Children exposed to Violence become more violent

I am very interested in what turns an innocent baby boy into a deviant member of society. I have concluded base on my observations over the years that boys expose to violence during their childhood are more prone to become violent adults. 

I am talking about the boy who lost his father to violence, the boy who witnesses a father or step father hitting his mother or the child whose father abused him. These children internalize a mindset that weak people get pounded upon. They get a misrepresentation of what a strong character is and begin subscribing to the wrong philosophies. 

I had a rather interesting conversation with a mother about her son who is behind bars for gun possession. I was trying to fathom knowing her personality and that of his father, how he became the person that he is. He was nothing like his parents. 

During the conversation the mother told me that her younger brother was chopped to death when her son was only nine year old. The little boy told his mother even when he started school that he would never allow any one to step down on him the way they did his uncle.

I quickly extrapolated from our conversation and reinforced my belief that violence only begets more violence. This young man now twenty years old believes that he can only assert his masculinity through violence. He is of the opinion that if him don't put up a bad man front that people will get rid of him. He believed his uncle died because he wasn't bad enough, tough enough. He probably thought that his uncle was a coward. He thinks his uncle died because he was weak. 

He enters adulthood a convict. He convinced his mother that he was young and naive that he is grateful for the chance of life that the police officer who brought him in instead of killing him gave him. He had vowed never to waste the opportunity that he got at a second chance when so many have died.