Sunday, October 26, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

IN DEPTH: Culture: Environment of violence

VIOLENCE IN THE NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT WORLD AND LACK OF PARENTAL CONTACT CONTRIBUTE TO HOSTILITY AND CONFRONTATION

Violence is as much a part of teen culture in America as pep rallies and pop quizzes.

In the entertainment world, there is gangsta music, shoot'em-up video games and slasher movies.

In the real world, there is real-time TV coverage from the battlefield and seemingly endless reports of murder and mayhem from points near and far.

In this environment, a group of teens called the 311 Boyz emerged to capture their 15 minutes of notoriety.

With the damning help of their self-made videotapes, the suburban Las Vegas teens managed to draw the world's attention to the summer they spent beating up other teens, or watching the brawls.

Some teens say the amateur cameraman, a peer, wanted to sell the footage -- which appears to be a mix of impromptu and planned fights by the 311 Boyz -- as entertainment. But the tapes, entered into court by the district attorney, largely went out free via the news media.

Even a German television outlet phoned for information on the 311 Boyz, said Jerome Bowen, attorney for Stephen Tanner Hansen. The 17-year-old was seriously injured in July when hostile teens threw rocks at a truck in which he was riding after a confrontation at a party. The rocks were as large as volleyballs or footballs, according to police statements given by two witnesses.

The Germans told Bowen their nation has "a similar problem with violent teens showing utter disrespect for authority, and no accountability," the attorney said.

The question everyone is asking is why. A range of national experts and local observers share their views on how teen culture and contemporary American life are feeding over-the-edge behavior by teenagers.

Violence

American society is, foremost, saturated with violence, much of it sanctioned, said Ken Druck, a San Diego-based clinical psychologist who has counseled families and communities in the aftermath of what he calls "critical incidents," such as student shootings at Colorado's Columbine High School and California's Santana High School. He also wrote "How to Talk to Your Kids about School Violence."

The exposure runs from the daily news -- which is "essentially, the daily violence report, who killed who," Druck said -- to gangsta pop culture, in which rap artists such as Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur didn't just depict violence in their music, but lived it. Both died in unsolved murders.

"Gang culture has become very mainstream (in youth entertainment). It's very fashionable," the psychologist said.

Vicarious violence is widespread, too, in video games with graphics that are ever more realistic. A player wins by committing rape, murder and muggings in the popular "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City," for example.

Scenes of teen girls hitting and clawing each other appear on the 311 Boyz videotapes. The teens might be mimicking a recent film trend toward heroine characters who are "these extremely active, fit women who are now breaking bones and shooting guns" in movies such as "Tomb Raider" and "Charlie's Angels," said Pennsylvania State University professor Cheryl Dellasega, author of "Girl Wars, 12 Strategies that Will End Female Bullying."

Extreme sports are another way for young people to risk violence, even if accidental. The adrenalin rush associated with taking risks becomes part of the pleasure, according to Druck.

The result of the exposures, Druck said, is a desensitization to violence, which he defines as "cold, cruel indifference to other people's pain."

Desensitization is especially dangerous in youths, who always are looking for ways to prove themselves. Around the world, such rites of passage often involve inflicting pain or demonstrating the capacity to bear pain, although most rites are ceremonial.

The fact that the teen network here did its dirty work off of school property is not surprising. Druck predicted that as schools tighten security to enforce zero-tolerance policies toward student violence, communities will see more off-campus incidents.

Given the media splash surrounding the 311 Boyz -- which might have more than 100 members, drawing from several northwest public high schools, according to police -- Druck said it makes sense for the local school district to offer counselor-led debriefings of students on those campuses, regardless of where events took place. "If they haven't, then they should," he said. "This is a teachable moment."

Parenting

Today's teens are raised with less "face time" with parents than ever, agreed Druck, Las Vegas psychologist Louis Mortillaro, educators at Clark County's Parenting Project and representatives at Teenage Research Unlimited, a marketing research firm near Chicago.

