KRISHIA P.

BLASCO
Juvenile Violence

III-VIENNOISERIE

ENGLISH

My fellow classmates and our ever beautiful teacher Ms. Maffeth C. Opiana, Good Afternoon. I, Krishia P. Blasco, here in front of you to deliver a speech which is all about Juvenile Violence. To start my speech, I would like to ask you, when hearing the word Juvenile, what comes into your mind? Simply, juvenile means a child or young person who is not yet old enough to be regarded as an adult. This means these are children or as we call teenagers that are still young to enact adultery. But as you can see in our society today, these teens we call are involved in explicit adultery violence and actions. Juveniles also commit crimes such as murder, homicide, kidnapping, theft etc. According to research, Crimes involving minors rose by 18 percent in 2008, with most offenders committing theft, figures from the Philippine National Police showed. A total of 2,158 cases involving underaged offenders were reported to the PNP Women and Children Protection Center, half of them theft cases committed from January to December of 2008. Cases of drug use also rose by some 28 percent, from 113 in 2007 to 145 last year. This is evidence that these children are losing themselves in the right path and ending up in a dead-end. What are the risk factors of juvenile violence? First, the Media. We all know that technology is the widely used advanced creation of mankind today. Violence is also spreading over technology through televisions, radios, mobile phones and social network. Children at a very young age without the supervision of the parent could lead into exposure of violence and corrupting the minds of these young people and they can easily adapt to what they see and hear. Second, Substance abuse, it is simply the use of illicit drugs or the abuse of prescription or over-the-counter drugs for purposes that can cause addiction and severe negative health effects to a person, in this case, juveniles. Social problems are also a risk factor to juvenile violence. This is where bad neighborhood comes in where includes: availability of firearms; community laws and norms favorable toward drug use; firearms and crime; media portrayals of violence; low neighborhood attachment and community organization; and extreme economic deprivation. Family risk factors include: family management problems; family conflict and parental attitudes favorable to violence; and parental involvement in the problem behavior. Lastly, Individual and peer factors include: friends who engage in the problem behavior; early initiation of the problem behavior; and ones innate or constitutional predisposition to violence. Let me tell you News concerning juvenile violence. It is is about a 16-year-old girl and her boyfriend who beat to death her little sister while imitating moves from the Mortal Kombat video game. Heather Trujillo and Lamar Roberts, 17 years of age , kicked, punched, and body-slammed 7-year-old Zoe Garcia until she was unconscious. They have been charged as adults with felony child abuse. When the girl stopped breathing, the pair tried to revive her with CPR before calling 911. She suffered a broken wrist, brain swelling, and multiple bruises. A witness claimed that when asked why he kept beating the girl, Roberts responded, I dont know. I was drunk. The teens face up to 48 years imprisonment. This situation clearly shows the effect and cause of juvenile violence to general public. If we dont act now, none of us will. What can we do to lessen or rather prevent juvenile violence? First of all, a child should have a strong bond with the family and community and should be disciplined by the parents and understand the perspective and emotions of the child to avoid misunderstandings and arousing the childs anger. The parents should always supervise and guide their children to whatever they may do and their intentions and plans outside the home and they should always serve as a role model to their children. The parents should also observe the kind of environment they are living to make sure it would not affect the childs growth and development. As children to society, we know its inevitable to control your temper. Thats why, to avoid committing violence, one must learn to talk about ones feelings one should find someone who they can express themselves fully and understandably and let their feelings all out to calm one selfs anger and ones temper. One must listen to others a person should listen carefully and respond without getting upset towards a persons negative feedback and understand their point of view and lastly, negotiate - work out your problems with someone else by looking at alternative solutions and compromises. Now that we know what should be done to avoid juvenile violence, we can make a difference to more generations to come. Like Mohandas Gandhi said I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is

only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Once again, this is Krishia P. Blasco and hoping for a better beginning. Thank you.