From: ross@rossolson.org
Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022
To: opinion@startribune.com
Subject: Causes of violence (700 words)

Causes of Violence

Recent tragedies have raised our consciousness of violence in American society and
produced great pressure to "do something about it." It has long been assumed by liberal
thinkers that poverty is the chief cause. Yet, down through history and across
geography, economics does not correlate. The depression era was characterized by
very little crime. The African American community in the 1950's, despite suffering
oppression, was not plagued by the kind of violence seen today.

Other media versions of blame are curiously skewed. Conservative talk show hosts may
be considered likely culprits while violent entertainment is often brushed off as
inconsequential or protected by the constitution. Unproven or even disproven theories,
like "spanking makes kids violent," get the headlines while the established and plausible
are ignored.

A "big picture" view would make it clear that the rise of violence in America does not
correlate with an increase in the use of spanking. In addition, violent people do not often
come from a background of firm discipline, but rather, from an environment of little or no
discipline. Breakdown of the family and exponential increase in gratuitous media
violence both find themselves holding a "smoking gun."

It is not a bash of single mothers (often doing the best they can) to say this, but the data
show the most common antecedent of criminal behavior to be fatherlessness. This is
the clear implication of a study by the Heritage Foundation which found that about 60%
of rapists and 72% of adolescent murderers grew up in fatherless homes. Economic
status, race and neighborhood all failed to be such a powerful predictor of violence.
A review of the effect of TV on behavior caused the American Academy of Pediatrics to
state, "Sufficient data have accumulated to warrant the conclusion that protracted
television viewing is one cause of violent or aggressive behavior." And, of course,
movies and video games are not any better.

We must educate the public on the effects of violent viewing. Desensitized parents often
do not realize what they are showing their kids. We could even try to make the
entertainment industry responsible for the effects of their business. To be sure it will be
even harder than nailing the tobacco industry, but the parallels are significant. Both
claim they are just providing what the public wants; both produce damaging results.
We need to reverse the war on marriage and the family. Over the past generations
there is an increasing tax burden on families with children, forcing couples to need two
incomes. There has also been a devaluation of motherhood and the implication that day
care is an adequate alternative. Finally, the government has pretended that all a father
provides is a paycheck and that AFDC can substitute, thus providing a perverse
incentive to single motherhood.

In the area of domestic abuse and battering of women, it makes good theoretical sense
that promiscuity and the impermanence of relationships may lead to an increase in
violence. Why so, you ask? There is a type of bonding that takes place in a sexual
relationship. This is well known to all but those who extinguish it for personal advantage.
The sexual relationship is intended to be permanent. Women bond with an abuser
because they expect him to cherish them. Men feel jealous if they suspect or imagine
"cheating." They may even be angry that they were "emotionally entrapped" in a way
that does not fit the macho model.

The feminist orthodoxy of the 1970's proclaimed that marriage was the cause of
domestic abuse. Yet data show that for every married woman injured by her husband,
there are four single women, whether divorced or never married, who are attacked by
their present or former lovers. In addition, it is most likely to happen when they are
pregnant, the very time when bonding and protection are most needed and normally the
strongest. David Blankenhorn, author of Fatherless in America, found that not only does
a fatherless childhood predispose to violence, the breaking of the

fatherhood/commitment bond in adult men is an explosively dangerous development.
Violence can not be eliminated by cosmetic societal changes or by Quixotic campaigns.
The only hope is in a radical change of heart by the individuals who make up this nation.

Ross S. Olson MD
6711 Lake shore Drive S #1105
Richfield MN 55423
612-824-7691
For the complete paper, see www.rossolson.org/violence/violence.html

Send comments to me at ross{at}rossolson.org

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