The pattern of less parental contact begins for many in early childhood, as working parents delegate their children's care during business hours to day care workers.

School-age children, too, can spend long hours on weekdays without their parents, enrolled in activities or after-school child care.

As children enter middle school and high school, parents tend to directly supervise their children less. But the need for parental contact might be greater, said Child Trends, a nonprofit group in Washington, D.C.: "Peer groups are larger in middle and high schools. ... Students are given more independence and teachers are less accessible than in elementary school."

Today's teens seem to live more independent lives than teens in prior generations, according to lifestyle data collected by Teenage Research Unlimited. Types of decisions teens are making alone -- including grocery shopping and cooking meals -- as well as their amount of discretionary dollars -- more than $100 a week, on average -- bear out the trend.

The upshot of low parent-child contact is children are no longer raised to "fear displeasing their parents," Mortillaro said. He's not talking about fear of corporal punishment, but fear of disappointing a parent with whom the teen has a loving relationship. And uninvolved parents have less leverage in their teens' behavior.

The problem can heighten when divorce and blended families are part of the picture. "There are a lot of pissed off ex-husbands and ex-wives," Mortillaro said. "Kids are negatively affected by the parental alienation," particularly when the offspring spend time with both warring parties.

The contemporary teen party scene illustrates the degree of freedom some Las Vegas parents are granting. Such parents, by not knowing what their teens are up to, are giving tacit approval. "Parents are asleep at the wheel," Druck said.

The July 18 party that led to Hansen's injuries began with Jared Rose inviting seven friends to swim in the backyard pool at a vacant home the family owned, according to Jared's father, Les Rose.

Les Rose said he was not at the party site -- which is listed for sale at $610,000 -- but up the street at the home where the family resides, in an upscale, gated housing tract near Rampart Boulevard and Canyon Run Drive. He considered himself near enough to intervene if his son requested help.

Beyond the seven invited friends, all others who showed up were unexpected and unwanted, according to the elder Rose.

Yet numerous teens who gave police statements after the party said they learned about it by word of mouth. "With teenagers and cell phones and cars, you can get 100 people together in five minutes," Rose said.

Some teens told police they knew Jared only by his first name. It suggests their parents and the host parent could not have communicated in advance about the party -- a prime way that Druck, Mortillaro and the Parenting Project recommend for parents to keep track of teens' whereabouts and activities.

"At most parties these days, (a guest) can invite anybody else. You go with a few of your friends. It's not like I was crashing," said one teen at the July 18 party, who declined to be identified.

Alcohol at parties attended by teens, who are under legal drinking age, is common.

"I was in the back yard, um, having a couple beers, chugging with some friends, um, talking to girls," is how Brandon Gallion, 16, described to police his actions at the July party before the confrontation. Gallion and his twin, Anthony, are among the nine teens charged as adults in connection with the assault.

Other teens told police that partygoers rained beer and beer bottles on the truck as Hansen was leaving.

Also, at least one parent knew about, and viewed, some of the videotaped violence before it became a court exhibit. Don Gallion, the twins' father, told police: "I even asked him (the teen who taped), I said, `Didn't those people get in trouble?' And they laughed that off here in my living room."

Herd mentality

The 311 Boyz scenario is not new.

Affluent teen girls in Northbrook, Ill., were caught in May on video that showed seniors beating up juniors at an informal powder puff football game. Many observers have called it a hazing incident.

In August, several Ohio teens went to downtown Cleveland to assault homeless people with stun guns. Some of the assaults were taped.

"There've been situations like this bubbling up across the country," Druck said. "We have more and more stories of kids who live in (nice areas) forming small groups" to commit violence.

When the group dynamic is unraveled, "usually, there's a couple at the core who are really problem kids," Druck said. "And there are a lot of followers on the edge. And although the followers may be implicated, they're victims nonetheless. There are victims everywhere."

Core teens in group misconduct tend to have histories of family or personal problems or criminal records, he explained. But they have leadership abilities and are able to sway peers.

