Introduction
This essay is about a case of a young Black male of Nigerian origin called Victor, aged 22 who lives in Nottingham in the United Kingdom (UK), currently serving a 5-year jail term for grievous bodily harm. Victor has been living with his mother ever since the age of 4 years after his father moved to the United States. Further, Victor was exposed to several domestic conflicts at an early age due to the fact that his mother had several relationships with many partners which did not last more than one year. In many instances, some of these partners were violent and he witnessed them beat up his mother on many occasions. These brutal actions towards the mother might have radicalized Victor into violence against the men in defense of his mother and younger sister.
Seemingly the environment in which Victor grew up influenced his personality identity because at young age Victor got involved with gangs and knife crimes. This earned him a reputation as a criminal at the adolescent stage for offenses like theft, criminal damage, drug abuse, selling drugs, and possession of weapons. This alienated him further from his mother, stepfather, and sister as he started living with his friend until his prison sentence. It is also essential to highlight the fact that neither his biological parents nor stepfather (a white British) whom his mother remarried when he was 12 years had any criminal records. Victor’s criminal and violent life intensified after joining a group of gang friends; he was involved in gang fights, committed robberies, violent assaults, and was also a victim of grievous bodily harm.
Prior to his prison sentence, there were attempts to rehabilitate Victor and he was enrolled even in adult education courses in painting and decoration. His mentors reported positive progress as he was actively trying to change and dissociate from gang-related activities; unfortunately, the funding for the program stopped negating the gains already made. In addition, his school reports indicated that he was a frequent truant and displayed early violent behaviors; and he was frequently suspended from school. Intersectionality of race, gender, age, and class comes into play in this case study. Clearly, Victor suffered an identity complex crisis both of biological, psychological, and social influences that changed his life at an early age. This essay will discuss each socio-cultural factor independently first, and lastly examine how the factors intersect with each other in a separate section.
Age
The period of youth and adolescence is characterized by dramatic changes for young people. They are expected to develop their own identity and personality in this period of their lives (Cherry, 2021). Developing from an early age without proper parental care combined with the fact his mother was continuously getting into so many abusive relationships, must have created conflict in Victor’s development. On reaching the adolescent stage where he started exploring his independence and developing a sense of self, the earlier violent behaviors from partners towards his mother must have taught him to act violently. As revealed in the case study, he horned his violent tendency in defense of his mother and the sister. It further created mental instability in Victor, created a gap in his relationship with people, and cultivated criminal tendencies witnessed in him.
On the other hand, the perceived age of a person will have an impact on how society views them and behave with them. There are dominant societal and cultural assumptions about age and different age groups, that consider children as innocent, old people as fragile and vulnerable, and teenagers as selfish and rebellious (Knoll et al., 2017). These prevailing images of certain age groups influence perceptions perception and experiences, and it may have contributed to the careless nature by which Victor’s mother changed partners at his tender age. The mom and her violent partners might have thought that he was so young and innocent that he could not notice what was happening around him (Knoll et al., 2017). Oblivious of how keen Victor was at a tender age, the actions by his mother and the partners created huge damage to his character and necessitated a violent change in his behavior. At his adolescent stage, when his violent and criminal nature was already taking effect, the police did not give him the benefit of doubt to know what led him to criminal gangs and activities.
Race
Racism is a belief that certain races have distinctive characteristics which give them superiority over others. It is a form of visible and invisible violence, and it can take structural, psychological, and physical dimensions (Henkeman, 2016). Living in a social context dominated by the white majority with deep-rooted societal stereotypes and perceptions towards Black Africans, Victor mostly likely grew up witnessing how fellow Blacks suffered discrimination. In his neighborhood maybe the police offer to apply the law selectively depending on the victim’s ethnicity or race. The hatred of the physicality, cultures, and identities of the Black Africans coupled with how his mother suffered at the hands of her partners might have lowered him into criminal gangs (Kippert, 2020). The inequalities, unemployment, poverty, and exclusion against Blacks could have led him to join extreme criminal gangs believing it could help him fight racial discrimination.
