d Hispanic children in particular, and the increasing availability of guns. Hackett cites examples of youth violence, noting that in 2000 a teenage couple was gunned down in Washington D.C. following a high school basketball game and a six-year-old first grader shot his classmate to death with a gun from his uncle's home in Michigan. The author reported that these types of incidents are numerous and research must determine related problems. Hackett recommends that family professionals researchers must work together with educators to develop courses that focus on conflict resolution and stress management in families as well as school.
Welch,áPrice, and Yankeyá(2004) reported on the media's influence on youth violence. The media presents criminal stereotypes such as the young, black or Latino male as a lawless, dangerous, and predatory individual that perpetuates crime. These stereotypes are potent since they include sensationalism to convey media messages. The social construction of muggers, drive-by shooters, serial killers, and crack babies has taken place with the help of the media. The young black male is viewed as a villain, gang-banger, and carjacker. As a result of this stereotyping, police efforts include a focus on young black males (profiling) to prevent crime. There is a focus on whites being victims of crime while blacks are viewed as the perpetrators of crime that is perpetuated by the media.
Spencer (2005) reported further on the tendency for news representations of violent youth to include stereotypes. Spencer introduces the notion that violence is a social problem that can be viewed from a media construction of social problems found in movies and television drama, news reports, political campaigns, talk shows, and speeches. While most of the violence is portrayed in adults such as in dramas with spouse abuse, serial murder, child abuse, and freeway violence, violence is also portrayed in youth. Medi...