Youth violence takes on increasingly brutal forms

Victims often beaten by larger groups

print this

Pekka Luoma, principal at a special school run by the City of Helsinki in Outamo in nearby Lohja, knows about the problem of school violence.
      The Outamo school is home to Helsinki schoolchildren aged 15 to 17 who have exhibited some of the worst behavioural problems.
      Luoma is not talking about the pupils at his school alone. He has been a professional in the field for 30 years, and has seen an increase in youth violence.
     
“Outbursts have increased, and they have become more brutal. Young people do not necessarily understand that if you hurt someone, something really bad can happen.”
      The worst instances go beyond ordinary bullying. They involve humiliation of another pupil, with a larger group participating.
      “Violence has become cunning. Girls especially get others to take revenge, and their ability to speak ill of others complicates things”, Luoma explains.
     
Falling victim to violence, the threat of violence, and school bullying have all increased, according to a youth survey by the National Research Institute of Legal Policy.
      Increasingly, more than two people will gang up on a victim, and fights increasingly result in real injury; in 2001 this happened in 45 per cent of cases, and in 20008 it was 53 per cent.
      On the other hand, young people admit to having been involved in a fight or beating less frequently than before; 21 per cent did so in 1995, 17 per cent in 2008.
     
“The most serious forms of violence did not come out in the survey, but there are signs that violent behaviour has increased somewhat in recent years”, says researcher Venla Salmi, commenting on the findings of the study.
      The tendency of bad behaviour to become amplified in a group is evident especially in school bullying: in 75 per cent of cases, there were at least two people behind the attack.
      A similar trend could be seen already in a study on violence among Helsinki youth conducted in 2005 by Matti Tuominen, a researcher at City of Helsinki Urban Facts.
      Among crimes of assault and battery committed by young people under the age of 21, which are reported to the police, the proportion of repeat offenders has grown. There has also been an increase in cases in which a fight involves more than four people.
     
Why does a young person hit another? And why will another look on when a friend is attacked?
      “The group predominates over the individual. Key figures in bullying are capable of acting as opinion leaders and getting others to join in, even if the young people involved would not approve of doing such a thing on an individual level”, says psychiatrist Raimo Tiesola.
      Violent young people often have personal experiences of violence, but lack the ability to fully comprehend the consequences.
      “Those who comply fear that they might fall victim to the same kind of treatment. In group situations the event can be rationalised in a way that they had nothing to do with it”, Tiesola says.
     
The problems experienced by young people have also become more complex.
      “Who are a young person’s real parents? There is unemployment, and in prosperous families, it is possible that they are not at home very often”, says Principal Luoma.
     
School requires a degree of regularity, which can be a serious challenge for a young person in trouble.
      “I could throw a few ideas toward those who want to cut back on the network of schools: put social workers, youth workers, or block police officers in the empty spaces that are found in schools”, Luoma suggests.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Survey: Bullying becoming increasingly common in secondary schools (26.9.2009)
  Beating of schoolgirl in Helsinki indicates that teenagers’ life is becoming increasingly aggressive (14.12.2009)

See also:
  COMMENTARY: Civics as a cure for social indifference (15.12.2009)

Helsingin Sanomat