Gender
Domestic violence against women is considered to have serious health consequences for women, children, families, and the community. Gender-based violence could lead to behavioral issues, depression, anxiety, stress, self–harm, poor self–esteem, violence, and substance abuse among the victims and their family members (Sharma et al., 2019). Growing up seeing his mom’s partners take advantage of her feminine status and constantly violent her physically, and emotionally, Victor might experience pain, suffering, stress, and depression. These problems might have made him decide to act violently in defense of his mother and younger sister who were helpless. The persuasion to become violent because he was the only male in their family to defend the mom and sister could have lured him to join a violent gang that became his friends.
Class
The social class status of different people may arise from unequal distribution or access to resources by different people in terms of race, age, and gender. It manifests in many ways including income and wealth inequality, unequal access to education, cultural resources, different treatment by the police, and the judicial system (Crossman, 2020). It is characterized by unequal opportunities and rewards for different positions within society. There are elements of uneven spreading of wealth and punishments. The nature of violence victor witnessed against his mother and the subsequent violence in the hands of police offers could have lured him into violent and criminal activities. He might have gotten involved with the criminal gang as the only way out for him in life.
Discussion of Intersectionality of Race, Gender, Age and Class
Intersectional theory creates a room for services and providers to examine how and young people experience the world. Additionally, it reveals how such experience influences the way teenagers interact with other people and the extent that they feel able to share their lived realities (Marsh & Davis, 2020). These occurrences are shaped and impacted by aspects of young people’s identity like race, age, gender, and social class. The interactions through these identities are layered, interrelate, and are experienced simultaneously. Based on this Victor being a male Black African of Nigerian origin, without proper education, and from a family living a relatively low life might have resigned his fate to violent criminal activities. That is what contemporary society sees such young people for, and maybe nobody would give him a chance or take their time to understand why his life took a turn for worse.
It is likely that he experienced racism and biased interactions not just due to his race but also because of how it intersects with his gender; he is a black African male. In terms of how these characteristics intersect with age, being an adolescent the society perceives him as selfish and rebellious, and so are easily criminalized. This kind of experience might have affected Victor’s sense of insecurity about receiving support from professionals as a victim of stress, depression, and domestic violence. Thus, he sought refuge in joining teen gangs operating in his neighborhood which he believed could offer him a sense of identity, belonging, and connection. There is a need for the police, psychologists, and counselors to consider the race, culture, age, gender, and social class of the youth when dealing with why they turned violent and got engaged in criminal activities.
Conclusion
Race, age, gender, and social class intersectionality has the potential of making young adolescents who turn violent fail from getting appropriate help from professional psychologists due to perception at first sight. Equally, government agencies like the police out of prejudice may discriminate against young people who engage in violent and criminal activities based on these identities. Therefore, professional counselors, educationists, psychologists, and must consider these factors when dealing with violent and criminal gangs of young people.
References
Cherry, K. (2021). Identity vs. Role Confusion in Psychosocial Development.Verywellmind. Web.
Knoll, L. J., Leung, J. T., Foulkes, L., Blakemore, & S. (2017). Age-related differences in social influence on risk perception depend on the direction of influence.Science Direct, 53 – 63. Web.
Kippert, A. (2020). The ways racism fuels the fire of domestic violence.Domesticshelters.org. Web.
Sharma, K. K., Vatsa, M., Kalaivani, M., & Bhardwaj, D. (2019). Mental health effects of domestic violence against women in Delhi: A community-based study.Journal of Family Medicine and Primary care. Web.
Crossman, A. (2020). The Sociology of Social Inequality.ThoughtCo. Web.
Marsh, N., & Davis, J. (2020). Intersectionality: race, gender and other aspects of identity in social work with young people.Community Care. Web.