This paper delves into the issues of school violence which has been plaguing our society for a number of years, causing detrimental effects to the development of our country, the improved lives of our citizens and the well-being of children.
Moral development of individuals is closely related to conforming to certain norms and standards of society, and control of antisocial or negative behavior is absolutely necessary in preventing delinquent behavior. The stages of moral development should be understood to delineate the positive or negative impact of non-conformity. After complete moral development, individuals may choose to not conform to social standards and try to move beyond norms. This is not always negative and would be associated with novelty and creativity. However when moral development is hindered at an early stage of life when children ignore moral values and ethics of society for their own selfish pursuits and there is a complete lack of external control, the moral development is truncated and lead to criminal behavior in later life.
A restraining factor in violent acts of crime is rational thinking and if individuals can rationalize, reflect and understand the seriousness of crimes, they would be deterred from engaging in crimes and would thus in turn aid their own moral and personal development. Moral development of children would be dependent on several factors and according to psychologist Lawrence Kohlberg, the first stage of moral reasoning is of obedience and avoiding punishment, the second stage is keeping up to expectations of family members and the final stage is moving beyond social conventions. Students that commit violent acts of crime have incomplete moral development as their behavior may be motivated by a desire to break the law and challenge obedience and punishment.
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