The Culture of Fear_ Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things - Barry Glassner [39]
Even more illuminating than speculation about the perilousness of American society or the fluctuations in the numbers of teens who commit suicide is a well-documented change in how they end their lives. More kids succeed in suicide attempts these days than in the past because more of them—about 60 percent—use guns. As we have seen, the ready availability of guns also accounts for most teen homicides and many fatal accidents, the other two leading causes of death for this age group. Perhaps politicians, social scientists, journalists, and anyone else who reports on dangers to kids should install on their computers a screen saver that shows a revolver, and beneath it, in big letters: IT’S THE GUNS, STUPID.7
Teen Gamblers
As much as the media and politicians would have us believe otherwise, most American children are not in imminent danger from the overhyped hazards of our age. Researchers have a good idea of what truly puts kids at greater risk. In the case of suicide, for instance, nine out of ten teens who kill themselves are clinically depressed, abusing drugs or alcohol, or coping with severe family traumas.8
Scott Croteau, as it turns out, was a case in point. Outwardly he may have appeared to be doing well, but at home Scott was subject to extraordinary levels of stress. The gun he used to kill himself had been purchased by his father, who said he bought it to protect himself from his ex-wife, Scott’s mother, a recovering alcoholic who had been arrested several times for theft. The mother, fearful in turn for her own safety, had sought a protective order against Scott’s father.9
Or consider a less life-threatening but much publicized risk to our youth. To judge by the abundant coverage the press has devoted to it throughout the 1990s, every parent ought to worry about whether her son or daughter has become addicted to gambling. USA Today ran a headline—“Teen Gambling: An Epidemic”—and two full pages of stories plus an editorial about what it dubbed “the invisible addiction.” According to a story in the Indianapolis Star, fully nine out of ten students in Indiana’s middle schools and high schools have gambled. Deemed “the latest peril for America’s troubled teenagers” (U.S. News & World Report), gambling holds “such a fascination for the young a child can get very addicted to it and it becomes his whole life” (ABC News). 10
“Sociologists are alarmed by studies saying teenagers are four times as likely to gamble as adults,” the Christian Science Monitor reported. A sociologist myself, I have to confess that I have never experienced that sense of alarm nor heard it expressed by colleagues. The statistic rings untrue, conjuring up as it does images of clandestine casinos in the basements of high schools, with boys whose voices have yet to change serving as croupiers. Actual studies show that the vast majority of kids who gamble engage in nothing more serious than buying Lotto tickets or betting on the Super Bowl with their pals. Kids who do become problem gamblers almost always have other problems, drug and alcohol abuse, delinquency, depression, and relationship troubles being the most common. Among the best predictors is having parents who gamble heavily.11
Sue Fisher, a British sociologist, studied teens who gamble obsessively and learned that their compulsion was a response to other problems such as unwanted pregnancy or abusive parents. Often when their troubles eased, so did their gambling. Other heavy-gambling teens, Fisher discovered, are merely going through a routine stage in the transition to adulthood. They may appear “addicted” to gambling, but actually they are