I just read a great article by Dawn Turner Trice about Dr. Carl Bell’s teen violence prevention principles. Bell works as a respected psychiatrist, violence-prevention expert and president of Chicago’s Community Mental Health Council. He also wrote the book, The Sanity of Survival: Reflections on Community Mental Health and Wellness
Perhaps referencing Bell, the author of the article wrote that, yes, we do need to strengthen the enforcement of gun laws and put people who commit crimes against children in jail. However, we usually cannot curtail illegal gun possession until after the gun has been used, and the threat of jail does not effectively deter most violent crimes but instead only does something after-the-fact.
As the means of effectively preventing teen violence, Bell recommends that we find ways to ensure that young people have a sense of connectedness; have access to medicines and counseling; have a sense of power, self-esteem and community; and have the skills needed to communicate when they need help. Bell has more expertise than I, but it reminds me of a post I recently made in which I said that, to effectively prevent violence, we need to provide psychological treatment to dangerously wayward kids.
Bell also explains that preventing violence with those methods will also help other problems. For example, providing help to troubled children will also prevent them from using drugs, having sex too soon, and committing suicide. So putting resources into teen violence prevention will not take them away from those other prevention needs.
What do you think? Do you also agree with Bell?
