Samuel Luiz was 24 years old when a group of kids beat him to death outside a nightclub in A Coruña. the police arrested seven individualstwo were minors. Both confessed and were sentenced to three and a half years of confinement. The trial starts this week to the other five accused. Now two of them are 29 years old, the other three are 22. But the events occurred in the summer of 2021, when most of The aggressors were between 16 and 19 years old.
The data indicates that young people are increasingly violent. Although the figures differ, all official portals agree on reflecting a gradual increase in youth violence since 2018. The rates vary because the INE counts those convicted, the Prosecutor’s Office Report lists the facts, and the Crime Statistical Portal counts those detained or investigated. Even so, as reflected a recent study that compares the results of the three sourcesthe number of violent crimes increases among the youngest, and the rise is more pronounced since 2022. That same year, homicide or murder, both completed and attempted, had increased almost 15% with respect to the previous year. The Prosecutor’s Office called the trend a “criminal explosion.”
The statistics had been reflecting more than a decade of decline, but the trend has reversed in the last five years. The trivialization of aggressiveness It also affects the area of gender violence. According to the latest Macro Study of Gender Violence, 20% of young people between 16 and 21 years old considers that hit your partner during an argument It is not violence.
The trivialization of aggressiveness also affects the area of gender violence
Something must be happening if all the numbers keep growing. There are many studies that attempt to give an explanation. There is no magic formula, but four factors They seem to feed off each other: exposure to violence, screens, the pandemic and mental health.
Screens and exposure to violence
First TV, then movies, now video games. Hostility is increasing. In the movies they have tripled the violent scenes since 1985. The most popular video games, such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat, Fortnite either resident Evil They include battles, fights, weapons and crime.
According to some studiesits use can increase aggressive behaviorsHowever, the consequences depend on the duration of the game, the individual susceptibility or the social context of the player. The effects are not universal, and there is no consensus definitive scientific linking its use with an increase in real violence.
Another scenario is that of the social networks. Direct, unlimited and uncontrolled access to certain content can influence your normalization and desensitization. It is not just about individual viewing of a sensitive video. The serious thing is to share it. It is the socialization around aggressive. On the other hand, the dynamics of cyberbullying and online bullying can increase aggression, hatred and resentment, reactions of revenge or bursts of liberation.
It is not just about individual viewing of a sensitive video. The serious thing is to share it. It is the socialization around the aggressive.
Most likely to play on-line Don’t make us violent. Nor a video. Not even a comment. But maybe it influences the sum of everything. Because it is not a question of a single content, but of a multiple, perennial and continuous exposurewhich is proven to increase the propensity.
The pandemic and mental health
In Spain, youth consumption of antidepressants has increased by 64% after the pandemic. Symptoms of anxiety and depression creep in daily among adolescents, replacing the idealism or carefreeness typical of their age.
The consequences of Covid have also interfered with their brain development. A study of the scientific magazine Plos One alerts to the changes in personality that the pandemic has caused in individuals between 18 and 30 years old. Their conclusions reflect an increase in neuroticismthat is, the tendency to experience negative emotions, and a decrease in extraversion and agreeableness, a deficit in social interaction and an increased social disconnection.
Stress, socialization problems, immaturity and low tolerance for frustration. All are variables likely to encourage antisocial behavior. The result is the gang rise and an uptick in crime. This x-ray of youth demands the need to promote new responses, measures aimed at preventing aggressive adolescents from becoming violent adults. His youthful permeability can be used to convert the danger in opportunity: greater attention both inside and outside the home. Inside, more education about what is consumed. Out, more control of the content that is published. Caring for youth is a social responsibility.
Biography
Carmen Corazzini He studied journalism and Audiovisual Communication. He specialized with a master’s degree in ‘Advanced Studies in Terrorism: analysis and strategies’ and another in ‘Criminology, Victimology and Crime’.
