The Application Of Traditional Martial Arts Practice And Theory To The Treatment Of Violent Adolescents

Adolescence,  Fall, 1998  by Stuart W. Twemlow,  Frank C. Sacco

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ABSTRACT

Components of an effective treatment program for violent adolescents, and the complex problems posed by youth gangs, are discussed. It is proposed that traditionally taught martial arts can provide a useful alternative for such dysfunctional adolescents. The literature on the use of martial arts in the treatment of violence is reviewed, and the program philosophy is described. The program utilizes a commitment to respect and self-control, with an emphasis on leadership and community service using the traditional model of a gentle warrior. Oversight is provided by trained instructors, whose psychological and philosophical approach stresses nonviolence. The program also assists youths in coping with the complexities of an often dysfunctional family environment. Clinical examples detail the application of such a program in specialized martial arts schools, residential treatment, and public school classes.

Single-parent households with fatherless children, gangs, and out-of-control inner-city students present psychotherapists with unique challenges. Violence and neglect have reached epidemic proportions, and children often grow up with egregious emotional scars that eventually lead to hardened, angry, intractable adolescents. Too often, they come to regard prison as a rite of passage.

Limited access to mental health coverage, capitation, and subcapitation have all but eliminated long-term, one-to-one care for most psychiatric disorders. This has forced greater numbers of adolescents who would benefit from outpatient treatment into the juvenile justice and psychiatric hospital systems. Psychotherapy is therefore challenged to design interventions that are intensive enough to reach delinquent, aggressive adolescents while still being affordable. Martial arts, integrated into a coherent treatment program, show promise in this regard. This paper reviews the literature on the use of martial arts in the treatment of violence, and explores the elements of such a program. First, the basic components of any program for violent adolescents are described.

COMPONENTS OF AN EFFECTIVE TREATMENT PROGRAM FOR VIOLENT ADOLESCENTS

There are considerable difficulties in motivating violent youth to participate in such an abstract activity as verbal therapy. This is not to say that psychotherapy is useless, only that, on an outpatient basis, it often does not provide the level of care necessary to change violent behavior and offer society a measure of safety.

Other approaches to treating violent adolescents call for a higher level of government spending. They range from community interventions to long-term treatment and high-security detention. Violent adolescents are often expelled from school and placed in special programs; then attempts are made to reintegrate them into normal educational settings. If they again break the law, they are removed from family and placed in highly structured settings that sharply limit unsupervised access to the community. This "rescue orientation" has been popular in state and federal programs in recent years (Pelton, 1989). However, these approaches either are insufficient to ensure public safety or place the violent adolescent into an artificial milieu.

There is little evidence that the changes youngsters make while in residential programs are maintained after they leave these highly specialized environments. Studies indicate that the effectiveness of residential care is linked to the intensity of aftercare intervention (Small, Kennedy, & Bender, 1991; Wells, 1991). Thus, it appears that successful treatment of violent adolescents begins and ends in the community. In short, an effective treatment program would (1) ensure public safety by eliminating violence, bullying, or other criminal activity; (2) help maintain improved behavior in the normal or special educational setting within the community; (3) keep the adolescent at home, with the family acting as social control agent; and (4) increase the adolescent's participation in positive social/recreational activities.

In order to design such programs, it is critical to understand why so many adolescents are powerfully attracted to criminal street gangs. These gangs appear to be the only consistent means by which some adolescents can feel safe and successful. The experiences of a 16-year-old male high school student is illustrative. He was participating in a collaborative peer mentorship program at a local elementary school as part of his rehabilitation for poor school grades and disruptive classroom behavior. His performance with the elementary school children was exemplary, although he did not significantly change his own classroom behavior. He was sensitive, helpful, and dedicated. On one occasion, after spending time in jail for a gang-related activity, he was very embarrassed that the children knew of this incarceration. He wrote the following essay, "Life as a Gangbanger," describing his gang involvement.

It all started about two years ago in the summer of 1994. It was a hot day in about mid-June. The only thing on our minds was our initiation later on that night. It was me, C.C., Dirt, Monster, and Mone. These were the names given to us by the bigger homies. Then night came around and it was time for us to join the set. So after getting drunk at our first ESC [East Side Click] get-together, the big homies, Keno, C Side, and Houston, called attention to us. All of a sudden we was catching blows left and right; the only thing to do was fight back, but eventually I was knocked to the ground and beaten. After a few minutes it stopped; then we was given some love and started to celebrate again. Next was to show if we was down for the hood. So we loaded up into three cars and was headed for Slur Hood (Slur is a disrespectful term for Surenios 13, who is the ESO's mortal enemies). When we got there, we spotted three of them standing outside a Kwik Shop. Our job was to beat down the enemy until they could no longer m ove. Only then could we return to the cars. So we did, and got respect from the older homies for what we did. This was the whole initiation night. This was the first work I did for the set; it wasn't the last. With my two years being with the set, I did enough dirt and earned enough respect to surpass the first three ranks and now I'm a Baby Gangsta [B.G.], only two ranks away from being an O.G. With earning the B.G. rank, I'm allowed to do things I couldn't do before; for instance, I can ball the big homies' cars, teach and tell the younger homies what to do and not to do, and sell drugs. But to break it down, there is nothing wrong with representing East Side Click, one of the many Crip sets. You get paid, known, and respect -- the three things gangbangers want. But behind all of the glamour, like me, you get shot at, you shoot at. I've been jumped four times and put in the hospital for stitches once. Had my house shot at, been locked up, have partners locked up, and worst of all I lost two homies -- D-Mons ter and Houston both killed in Houston, Texas, for what we believe in. For some, this is all we got so we're gonna represent to the fullest no matter the pain or cost: only to live up to every gangbanger's dream of having riches, respect, and to live in a world where everyone looks up to you and have worries of watching your back 24-7. But until then I'm gonna keep Cripping and stick to my motto, "can't stop, won't stop; East Side Click ride, till my casket drops."