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Because the bulk of the iceberg that the Titanic hit on April 14, 1912, was invisible to the ship's captain, this great ship sank to the bottom of the ocean. On April 20, 1999, our great nation also hit a largely invisible iceberg at Columbine High School. Since then, the public eye has been focused on the tip of this metaphoric iceberg, known as the "culture of violence." In trying to find ways to avoid further school violence, the larger culture of violence remains hidden from our collective view. Unless this nation changed its course, it surely is headed for more collisions with this invisible iceberg that can cause the deaths of many more innocent people.
Ever since the Columbine tragedy, people have been asking, "How could this have happened?" and "What can we do to prevent it from happening again?" Much of the public commentary about the causes of the Columbine massacre has been directed at assigning blame and finding quick-fix solutions. What might be more useful is uncovering the hidden causes of this tragedy and developing long-range primary prevention strategies to deal with these hidden causes. The goals of this article are to (a) examine the hidden elements of the culture of violence that were present in the Columbine tragedy, (b) expose the pervasive nature of bullying and school violence, (c) show how school violence is only a small part of a larger pattern of violence that is fed by the culture of violence, and (d) describe effective long-range prevention methods that address the hidden elements of the culture of violence.
WHAT IS THE CULTURE OF VIOLENCE?
The most visible forms of the culture of violence that make up the tip of the iceberg of violence are
youth violence
domestic violence
road rage
gang violence
hate crimes
community crime and violence
global conflict and war.
Ample evidence documents the increasingly negative effects of the culture of violence. For example, juvenile crime is up 47 percent nationally, and almost 3 million violent crimes occur annually at or near schools. The number of violent crimes committed by youth is expected to double by the year 2010 (Perry, 1996a). Similar increases have occurred in reported cases of child abuse and domestic violence (Portner, 1997). According to...