Violence Becoming a Norm in in Today's Society

All throughout history, there has been this notion of violence. Likewise, in numerous textbooks, novels, movies, TV shows, video games, news stations, and different platforms on social media, violence has been glorified or used for the sole purpose of our entertainment. However, violence has a deeper meaning and the affects or scars it leaves on victims are completely traumatizing and devastating. Thus, the term known as violence is referred to as an act of aggression with the intention to damage, hurt, or kill an entire community, a single person, or something in our society today. This act of violence is displayed throughout multiple forms and has occurred throughout different organizations, nations, and people as well. To demonstrate, various examples of this word include inflicting this sense of oppression towards Latino immigrants/suspected undocumented immigrants, causing someone psychological distress, cyberbullying, school bullying, rape, sexual assault, harassment, stalking, murder, etc. Unfortunately, cases such as these are still prevalent in our modern-day society and our world as a whole is only increasing in these violent cases. Overall, violence is a term that has escalated throughout time and has led to this system of inequality between different groups of individuals.

To start off, the excerpt that caught my attention the most throughout this particular module was, "Ruling out Rape. " In this article, I learned just how frequently sexual assault and rape cases happen on college campuses and how institutions deal with these instances. Although women, men, and children are all affected by sexual violence, according to the website, RAINN, "9 out of every 10 victims of rape are female and every 98 seconds another American is sexually assaulted". In addition, college campuses include powerful men such as fraternity members, athletes, and higher authority that determine certain consequences or punishments against the perpetrators. Thus, these specific individuals, especially school administrators sadly continue to downplay, minimize, or ignore alleged rape cases. As demonstrated in "Ruling our Rape, " the authors proclaim, "The victims in these cases were treated with hostility by the schools, police, and even their peers who considered the reports of rape to be exaggerated responses to a party culture where "everyone is just trying to have some fun" and where "stuff happens". This statement is not only one that disheartens me but exemplifies how some faculty members at different institutions let these certain males get away with these merciless acts. Along with this, rape myths and rape culture sadly make it difficult to hold perpetrators accountable and stimulate derogatory words against victims. Overall, there are ways to prevent sexual assault and one way is through education because no individual should feel as if they are wrong for speaking out about an event that tragically happened to them.

Furthermore, along with rape/sexual assault another element of violence is bullying. Bullying is also an ongoing issue that affects people of all ages and is also becoming more prominent. Bullying takes place in areas such as on school's grounds, outside of school, on the school bus, and now online due to the upbringing of social media in this generation. Likewise, there are different types of bullying which include verbal, physical, social alienation, indirect, and cyberbullying. According to the piece, "Cyberbullying, School Bullying, and Psychological Distress: A Regional Census of High School Students, " "The known link between school bullying and psychological harm, including depression and suicidality, has also raised concerns about how cyberbullying is related to various forms of psychological distress". This statement demonstrates the negative effects bullying causes to an individual that has been bullied and resembles how words truly do hurt.

In addition to sexual assault and bullying, the persecution and aversion towards Latino immigrants is just one example of a group of individuals that have been oppressed throughout the years. For instance, in the article, "Climate of Fear" the author proclaims, "Latino immigrants in Suffolk County live in fear…They are regularly taunted, spit upon, and pelted with apples, full soda cans, beer bottles and other projectiles. Their houses are egged, spray-painted with racial epithets and riddled with bullets in drive-by shootings". These are just a few out of the various events that happen towards these immigrants and expresses how violence is not only a constant threat to them but also how they have been discriminated against due to their race/ethnicity. Likewise, in the same excerpt, a Mexican named Luis, who migrated to Suffolk County a couple years ago affirmed, "We live in fear that if we leave our houses something will happen". This conveys how our world has created this racial barrier between different groups and have also created this sense of inequality. This is because no one should be treated unfairly, feel unsafe in the environment they are living in, or question whether they will live another day or not. Furthermore, these declarations correlate to the passage, "In the Crosshairs. " In this, the author discusses how Tracy is proud to be a black transgender woman. However, various individuals in our society did not accept Tracy for her true authentic self and viewed her as someone inferior to them, which is a similar emotion shared by Latin immigrants. Also, in the article, "In the Crosshairs, " they state, how Tracy "has been haunted by prejudice and pain for much of her 46 years. Tracy says she has been beaten by boyfriends, raped by strangers, shot by a stalker and "disrespected and dehumanized by police and paramedics". In the end, Tracy, those in the same community as her, and Latin Immigrants are not only victimized but think they are under attack, all because we as a society have led them to believe that their reality is supposed to be one that is harsh. To conclude, all of these acts of violence are intertwined.

Thus, throughout the data presented in this discussion and table seven on the Criminal Victimization, 2015 report, I have concluded that our world today is classified by different groups. For example, whether someone is straight or gay, whether someone is disabled or not, whether someone is an immigrant or not, what sex or gender someone is, and lastly, what race/ethnicity someone is greatly impact whether or not a particular individual will be victimized in some violent act. Likewise, violence is a social phenomenon that is interconnected with social control. In conclusion, violence should not be normalized in today's society and in order to prevent the acts that comprise this term, we must all educate ourselves to make a difference.