Youth Violence: The Blame Game

Officer Bolton, "This store up here is a hot spot."

On this day he spots a young man in a photo with alleged gang members.

Officer Bolton, "You know people are throwing up gang signs in there."

Young Man, "Them are just people who I'm cool with."

Marcus Lee, "They're tough enough out here I mean you can still get hurt easily being out in this area with the gangs that's already out here."

It filters into neighborhoods like 15 year old Marcus Lee's, East Chattanooga.

Marcus Lee, "I don't like seeing it how it is. All the violence and the drugs and stealing and all that stuff. I don't like seeing that."

And ends up disrupting our schools.

Dr. Scales, "This is the one place where they come for seven hours a day so those tensions come back to our community. This school and other schools get blamed for a lack of discipline. Well, we're trying to control things that's probably out of our control."

Some parents say it's beyond their control too. For this mother all she could do wasn't enough to save her son from a gang.

Tanya, "I woke up one day and my son was selling drugs."Shela Van Ness, "Where ever you see gangs arise, those are substitute families."

Sociology professor Shela Van Ness points to a break down of the family.

Van Ness, "Many parents are working two or three jobs today. They don't spend that much time with their children."

Leaving children to the influence of their peers.

Joe Rowe, "When I talk to people, they all point fingers at each other about the problem."

East Chattanooga Weed and Seed volunteer Joe Rowe says we should be pointing the finger at ourselves.

In part two of our series on Youth Violence we'll explore solutions to the problem.