LELING/tjc09_violence

The author in passage one says that “no single experience or character trait is sufficient, no single one to blame.” This means that there are many factors that lead to criminal violence. This is applicable to my country as criminal violence cases in Singapore are often attributed to many factors. This can be seen in the NTU stabbing incident where an Indonesian scholar stabbed a professor before committing suicide. There are many factors that had led to this tragedy which includes stress, difficulty in integrating in the school and inequality treatment. However, there is often one main factor that attributes to criminal violence. Inequality treatment is exemplified in the riot where the Malay newspaper, Utusan Malayu had false reporting that there was discrimination against the Malays in Singapore’s housing policies in the 1960s. Criminal violence usually occurs as a result of unfair treatment that engenders an unbalanced psychology leading to aggression. However, all these grudges of having inequality treatment would not have occurred if the people were able to tell right from wrong. Hence, there are many factors that attributes to criminal violence.

The author in passage two says that criminal violence occurs when “any culture in which inequities and cultural differences come in conflict with high ideals”. This means that a different identity is the main factor that lead to criminal violence. This is applicable to my country as most of the criminal violence cases occurred as a result of lack of common identity. Some of these criminal violence cases include the 1950 maria hertogh riot, 1964 communal riot and 1969 racial riot. However, different identities may not be the main factor. Instead, it is the unfair treatment that people received that cause criminal violence. For example, the 1954 National Service Riots occurred when students were unwilling to defend a foreign government which in their time of need, deserted them. However, the National Service Riots is still a case where Singaporeans do not share a common identity with the British government. Hence, a different identity is still a main factor that leads to criminal violence.