Threats and verbal insults are among the top crimes in the country, for which the Judiciary is enacting rules of punishment, said Mohammadbagher Olfat, deputy head of the Judiciary.
“Verbal insults and threats are rooted in violence. New plans are underway to introduce the necessary checks to reduce violence in cultural, social and security terms,” IRNA quoted him as saying.
Most people think of violence as physical assault. However, it is a much wider problem and involves any act in which a person is abused, threatened, intimidated or verbally attacked.
Aggression is becoming a common social pattern. The rates of maladaptive aggression in youth diagnosed with behavioral disorders (a range of antisocial types of behavior displayed in childhood or adolescence) have been estimated at approximately 20%, with boys displaying significantly higher rates than girls. In older adults suffering from dementia, the rates of aggression have been estimated to be as high as 96%.
There are 1,980 categories of crime in the country of which thefts, beatings, and deliberate insult to ordinary people, unintentional injury and threatening behavior, constituted 40% of the criminal cases last year (ended March 20) and were also among the top five crimes committed. Nearly 14 % of the total cases were attributed to sabotage, fraud, breach of trust and drug dealing or abuse, said Alireza Savari, director general of Crime Prevention at the Judiciary.
Among the various causes of violence leading to misconduct and verbal threats, genetic reasons have been recognized as one. For instance those with first degree relatives who have aggressive behavioral problems are more likely to develop them than those without a similar family history.
Aggressive Behavior
The brain-behavior connection is another reason. Aggressive behavior and violence are elicited when anger inciting experiences are encountered, and the frontal lobes (the part of the brain that controls important cognitive skills in humans) process this information. The frontal lobes are associated with functions such as impulse controls, behavioral inhibition, reasoning and decision making. Frontal-lobe damage may result in aggressive behavior.
Olfat said children growing up in a home where aggression is a common expression of distress or impulsive reaction to misinterpretations, mimic this behavioral pattern and it becomes a part of their personality and demeanor.
Leaving aggressive tendencies untreated can lead to serious complications with damages that may have permanent physical, ethical and psychological ramifications. Special cultural programs are being planned in schools in cooperation with the Education Ministry and the state-broadcaster IRIB to teach anger management and control to students while raising public awareness.
