Teenage Violence in Georgia and American Counties

On December 1st, 2017, around 2 pm in one of the neighborhoods of Tbilisi, a group of about 15 Georgian high school students had a fight that involved knives. The fight did not end with no victims. Two 16-year-olds were stabbed to death. The argument began in the school’s bathroom between the student of 9th grade and several students from 11th grade. They decided to meet for the showdown after school in nearby neighborhood, which is Khorava Street. As it often happens these teens decided to bring their cousins, friends, and friends of friends to show their dominance and ‘toughness’. Some teens did not even know the reason for the fight, they were just asked to come and ‘help’ and so they did. The reason for the fight? As always, it’s the pride and manliness.

Its 21st century, the era of innovations and improvements. There are some general improvements in the fields of science, astronomy, medicine, and technology. However, together with the worldwide improvements in technology, levels of violence are also rising. There are different types of violence, and there is no doubt that everyone is affected by it, but it can be said that children face the main damage of it. There are a lot of movies, documentaries, articles and books about teenage violence. It can be said that teens are still children and they study through imitation. They are affected by the surroundings, and together with everything good cruelty is also the part of surroundings. It can be in the streets, schools and even at home.

In general, there are three types of teenage violence in America. The first type is caused by the rivalry between races and social classes – between “poor” and “rich” and people from Latin, Caucasian, and African origins. The second type, which is gang violence, includes guns and drugs. And the third, when, for example, in the middle of the class one crazy student goes mad, takes out the gun and kills everyone. There have been plenty of cases like this. But none of these three categories suit the situation in Georgia. In Georgia there is no racial variety in the population, thus this reason can be eliminated. Second, there are no gangs, no guns that people just tend to randomly carry and no heavy drugs that teenagers use. There have been no cases of a random school shooting in Georgia, so the third category can be crossed out too. One more thing that is worth mentioning is that compared to American teenage girls, Georgians never get physical in conflict. So, what is the deal with Georgia?

Teenage boys in Georgia fight a lot, and almost always the reason to that is pride. It is very rear that someone gets killed, as it happened in December. Everyone wants to show that they are stronger and tougher than the others. They just cannot accept the fact that someone can disparage them. Because of this, most of the teens carry knives with them. Some of them do not even plan using them, they just want to show off. Make everyone see that they are carrying a knife and that it’s not a good decision to have a conflict with them. What is the actual reason for this?

Usually, people think that the reason for teens aggression is adolescence. However, psychologists state that the reasons to one’s actions can be found in his/her childhood and upbringing. For little children understanding of aggression is in their own way specific and is the result of unsatisfaction concerning the impossibility of realization of elementary requirements like food, or movement. For a kid violence can be any action that interferes with what he wants and desires. Thus, it is clear that the child can refer to a quite broad set of acts of violence, beginning with not giving him/her the desert or a toy ending with increased tone or physical abuse. This aggression affects the child’s psychology, and he/she tries to calm down by transferring the aggression into the game. However, some part of it still goes into the subconsciousness.

From the childhood, Georgians hear “do not do that” or “do that” in order to teach them how to be a proper man or a woman. “The popular understanding of 'maleness' is still constricted within the idea that 'boys don't cry' (Sparks 1996) without any real interpretation of this stereotype and its accuracy”. And indeed, parents often tell their little sons “Do not cry! You are a man! Men do not cry!” or “If that kid hit you, you need to hit him too, because you are a man!” By limiting the boys with expressing their feelings, parents do not let them be kids. And obviously boys conserve the aggression in subconsciousness, and during teenage they burst it in every way possible. At the same time, they do not forget that they need to man up, and they should not express their feelings. “Boys' emotional illiteracy damages them as individuals, as a group and as part of society. It triggers a form of masculine bravado or fearlessness which can, in turn, display itself as reactive aggression against the self (the denial of one's own vulnerability) and others in the display of verbally and physically aggressive acts.” Boys cover their emotions by aggression they have been saving for years.

The situation with girls is slightly different – they are expected to be more girly and lady-like. If taken the same situation, some kid hit a little girl, and she hit her back. The parent of this little girl will lecture her on how she should behave because she is a “girl” and “girls do not do that”. These are biased standards by which children are generally raised in Georgia. As a result, girls, like boys, are also limited in their emotions. They cannot even make a slightly major decision without parents interfering them in general that would be father-figures. In case if a girl has an older brother, he would be most the controlling one. This way young female population of Georgia is controlled by males. As a result, when they grow up, women still do not know how to express themselves, sometimes they cannot make any decisions on their own. Women might be seen as strong and independent outside of the house. But the dominant figure at home is still a man, usually the husband. The suppression of truthful emotions in early years of life usually results in domestic violence. Often Georgian women think that the reason of violence is love. “My husband beats me, because he loves me” – a phrase one can often hear from a woman. It is wrong to think so, but that’s the only kind of love woman has ever felt.

