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Morgan Lenamon
Professor Collins
ENGL 1302

Vandals of Destruction
Many teens around the world have partaken in an act known as vandalism. The
intentional destruction of property is popularly referred to as vandalism. It includes behavior
such as breaking windows, slashing tires, spray painting a wall with graffiti, and destroying a
computer system through the use of a computer virus (Encyclopedia). Whether it be because of
boredom or family issues, any teen can cause destruction. In the video, Why Vandalism? all of
the adolescents featured in the documentary have experienced different types of family problems.
The video explains the several reasons why teens participate in the act known as vandalism.
Remote, proximate, reciprocal, and sufficient causes of Why Vandalism? advocates the reasons
as to why teens choose to vandalize.
One argument that this video uses is remote cause. The video articulates that parent arent
showing their children enough attention, which is causing them to want to vandalize (Why
Vandalism). The underlying reason for adolescents vandalizing would be the fact that parents
are not showing attention to their kid. Sometimes teens come home to parents that just ignore
them, so instead of trying to communicate with them they just go into their room. This can then
lead to teens to not want to go home, instead they go out to hang out with friends. After meeting
with their friends they begin to vandalize. Research has proven that parents not giving their
children enough attention could lead to vandalism. Susan Black did an academic journal on the
reasoning behind kids who vandalize. In the writing she explains, In 1993, before the sweeps

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began, the district lost about $1 million to vandalism--more than any other district its size. With
sweeps in place, vandalism carries an annual price tag of about $60,000, proving that kids are
out running around vandalizing (Black). If parents would have been home to see their child, then
the teen would not have a reason to want to go outside and vandalize. Schools have also started
different measures to help stop vandals. Schools have started new classes to make kids feel
wanted and to help them stay connected with other friends in the same program (Black). By
providing the classes the schools have seen a decline in the amount of vandalism acts that have
taken place. This evidence proves that teens need be shown that they matter in this world, and by
schools providing these programs they have seen an improvement. This proves that young adults
need more attention to strive and stay out of trouble. By parents doing more activities and
teaching their children better life lessons, vandalism can be stopped as a whole.
This video also uses proximate cause to further explain why teens vandalize. The video
uses this cause to explain that when kids get bored, they tend to be more prone to vandalize
(Why Vandalism). On occasion, when a group of teens get together to hang out, they have
trouble finding things to do. Boredom then causes the kids to go out looking for things to do,
which can then lead to the destruction of property. Boredom, however, does not directly cause
vandalism. Psychologists Tomar Horowitz and David Tobaly did a study on the social context to
school vandalism, stating, Six hundred Israeli students responded to a questionnaire dealing
with five motives for participating in vandalism: anger/frustration, boredom, erosion, aesthetics,
and catharsis. As we did not find a coherent pattern, we created a variable comprising all five
motives: general motivation (Horowitz, Tobaly par.1). Although it might seem logical, there is
no research to prove that boredom is a direct cause of vandalism. Most teens seem to find other
things to do rather than to vandalize when they are bored.

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Why vandalism? uses reciprocal cause to articulate why teens vandalize. Some parents
tend to be extremely strict on their kids. When parents are strict, the teens tends to become more
rebellious, leading to the teen wanting to sabotage property. Arnold Goldstein did a study on the
types of vandals that people can come across. He explains that vandals are middle class, and not
any more socially disturbed than other teens likely to vandalize (Goldstein). By stating this,
Goldstein is saying that although it might seem logical to think a teenager with strict parents are
more likely to vandalize, that is not the case. There is no research that can back that statement up.
Teens who vandalize sometimes do it because they do not even know it is considered vandalism.
Therefore stating that a parent being strict towards their kids will cause them to vandalize is a
false claim. In School vandalism: individual and social context, Torbaly explains that vandalism
happens on every type of social class, rather middle or low, vandalism happens in them all. He
explains that teens are more likely to vandalize in schools or areas that are already plagued with
destruction (Horowitz, Tobaly par.17). If teens are placed in an area that is already littered with
vandalism, the young adults will know no better, than to vandalize. This statement proves that
the destruction of property has nothing to do with how the kids are treated at home because most
teens understand the consequences of vandalism. However, if the teenager is in a place where
vandalism is apparent, they might not know the consequences of such behavior.
Furthermore the video uses sufficient cause to show how parents not being home can
cause a teen to want to vandalize. In Why Vandalism, a teen comes home to no parents, instead
of staying at home and waiting for his parents to come home, he goes out with his friends (Why
Vandalism). The documentary articulates that is necessary for the teens parents to not be home,
for the teenager to be more likely to vandalize. This theory proves to be logical, and has research
to say that it is true. Arnold Goldstein wrote a novel on the psychological reasoning behind

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vandalism. He explains, Youngsters break windows or break noses because, through either
direct or vicarious (modeling) experiences, they have learned that such behaviors are likely to be
rewarded and unlikely to be punished (Goldstein). Although not being punished does not
directly correlate to parents not being home enough, the fact that the adult of the family is not
home enough can cause the child of that parent to think that his mischievous acts will not be
punished. When parents are not home usually the teens will not see their parent at all in a day,
leading to teen being able to avoid the punishment that he or she could get if the parent would
have been home when their child arrived from school.
Vandalism is more likely to strike in an area that is littered with vandalism already, such
as schools that do not maintain their upkeep. Although it seems as though lower class individuals
would be more likely to vandalize, that is not the case. No matter the social class everyone can
partake in some form of vandalism. Why Vandalism made a video on the reasoning behind the
destruction of property using remote, proximate, reciprocal, and suffiecient causes. Although
some of the claims that the documentary made could not be backed by research, some of them
could be. The fact of the matter is that teenagers with bad home lives are more likely to vandalize
because of lack of attention and that the teens do not have any punishment for their mischievous
acts.

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Works Cited
Black, Susan. Why Do School Vandals Do It. Education Digest 68.2 (2002): 15.Acedemic
Search Complete. 2 Mar. 2016
Why do school Vandals Do it? focuses on the underlying reasons why kids vandalize.
The article starts by giving some facts about vandalism in the past year. It then goes into
talking about the three main reasons as to why kids tend to vandalise.at the end it states
ways that schools are helping to put a stop to vandalism.
Goldstein, Arnold P. The psychology of vandalism. Springer Science & Business Media, 1996.
The psychology of vandalism focuses more on the thought process when it comes to
vandalism. It scopes out the main reason as to why individuals choose to vandalize.it
provides studies, and real world facts to further explain the reason people destroy
property.
Horowitz, Tamar, and David Tobaly. School Vandalism: Individual and Social Context.
Adolescence 38.149 (2003): 131. Academic Search Complete. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
This journal focuses on the psychological reasoning behind young teens who vandalize. It
touches base on school vandalism and the areas where it happens the most. The two
authors have dine research on many different types of areas and compiled all of the
research together to write the main Psychological reasons why teenagers destroy
property.
"Vandalism." West's Encyclopedia of American Law. 2005. Encyclopedia.com. 2 Mar.
2016<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.
Vandalism focus more on the factual side of vandalism. It talks about the true definition
of vandalism as well as gives examples of vandalism. The website provides some facts

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about vandalism, but mainly the consequences that can arise from destruction of
property.
SehgalTV. "Why Vandalism (1955)." YouTube. YouTube, 31 Oct. 2012. Web. 31 Mar. 2016.
The Why Vandalism tells the story of three teens who come from different families.
They all start to vandalize property because of their different psychological problems.
The video explains all the different reasons as to why these teenagers are destroying
property.

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