Writing Survival Guide
WhyDo Kids Kill?
Sample Cause and Effect Essay
Flowchart
Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.
Downloadable mp3 file here: http://www.beyondutopia.net/podcasts/killer-kids.mp3
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It is difficult to explain why there have been so many cases in the United States of kids killing parents, relatives, schoolmates, and total strangers. This essay flow chart helps students recognize how to support an argument and to avoid flaws in their logic. |
Like many of society's troubling issues, the explanations are murky at best. Yet, despite the lack of clarity, we want to untangle motives, influences, factors, and possible deterrents.
When postulating a cause and effect relation, it is important to examine the nature of explanations and the argument for possible bias, logic flaws, faulty assumptions.
Components of the Essay:
Engaging the Reader. Start with an illustrative scene, or details from cases that cause one to think.
Omaha Killer's Troubled Past: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22889325-2703,00.html
Massacre at Virginia Tech: http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/virginiatech.shootings/
Colorado New Life Church Killer: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2007/dec/09/shooting-reported-new-life-church-springs/
Female Security Guard Takes Down Gunman: http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-1296521,00.html
Statistics and
History.
It is very persuasive to provide statistics and background. However, statistics
can distort the situation and shape the reader's perception of events. Statistics
can reinforce negative stereotypes, in addition to providing a realistic view
of things.
Nature vs. Nurture.
Are some people born violent? Or, alternatively, does the environment make a
person violent? Are individuals socialized into violence? Nature vs. nurture
arguments are easily accepted by most readers, but if one is not careful, an
argument can be biased and simply reinforce already existing opinions, ideas,
and political stances.
Possible Cause
#1: Television Violence (emulatory behavior)
Psychologist Albert Bandura conducted ground-breaking experiments which suggest
that children imitate violent behavior seen on television. This argument has
been expanded to suggest that children will behave violently after being exposed
to media of all kinds, including video games, multiplayer interactive computer
games, violent images, television, and even music.
Cautionary note: Does the author have a hidden agenda? Are the statistics being used to support underlying bias? There can be faulty assumptions, too. Does every exposure to violent behavior result in violent action? Does this assumption lead to damaging stereotyping?
Possible Cause
#2: Brain Chemistry
Are some people born with brains that are "wired" to be violent? Brain
scans that demonstrate differences between the brains of violent criminals and
ordinary law-abiding individuals have been used to support the notion that organic
differences in the brain and nervous system are responsible for violent behavior.
Cautionary note: Whose research is being used? How did they conduct their research? Is there hidden bias? Be alert to socio-economic, ethnic stereotyping which masks itself as "biology."
Possible Cause
#3: Culture of Killing
Do some societies develop a "culture of killing" that rewards people
who are violent in certain ways? Are kids who kill transformed into anti-heroes,
or cult figures? Does this lead to copycat acts? Which sociological and psychological
theories and theorists can be used to weigh in on both sides of the argument?
Cautionary note: Is the writer's bias getting in the way of objectivity? Are things what they seem to be? Do appearances deceive?
Possible Cause
#4: Warped Values
Can children's violent acts be attributed to a general decline in morality and
values? This argument is often used by individuals who are promoting a particular
agenda. In using this argument, it is very important to define morality, values,
and the ideal. It is useful to also refer to philosophical ideas about the common
good and ethical behavior.
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Useful Websites:
Statement made by children participating at the North American Regional Consultation for the UN Study on Violence against children, Toronto, 3 June 2005 .http://www.crin.org/violence/search/closeup.asp?infoID=5761
Kip Kinkel: The Killer
at Thurston High (PBS Special)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/kinkel/
Lionel Tate: "Wrestling
Case" Draws Life Sentence
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/03/09/national/main277536.shtml
Tate case profile: http://www.karisable.com/ymltate.htm
Red Lake Ojibwa Reservation
school shootings:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0323/p01s01-ussc.html
Albert Bandura, etal
"Transmission of Aggression through Imitation of Aggressive Models"
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Bandura/bobo.htm
Imitative Violence:
An overview from India and Indian film
"The Trend of Violence on the Indian Screen & its Influence on Children"
http://www.bitscape.info/research/screen_3o.htm
"TV Violence
and Brainmapping in Children," by John P. Murray
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p011070.html
Why They Kill:
The Discoveries of a Maverick Criminologist, by Richard Rhodes
http://www.csudh.edu/dearhabermas/tchessay61.htm
Bullying in high
school: Of Bullies and the Bullied (Psychology Today)
http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/PTO-19930101-000010.html
ChildTrauma Academy,
Bruce D. Perry, M.D.
Articles on the relationship between childhood neglect, trauma, and brain development
http://www.feralchildren.com/en/pager.php?df=perry2002