Regardless of criminal liability, several leaders seem to emerge out of the 311 Boyz events.

Based solely on criminal charges, Steven Gazlay, 18, is a central figure. He faces charges in connection with the Hansen attack and two other assaults, one with a crowbar in the desert, the other with a heated butter knife at a different party.

In a witness statement to police about the July 18 party, Natasha McLaughlin said she tried to intervene when the crowd wouldn't let the truck carrying Hansen leave: "I was focusing on ... Gazlay because I knew he had the control of all of them. ... Like, if he would have said, `Guys, look. Leave him alone,' they would have left him alone."

Christopher Morgan, 16, attended the party and is now serving time at a juvenile facility in Elko for a separate assault with brass knuckles, when a group of 311 Boyz attacked a male teen in early July.

Morgan's mother, Seaneen DeFoor, describes him as being an oppositional child since toddler age. She remembers his third-grade teacher telling her, "I have been a teacher for 40 years, and your son will be in prison."

DeFoor said she and Morgan's father, who has actively helped raise him since their divorce, have over the years taken him to four psychologists and two psychiatrists. One called her son a sociopath, she said.

They also diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder, she said. They prescribed medications, which Morgan began secretly selling at about age 12. DeFoor said she learned he was selling the pills to buy methamphetamine for his own use.

From about age 12, Morgan's behavior deteriorated dramatically and turned criminal, resulting in several stays in juvenile detention. At 14, he stole a car in California but pleaded to a lesser charge. He also ran away from home 14 times, always after DeFoor attempted to discipline him.

DeFoor said she followed up each incident by filing a missing person report or criminal complaint. Occasionally, police returned him to her when they happened to pick him up for various infractions, including jaywalking.

He usually returned home "as soon as he got tired, hungry or cold, when the weather changed," DeFoor said.

But he also wheedled his way into staying at peers' homes, she said, but declined to give names. If she suspected his location, she would call the parents to tell them that harboring a runaway is breaking the law.

Twice, DeFoor said, parents told her later, "We believed his story." She said she loves Morgan, but he is a manipulator. "He was `working the room.' "

T.J. Carter might be another pivotal figure in the 311 Boyz. The Review-Journal could not locate him or his parents.

Carter is "the one who gets in the most fights," Ashley Erickson told police. She is friends with teens on both sides of the July 18 attack. "People kind of saw him being the ... big, bad-ass guy and he can handle himself."

The truck carrying Hansen accidentally hit Carter as it fled the party, according to multiple witnesses.

Les Rose said the rock-throwing was a natural teen reaction to the violence committed by the truck's driver, Craig LeFevre. "All T.J.'s friends went crazy. (LeFevre) was a felon. They were chasing him to prevent him from leaving the scene of a crime."

Witnesses said Carter was stunned after being hit but got up and refused medical care.

Several told police Carter was homeless and moved from one friend's home to the next. Don Gallion confirmed in his police statement that he and his wife had for a time let Carter live with them, buying him clothes and furniture.

Carter and Morgan clash with the tidy notion that all teens in the 311 Boyz are well-to-do.

Morgan's mom is a cocktail waitress at the Four Queens, who originally rented housing so her children -- including Morgan's three younger siblings -- would be zoned for Centennial High School and its feeder schools. Less than six months ago, she mustered all her money to buy a modest townhome in the gated Painted Desert community.

But affluence guarantees neither success nor failure for teens, psychologist Druck said.

"Kids, whether they're poor or rich, can experience emptiness. Wealth does not fill a person's life automatically with meaning."

He said he believes lack of parental involvement often is the key factor in teens who run amok.

Las Vegas psychologist Mortillaro echoed the sentiment. He also assigned blame to a lack of ethical role models -- count the recent scandals spawned by sports figures, politicians or corporate leaders -- and a failure by religious institutions:

"When kids get frustrated and don't have a proper outlet, it can turn into violence toward themselves or violence toward others."