Imagine the national reaction if black boys had targeted whites in school shootings. That all these murders were committed young boys with guns raises not a ripple. We continue to speak about teen violence, youth violence, school violence without ever noticing the fact that all those teens and youth are boys. One expert, already consulted about this recent tragedy, equally missed the point. Paul Mones, author of a 1991 book, When a Child Kills suggested that the motivation for such deadly violence is that kids want to vent their anger, their worries, their frustrations, their fantasies.
Gender is the single most obvious and intractable difference when it comes to violence in America.
Every day twelve boys and young men commit suicide seven times the number of girls. Every day eighteen boys and young men die from homicide ten times the number of girls. From an early age, boys learn that violence is not only an acceptable form of conflict resolution, but one that is admired. Four times more teenage boys than teenage girls think fighting is appropriate when someone cuts into the front of a line. Half of all teenage boys get into a physical fight each year.