Self-Defense & Violence Prevention Blog

It costs a lot less to prevent violent crime and victimization in the first place than to try to rectify the problem afterwards. Once people have committed an act of violence or victimization, we already have a victim and a victimizer–two major problems.

The people in society have many ways of preventing violence and victimization. Today, I want to stress the usefulness of getting psychological treatment for troubled kids.

Due to abnormal conditions, some normal people may commit a crime of passion. However, the other violent criminals and victimizers have some sort of psychological abnormality that makes them more dangerous than other people. I bet most of those people show signs of trouble long before they become full-fledged violent criminals. Namely, I bet they show signs of behavioral problems and psychological disturbance as kids.

If we provide help to those wayward kids, then we can probably often prevent them from becoming violent criminals or victimizers. We can save both the would-be criminal and the their would-be victims. Otherwise, the wayward kids will end up hurting people, at which point we will have to catch them, stop them, and either rehabilitate them or keep them locked up for life.

Many schools already have some on-site psychologists. But most schools currently have very limited funds and can barely afford up-to-date textbooks let alone psychological care. To prevent future crime, I think the people in society need to make a massive effort to fund psychological resources for kids.

Also, when kids commit crimes, the kids get punished often with jail. But that does not seem to effectively rehabilitate most of them. I believe jail often acts as a crime school; people come out more dangerous than they go in. I would recommend putting the children into required psychological treatment to correct their behavior rather than throwing them in jail or serving other punishments. If the children’s behavior makes them a serious danger to others or themselves, then let’s have them restrained and treated in a medical facility rather than thrown in jails that mostly exacerbate the problem.

Remember, psychologists can find the causes of all sorts of psychological disturbances and provide solutions. Different solutions work for different problems and different kids. Some possible solutions for any given kid include mentoring, education, therapy, medication, and so on and so forth.

What do you think?