For the past few years, we have been endlessly hearing about the epidemic of children's violence. The series of random school shootings that has hit our nation has made this epidemic an indelible part of our consciousness.

In this same period, government statistics have been showing that contrary to the common perception, violence has been on a steady decline. Amazingly, even with all the deaths and injuries resulting from the school shootings, there have been fewer casualties on school grounds from year to year. The reason violence among children seems like an epidemic is that the same incident, plastered for days-on-end on billions of newspapers, radios, and TV screens tremendously magnifies its effect. Despite this magnification, one murder, tragic as it is, is still one murder.

Though the "epidemic" of children's violence is only an illusion, it is still being written about by intelligent people as though the epidemic is a real one. Though most people can't recall the last time they actually witnessed a true fight, they are convinced that we are in the midst of an epidemic and that we should be taking up arms against the causes of this epidemic. Books by the dozen are being published dealing with the epidemic of violence, and our magazines and newspapers ceaselessly make mention of this epidemic.

The following excerpt from a handout distributed by an organization called Prepare, Inc., is a typical example of the way this epidemic is written about:

 

We live in a society that grows ever more violent. While it may be true that the overall crime rate in the United States on a nationwide basis has dropped in recent years, one need only watch the news broadcasts or pickup a newspaper or log onto the Internet to hear of daily shootings, assaults or other violations of our safety.

 

Let's make up our minds. Either violence is growing, or it is declining. It can't do both at the same time in the same place. Of course, the above paragraph states the truth, that the crime rate is dropping. However, if you want to feel it is going up, then check the news frequently. You are bound to find a satisfying fill of violent incidents funnelled from the wide world into the receptors of your TVs, radios, and computers. With six billion people on the planet, there is no shortage of incidents to keep you entertained all day long. That doesn't change the fact that your chance of actually witnessing violence is negligible.

Why, then, the intellectual dishonesty? How can educated, intelligent people whose purported goal is to enhance our well-being be fostering hysteria about a non-existent epidemic? Shouldn't the responsible thing be to calmly remind our citizens that there is no epidemic of violence? Don't our citizens deserve to be told that that, at current shooting rates, a child can expect to have to go to school for fifteen thousand years in order to be present during a random shooting?

The answer, of course, is money. After Columbine, the Federal government alone gave grants of hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations that could claim they have something to offer to combat the "epidemic" of school violence. With money like that available, do you think people are going to sit around with arms folded and think, "Sure, that's a lot of money, but I'll let some other people take it." Of course not!

So, as can be expected, organizations experienced in filling out grant proposals got their share. The problem for the public is that the organizations need to justify themselves by attacking the growing epidemic of school violence. There is no such epidemic? No problem! We'll create an illusion. It's not exactly the truth? So what! It can't hurt anybody.