As Carole Goguen wrote in her fact sheet for the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, community violence includes predatory violence, which involves a stranger being violent or making threats. of violence and violence resulting from non-family interpersonal conflicts. Both types of violence include shootings, rape, stabbings, beatings, and other brutal acts. Because children and adolescents witness or become involved in community violence in their own neighborhoods and schools, it is now recognized as a public health problem. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original EssayAll children and adolescents are at risk of being involved in community violence in some way. As one might think, living in poor, inner-city neighborhoods appears to increase the risk of exposure to community violence. There are other things that can also put people at greater risk; for example, gang affiliation and substance abuse, but there is no guarantee that a child will or will not experience violence. Children are not only affected by community violence when they are hurt or threatened, but also when they see it being done to someone else. . Our textbook, Exploring Child Development, tells us that one-third of children in high-crime areas of American cities witness a homicide and more than two-thirds witness a serious assault. Witnessing violence is actually a more common way for children to become involved in violence. In a study carried out by the Center for Psychosocial Research on Children and Families, 165 children, 111 first and second graders and 54 fifth and sixth graders were interviewed, and the number of children involved in a one way or another in the violence was overwhelming. Among first and second graders, 21% were victims and 84% witnessed at least one act of violence, 3% of which were murders. Results in fifth and sixth grade were even higher, showing that 35% had been involved, while 90% had witnessed an act, of which 4% were murders. These rates are even higher in a survey carried out by our text. This investigation focuses on inner-city African-Americans and the acts of violence that influenced them. Of the children surveyed, 42% saw someone shot, 25% saw someone stabbed and 23% saw someone murdered. Although people tend to think that violence will have no effect on the child if he or she is very young. , the truth is actually the opposite. The younger the child, the more likely he or she is to encounter psychological problems. Children who experience traumatic abuse before the age of eleven are three times more likely to have problems than those who experience it after the age of twelve. Children's exposure to community violence greatly affects them not only physically, through the injuries caused by the assault, but also emotionally. . Children often tend to try to avoid discussion of the trauma, display disorganized behavior, have nightmares, withdraw, show fear, become aggressive, have difficulty pay attention and often regress to doing things like wetting the bed and sucking their thumb. Often, after experiencing severe trauma, children become depressed, angry, suspicious, alienated and experience a.