Consequences of Violent Behavior.

Violent behavior affects not only women but also the children and the community as a whole. Violent behavior begins with threats and minor incidents, but this can grow to physical harm towards the victim over time. The acts of violence are damaging both emotionally and physically, and they include; verbal, physical, child abuse, elder abuse, sexual assault and even domestic violence for a married couple. Violence is more dangerous than any other infectious disease in America today, since it causes more injuries and deaths among adults, teenagers, and children. The leading causes of death in children today are murder, suicide and those emanating from severe violent injury. There are however various ways that the violent behavior can be looked into and taken care of to prevent the devastating consequences ("Anger, Hostility, And Violent Behavior | Cigna").

Domestic violence among adults results in a lack of self-worth. Domestic violence is one of the leading acts of violence and takes shape in the form of physical abuse or emotional abuse. The offender subjects the victim to emotional abuse where they use the victim’s weaknesses as a weapon to hurt them. Using their weaknesses may result in the victim feeling worthless and lacking motivation in life which as a result may lead to the victim engaging in activities that put their life in danger. Women are the most likely vulnerable to domestic violence because they tend to be more emotional than men hence vulnerable to emotional abuse. The reckless behavior may be drug abuse, alcohol abuse and having many sexual partners so as to escape their problem at home and cope with the situation. The physical effects of domestic violence are bruises, burns, black eyes, broken bones and other physical pains that may continue years after the abuse happened. A serious effect may be miscarriage for those being abused while pregnant. The effect of losing a child is not only a loss to the nation but also a very traumatic situation for the mother who has lost their child. The effects of this are worse for the mother because she will never forget the traumatic event, and she may probably never recover from that hence suffer post-traumatic stress disorder all these leading to poor self-image and as a result little productivity to the society. For those who are entirely damaged, they may not find any use in living, therefore, end up committing suicide ("Harmful Effects Of Violence - Hesperian Health Guides").

Violent behavior just like any other behavior is learned from observation. Learning does not only happen where there is a classroom set up or teaching from the parent, there is also learning known as the social learning. A situation where a child or a teenager picks up certain behaviors from an age mate or an adult is called social learning. However, this is not intentional, the highest percentage of social learning is unconscious meaning that one picks up particular behavior just by being in the environment where it is practiced. Exposure to violence increases one’s chances of becoming violent which is similar to a contagious disease ("Science Of Violent Behavior"). The copying of the violent behavior is mainly seen in children who have been brought up in a violent environment. These kids tend to exhibit angry and aggressive behavior towards their fellow children and in most cases, they tend to be bullies in all the situations. This is however not the only source of social learning, in a recent 17-year scientific study report, it is observed that the children who spent more than an hour on television tend to be more violent than those who spend less time. The report also concludes that those adolescents who spend the most time on T.V end up committing aggressive acts against other people in future (Mestel). Children may also, instead of being violent, tend to be withdrawn to escape from being noticed and in the long run, are not able to cope with social situations (Hutchins and Sinha).  On the short-term, a child witnessing violence may experience traumatic effects like nightmares and other kinds of fears resulting to a poor quality of life since they may not be able to have a good night sleep. Sleep is an imperative aspect of a child’s development and determines how the day goes. This might also affect their performance in school. Other than these, violence may be turned on the child in a domestic violence situation, and the child may end up being injured or killed as a result ("Harmful Effects Of Violence - Hesperian Health Guides").

Violent behavior poses various costs on the society. These are expenses incurred as the society tries to prevent future occurrence of violent incidents. A community may decide to impose preventative measures since if not controlled, through social learning, a new generation may be created that is full of violence, a society that continues believing that men are better than women and one that does not advocate for equal rights. It is for this reason that the nation will incur the costs like those resulting from imprisoning offenders. The society believes that the best way to correct the mistake is taking the offenders to the prison and those that have been affected through the rehabilitation process which will assist the victims to get over the post-traumatic stress resulting from violence. The consequence of this is that time is lost in the process which would have been spent on productive things. Punishing of the offenders through taking them to a prison results to the society incurring costs on money spent to maintain the prisons and also human resource locked up in jail (Cohen, Miller and Rossman 72-100).

A systematic approach to tackle violence is what is needed to prevent violence in future. Although there are various factors identified to cause violent behavior, it is not easy to pinpoint or single out a particular cause of violence. Various risk factors cause the violence behavior in people, therefore, reducing these risk factors by addressing the root cause prevents continuous aggressiveness, and violent behaviors is necessary. The systematic approach to violence puts together offenders and the victims on the same social system where diverse interdependence and interactions exist between them. The social interactions have direct and indirect effects on people living in the society. Understanding these interactions, the dependence and the effects that result from these interactions which promote violent behaviors is imperative in planning a systematic approach that will be implemented to tackle the violence. Therefore, this means that a sustainable control of violence cannot be achieved in one day or by one actor alone. It needs a collaborative, day to day approach where everyone acts to achieve the goal which is acquiring a violence free environment. The key players in this quest just to name a few are social workers, police, scholars, the private sector, politicians, teachers, doctors and civil society organizations. The systematic approach involves cross-sectional cooperation, networking while changing offenders’ perspective on handling anger and taking control of their issues and not letting the issues control them. The collaborative approach will also provide chances for people to make the living better due to job opportunities which will reduce violence. This is because some of the offenders act out of frustration. There will be no reason to act out while life does not present frustrations ("How Can We Prevent Violence?").

Violent behavior is a danger to the society since it cripples every step towards the development of the community. A lot of money is wasted when trying to get assistance to cater for medical attention due to physical abuse, money going to take care of prisoners and money going to a psychiatrist due to post-traumatic stress resulting from the violent behavior. Other than this, a lot of time is wasted while seeing the doctor and also a lifetime in prison serving a sentence due to violent conduct. Violent behavior can also ruin the life of a child who did not commit any mistake just because of violent behavior. It is, therefore, because of this, that it is important to control anger or seek assistance if need be before things get out of hand. The society needs to be a place where people can live at peace and where everyone is free to express themselves. This is achievable if there is a systematic approach and collaboration of everyone so that the adverse effects can be eliminated.