Commentary

By Vittoria Caroli / Matthew staff

Youth violence is a phenomenon that indicates the violence perpetrated by individuals whose age varies from 10 to 29 years old. The acts which fall under the category of youth violence range from bullying, physical fighting or sexual assaulting to the homicides. It can also refer to drug dealing, armed robbery, thefts or extortion. 

Background Research 

Especially in modern days, as we have been witnessing innumerable cases on TV, youth criminality occurs the most when youngsters are part of a gang.  Adolescence is, par excellence, the period during which teenagers seek their individuality. This individuality is chased through violence, being the young authors of that same violence mistakenly convinced that they will be socially respected and “satisfied,” other than thinking that they will gain a certain important role or spot within society, or more specifically within their own group of peers. 

For insight and evidence of the increasing dangerousness of youth violence in Italy, a report published in September by the Italian association, Antigone, which advocates for the safeguard of rights and guarantees within the penal system, explains how youth violence has been taken over lately. 

The report shows that the number of youngsters incarcerated in the penal institutions arrived at 569. Furthermore, of all the minors imprisoned in the penal institutes aged up to 25 years old, 61% are juveniles of 16to-17 years old. In addition, as the Italian National Institute of Statistics – I.Stat – shows the numbers of juveniles under investigation are breathtaking: out of a total of 19,359 teenagers: 6,165 are 14-to-15 years old; 13,157 are 16-to-17 years old; 27 are 18 or older (of which all are male). 

The causes that lead young people to use violence are countless. Among them there is the influence coming from the violence committed by adults, who are supposed to be mature. It all starts with the intention of emulating what adults do, but then it degenerates into something more dangerous than going against the rules. It degenerates into unstoppable delinquency.  

Furthermore, families and parents have a significant role and impact on youth violence. Usually, the familiar nucleus represents the main nest of young criminals, and the motivations vary: lack of interest or extreme exaggeration in the control of the child’s growth and education, as well as an education founded on the wrong principles and values.  

However, as the Italian psychotherapist Paolo Crepet explains, “Family is not the only one responsible for the drift of young people. The school makes excuses, while politics makes it worse with ineffective interventions.”  

Moreover, Crepet  argues that idleness and laziness are the major causes of juvenile delinquency. Boredom, a life empty of any sacrifice and stimuli, all embraced by the wrong behavior of the parents, wanting to make everything as easy as possible; these all represent, according to the Italian psychotherapist, the main reasons why youth violence takes place.  

Interview with Roberta Bruzzone 

To dig deeper into the topic, I interviewed an Italian criminologist and forensic psychologist Roberta Bruzzone, being her, in my point of view, an expert whose opinion is very much authoritative. She said that this phenomenon has roots that date far back in time.  

Moreover, Bruzzone explained that most of the time, these teenagers are guided by parents who are incapable of educating them or teaching them to embody negative emotions and to transform them, somehow, into positive energy. Instead, left in disarray, these juveniles act according to what they believe is right and legit.  

She identifies a connection between a “total discomfiture in the parental profile,” and youngsters’   “explosive mixture” of immaturity, of incapacity, of dealing with frustration and distorted personalities. 

Bruzzone argued that this phenomenon existed already, yet we are of course assisting to its drifting in a much more evident way. Bruzzone stressed greatly on the role of the parents, who have completely lost sight of their “parental project” – as she called it –. However, what scares the most is that those parents are convinced that kids should not be imposed any limits. And the Italian psychologist rightly commented it as “the biggest idiocy of this epoque.” Most of today’s parents find extreme difficulty in exercising their authority over their sons and daughters, mistakenly becoming their friends and putting themselves at the same level as their children.  

The point is that on both sides – parents and youngsters – there is a lack in maturity. If, on one side, what represents the major cause of the excessive increment of juvenile violence is the incapacity of the parent in doing the parent; while, on the other side, those juveniles are far from knowing what sacrifice and rage tolerance are, being overprotected and thus convinced that there always will be someone else who will pay for their mistakes.  

To conclude my interview, I asked her what should be done to combat tackle this phenomenon, but most importantly if it is possible to make a change. She says that the intervention should be done on the parents’ behavior first; yet Bruzzone herself recognizes that she does not see any light at the end of the tunnel, but she only sees the tunnel.  

“What I see is an entire class of parents who are afraid of their own children and terrified of not being approved by them, which is the worst condition to become a parent. The role parent-son/daughter has completely flipped around,” she said.  

As shown by statistics, youth violence is a phenomenon that has exponentially been growing over the last few years. Do we want to live in jeopardy in a world characterized by new generations that are losing sight of respect and sacrifice, or do we want to live in a place where we feel secure?   

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