By Rozalyn Shepard
Is Youth Violence an Epidemic That Could Hurt Someone You Love?
Greetings, everyone, and welcome to the Create Conversations Community.
When we talk about youth violence, we often focus on what happened, who was involved, and how the situation should be handled after harm has occurred. Those conversations are important, but we must also be willing to look deeper. We must ask what young people may be experiencing before they become involved in crime or violent behavior.
Youth violence does not happen in isolation. It can be connected to the conditions surrounding a young person, including the family system, the community, education, and access to sustainable opportunity. Today, I want to focus on the first of the four obstacles to success faced by poor families, dysfunctional family systems.
Looking Within Our Families
A young person’s first understanding of love, communication, conflict, responsibility, and safety often begins at home. Family is where many young people first learn how to express emotions, respond to disagreement, trust others, accept accountability, and seek help.
When a family system is affected by unresolved wounds, instability, poor communication, constant conflict, emotional disconnection, or the absence of positive guidance, young people may struggle to develop the tools they need to handle life’s challenges. They may carry anger that has never been addressed, pain they do not know how to express, or fear they have learned to hide.
These circumstances do not mean that every young person from a difficult family environment will become violent. They do mean that when young people lack stability, support, guidance, and healthy examples, they may become more vulnerable to isolation, negative peer influence, retaliation, and harmful choices.
That is why this conversation must begin with honest self-examination. We cannot only ask what is wrong with young people. We must also ask what young people are receiving from the adults and family systems around them.
