Why are there so many domestic violence crimes surfacing among the players of the National Football League. I have an hypothesis. American football is a violent sport. How do you separate the violence in your profession from the violence in your personal life. I am not sure you do.
Years ago, when I started working in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice http://tdcj.state.tx.us/ system, the then many Vietnam War veterans generally said the same thing: We were taught to kill for our country, and then sent home from the war and not given any other skills, so we continued doing what we knew: violence. It makes sense.
Learning from the patients I dealt with in TDCJ, I realized that many of them were raised in environments in which the only answer to conflict was violence. They thought a violent response to an affront was acceptable. With that mind set, of course violence will wage in people's lives.
And, we are becoming more immersed in violence: Many of our games and play are violent, especially video and computer games. Violence in the news media, and in the entertainment media desensitizes us to violence. Young people do not see violence as horrible acts against humanity. They see it as temporary entertainment, possibly even something that is not permanent as the players revived in the next episode of play. I think many young people have the mind set events in real life can be "do overs" as they can be in games, and in the entertainment world. Like little children, even young adults do not understand that violence is life and death, and there are no second chances.
So, a person whose profession is violent, who past times are violent, whose upbringing may have taught him or her that violence is the acceptable answer to conflict, can be expected to live a personal life of violence, right or wrong. So, is it any wonder that NFL players have violence in their personal lives?
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