Recent figures show an increase in violent crime among youngsters under the age of 18. Some psychologist claims that the basic reason for this is that children these days are not getting the social and emotional learning they need from parents and teacher

According to recent statistic, the number of violent crime committed by young people under 18 years old tends to go up. Some psychologist blames the lack of getting the social and emotional learning from parents and teachers for this phenomenon. In my opinion, I partly agree with this idea.

Admittedly, today, due to the difficult economic condition, many parents usually have to work overtime, even at the weekend to earn enough money for their cost of living. Therefore, parents rarely spend their time for educating their children about social or emotional behavior. In addition, because the school curriculum only focuses on academic subjects, teachers have a few lessons to teach children about ethical principles in the society. As a result, youngsters do not have enough awareness about moral issue and they are easily to get involved in violence and crime. For example, a teenager in my neighborhood has beaten another one because of their conflict at class.

On the other hand, the development of technology like TV or computer is also an important reason for aggressive behavior of the young nowadays. To specify, children are likely under the influence of films on TV or computer games. Hence, they tend to imitate the criminal action of films or games such as shooting, slashing, hitting. For example, a 14 years old boy in my town slashed his friend by a knife after he watched plenty of Chinese martial art films. Equally important, even some kinds of books can also have the negative effect on youngsters, which may lead them become more aggressive.

In conclusion, although violent crimes of young people derive from many causes, parents and teachers should play a major role of teaching them about controlling their emotion and behavior in order to prevent criminal activities.