Clearly, the approach should be taken from the inside of the family, first. Time changes, it is not 90s environment anymore, people do not just walk around full armed with guns and knives. Moreover, people need to change their attitude towards violence. Showing weakness is not something to be ashamed of; it is what makes us all humans. However, how can we talk about the change, when the answer for violence is still violence. If we go back to the event that happened in Tbilisi in 2017, and research the attitude of people to this event, the result might be shocking.

Two 9th graders, who stabbed to death other two teenagers were put in prison for 13-17 years. After this news were spread, people began making some violent comments. Some said that 17 years is not enough for those kids, and they should be in prison for more than 50 years, some even commented that they had to be life sentenced. After those, it even gets wilder. People write that they deserved death penalty. However, even that is not enough, “Just thirteen years! They should be gunned down”. But for some people even that is not enough, they write that those two boys need to be publicly tortured. One person even suggested to bring back old Georgian unwritten law, that was often used in mountains, which is basically if one murders someone, he gets killed. If one tortures someone, he gets tortured, etc. Overall one can see that all these people blame politics and laws in everything. Everyone saw the result of the ill upbringing or maybe it was just nature of those boys. However, it always takes two – in this case both – nature and nurture. Now it is hard to say what played the main part for those two boys, but for the rest of the group of 13 it must have been the nurture. The nurture that needs the proof that the person is a man.

If we will go through all of those comments, it is no surprise that something like this Khorava incident happened. People are violent, they demand the laws like death penalty, gunning down, and public torturing. Which is a little crazy for the 21st century society. Everyone blames government and parents. They forget that government can not solve all the problems. It is each person’s, roughly said, obligation to take care of each other. There are institutions like schools to help with this. After all schools are not just for providing the rough education. These institutions take a big role in every person’s life, and they are obliged to take care of the students. It is common that teachers and headmasters of schools are ignorant of what happens in their institutions. For example, in one of the finest high school in Tucson, Arizona, there was a serious problem with drinking. Almost all the graduates went to college with scholarships, they had award – winning arts programs and one of the best athletic programs in the state. However, at least twenty students had a problem with alcohol drinking, and principal refused to acknowledge this. Ted Schwarz, a professional writer, been in that school and talked to the kids. They admitted that they were sneaking alcohol to school and said it was not a secret, they also thought that no one actually cared. Then Ted Schwarz visited the principal, who at first refused to admit that students had any kind of problem with alcohol. However, when he found out that Ted already talked to students and they admitted their problems, which means that they knew that they needed help and wanted to get it, he admitted that he caught some students drinking and expelled them immediately. They did not have counseling program, because their concern was only education and reputation - not students themselves. Why nobody wants to help kids that are in trouble, but then are surprised by the aggression they express. Students cannot trust the system in the school. All they have is each other and they find different ways of dealing with problems, often not very moral ways.

That is the thing that happened last year in Tbilisi. This fight could have not been the result of only one conflict. There is no way that a teen could have stabbed another person at least 13 times for only one conflict. This rivalry between freshmen and juniors must have been going on for quite time. And no one noticed? Probably the school guards would have noticed, but they did nothing. Maybe they would have stopped the fights and arguments between the boys, but there have been no consultations with neither counselors nor psychologists as it usually happens in most of the schools in Tbilisi.

In order to “save” a child of being violent, first of all parents need to be attentive, they should support their children, they should teach them, not dictate, other ways of solving problems – not violent ones, they need to learn to admit mistakes, because nobody is perfect. They should not be ashamed of who they are. Then schools or even religious institutions must provide the psychological consultations for both youngsters and their parents. The communication is the key. The first step must be a well upbringing, no child should be ashamed of having feelings, and having the need to cry. We all are people and we all have some flaws there is nothing wrong about it. Communication to a child about the harmfulness of violence – is the main step. It is clear that children do not have life experience, so teenagers cannot always predict the consequences of their actions. Their emotions overwhelm the mind and consciousness and through constant talks and discussions it is possible to find out what actually bothers them, and solve their worries.