaving your child to watch cartoons on their own as you work, it would be ideal for you to sit with your child and guide them through the cartoon. Why don’t the Powerpuff Girls have to go to jail although they have a fair share of beating people? Was it because they were carrying out justice and punishing the evil? What had the evildoers done that has been wrong? What could Powerpuff Girls have done besides fighting the evildoers?
Is youth violence really on the rise? Are the slashing cases really signs of an increasingly more aggressive society? Or it boils down to society’s negligence of the younger generation?
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