Growing Up in a Violent World

2202205 Introduction to English Composition

Topic for essay III: Growing Up in a Violent World

Here are some of the ideas we brainstormed in class:

Nature can be violent

Violent weather
Hurricanes
Monsoons
Typhoons
El Niño, El Niña
tornadoes
natural disasters

earthquakes
volcanic eruptions
floods, flash floods

others

drought

humans can be violent to nature or to animals

deforestation
animal poaching, hunting
inconscientious fishing: using electric shock, fishing off season
mining
animal testing

Domestic violence

Abusive parents
Wife battering/husband battering
Broken homes: quarreling parents, juvenile dilinquents
Rape
incest

violence and women

rape
abortion
sexism
pornography

violence and children

child abuse
pedophilia
abandoned babies
homeless children
child pornography

Street violence

Drugs: heroine, cocaine, amphetamines
Gangs
Gun control, children and firearms

Crime

Shooting, firearms and handgun control
Violence in prisons
Inmate beating

Violence in school

Gangs
Bullies, bullying
Girls students raped by teachers
Date rape, students raped by their friends
Vandalism—doing violence to the school walls, tables, etc.

Sample essay topics on school violence:
(taken from http://www.nyu.edu/education/metrocenter/violence/Frdef1.htm)

School House Hype: School Shootings, and the Real Risks Kids Face in America
Kids these days: What Americans really think about the next generation
Violence in Schools: A Dialogue on Security and Discipline
Television, cultural problems, a call for an ecological philosophy to address problems of youth and school violence, and "why schools can't solve our problems".
Things have to change in order to remain the same: on the dangers of narrowly following historical and cultural precedents.

accidents

Drunk driving
Speed driving
Car racing on highways
Truck drivers who take amphetamines

Verbal violence

being rude to older people
being rude to women
being rude to uneducated people, blaming uneducated people for violence
being rude to poor people

Violence in media

TV: cartoon, soaps, sit-coms

Two New Studies on Television Violence And Their Significance for the Kids' TV Debate
Some sample essay titles on TV violence

(taken from http://www.cme.org/cme/cta/bib-viol.html)

Kick the TV Habit!
Children and Television: Images in a Changing Sociocultural World
Every Kid Counts: 31 Ways to Save Our Children
Who's Calling the Shots
Big World, Small Screen
Out of the Garden: Toys, TV, and Children's Culture in the Age of Marketing

Film: action films, horror films, movies about serial killers, murderers, weapons in films, heroes using weapons, cowboys and indians, cop and robber

Violence in sports

American football
Boxing
Wrestling
Ice-hockey
violence in the stadiums, mobs
Fanatic violence: Seles stabbed,

Violent toys

Violent VDO games
Toy guns

War

Mental effects of war

Suicides

Racism

Rodney King beaten by policemen
Ethnic cleansing: Bosnia, the Holocaust

Sexual discrimination

Homophobia: violence against lesbian, gay and bisexuals

Religious fanaticism, radicals

Political violence

Guerrilla groups
Tyranny, dictatorship
corruption

Poverty

World hunger

Mental problems and violence

Diseases

Inflicting pain to cure

Daily injection to contain asthma
Daily injection for diabetics

Some links on violence to help you research

Violence in America