VIOLENT JUVENILE CRIME.   Term Paper ID:20822 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Causes, theories, socioeconomics, relations with parents, incidence, intervention, role of schools.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Causes, theories, socioeconomics, relations with parents, incidence, intervention, role of schools. Paper Introduction: The rising tide of juvenile violence is one of the core issues facing contemporary American society and, indeed, many other societies in the world. Attempts to explain, or even to understand, why young people today are resorting to levels of violence almost unknown a decade ago are often just vague generalizations which have been similarly applied to (less or non-violent) teens in the 1950s, '60s, '70s, and '80s. Academicians have theorized that there is a subculture of violence [which] proposes that variations in the use of violent behavior stem from the adherence to subcultural normative systems that support and encourage violence. . . . [T]he violent subculture promotes a relatively greater number of conditions under which violence is expected or required of its Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. . The program isdesigned to identify and assist parents who are at risk of abusing theirchildren: alcoholics, drug addicts, teen mothers, welfare recipients, orpersons who have been abused by parents or spouses.[xxxvii] Although thereis nothing to compel participation in the program, very few refuse, and in-home counseling may continue for up to five years. . Calhoun, "Violence, Youth anda Way Out," Children Today, September-October 1998, 1 .Toufexis, 55.Ibid.Kennedy and Baron, 1 1.Barry Came, "Gang Terror," Maclean's, 22 May 1989, 39.Morrow, 23."A Bullet for Teacher," Economist, 24 July 1993, 31.Donna Harrington-Lueker, "Blown Away by School Violence,"Education Digest, November 1992, 51.Ibid.Morrow, 23.Brown, 9.Ibid.Anthony Wilson-Smith, "Gang Warfare, Soviet-Style," Maclean's,22 May 1989, 44.Ibid.Came, 37."Children Who Kill," Der Spiegel, reprinted in World Pressreview, June 1993, 23.Henkoff, 68.Ibid.Ibid.Harrington-Lueker, 51.Ibid."A Bullet for Teacher," 31.Henkoff, 68.Adria Steinberg, "How Schools Can Help Stem Violence in Today'sYouth," Education Digest, November 1991, 41.Ibid.Ibid.Ibid., 43.----------------------- 15 . . Baron. A community's structure and institutions "can either reinforce andrenew its agreed-upon rules, be neutral, or at worst push large numbersaway from abiding by the community's understood rules."[xix] Or,, as YaleUniversity sociologist Albert Reiss asserts, "Certain kinds of communitystructure either weaken forms of social control that induce conformity tolawabiding norms or generate controls that inhibit conformity."[xx] Economic health is tied directly to the kinds of employment availableto community members. These kids will kill to save face."[xxi]Disconnection enlarges upon self-esteem. Withoutintervention, statistics show that about 2 percent of high-risk parentscould be expected to abuse their children. "Gang Terror." Maclean's, 22 May 1989, 36-9."Children Who Kill." Der Spiegel. One popular target of psychologists, sociologists, and activistgroups is the entertainment media. Between1985 and 1989, for example, arrests of children under age 18 for murder andnonnegligent manslaughterrose by 16.8 percent,[vii] while at the same time homicide accounted forthe deaths of 2,771 children ages 1 to 19, an increase of 48percent from 1984[viii] and more than a 1 percent increase over 1965.[ix]But between 1989 and 1992, as juvenile homicide arrests skyrocketed up by93 percent, there was only a 16 percent increase in the number of adultarrests for homicide.[x] According to the American PsychologicalAssociation, teenagers are now two-and-a-half times as likely to fallvictim to violent crime than persons over 2 .[xi] According to theNational Council on Crime and Delinquency, as late as 1991, "on any givenday. His mother was a dope addict, his stepfather an alcoholic. An 11year-old girl "has known since shewas in the fifth grade what she wanted to wear at her funeral. "Gang Warfare, Soviet-Style." Maclean's, 22 May 1989, 44.Woodbury, Richard. I mean putting a cane up to someone's head and asking for their money is provoked. "Kids Are Killing, Dying, Bleeding." Fortune, 1 August 1992, 62-69.Kennedy, Leslie W., and Stephen W. Private organizations, such as theEducational Development Center in Newton, Massachusetts, are creatingcurricula designed to help schools teach violence prevention. Healthy Start "intervenes from day one," in which a caseworker meets with parents following the birth of a child. Hitting a child with an object is also legally permissible and widespread. They arenot trying to conquer death anymore, they are now turning themselvesover."[xxxii] And juvenile violence is not limited to the United States. As Calhoun comments: Communities thrive or fail to thrive, become healthy or diseased, as a result of the strength or weakness of the bonds woven by and among community institutions--work, family and kin, religious and civic associations, a local economy capable of generating stable livelihoods, and good schools. Attempts to explain, or even to understand, why young people todayare resorting to levels of violence almost unknown a decade ago are oftenjust vague generalizations which have been similarly applied to (less ornon-violent) teens in the 195 s, '6 s, '7 s, and '8 s. He shot the man in the back for cheating him out of $9 in a crack buy. (I)ncreases in crime and violence are signals that the front line institutions--family,, school, church and civic groups--have failed to hold.[xviii]Calhoun's article describes at least five different areas which arecontributing to the increase in juvenile violence: community structure andinstitutions, economic health, loss of control, absence of role andrecognition, and disconnection. Later they graduate to TV programs and movies that depict people killing or degrading other people.[xxiii]If assertions such as this were as close to the mark as they appear on thesurface, why are they not routinely cited by teen offenders? According to Arnold Goldstein, director of Syracuse University'sCenter for Research on Aggression, the message of contemporary Americansociety is putting the emphasis not on caring for others but on acquiringmoney and instant gratification: "We are a nation whose role models,Presidents and leaders on Wall Street have set a tone in the country--'I'mgoing to get mine."[xxii] The message to young people is that the oftenillegal means by which people of importance seem to have gained what theyhave is sufficient validation for them to attempt to get whatever they canby whatever means are at their disposal. There are countless video games, motionpictures, and rap, heavy-metal, and so-called punk-rock music lyrics whosethemes revolve around urban gangs, drug use, violence against women--factors which may contribute to the devaluation of life. He grew up in a South Dallas slum, and before he dropped out of fifth grade, he was selling dope and doing drive-by shootings. Baron, "Routine Activities anda Subculture of Violence: A Study of Violence on the Street,"Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 3 (February1993):89.Richard Woodbury, "Taming the Killers," Time, 11 October 1993,58."Teen Homicides Reflect Society's Violence," USA Today,April 1988, 5.Murray A. . Researchers variously cite such things as thebreakdown of the family and community institutions, unemployment, poorschools, welfare, desensitization to violence due to inordinate amounts ofviolence in television programs, motion pictures, or cartoons, and evencomic books. . The most common forms are spanking, slapping, grabbing, and shoving a child "roughly"--with more force than needed to move the child. If we want non-violent teenagers, we must also renounce the use of violence, including violence for morally correct purposes.[iv]Strauss views "legitimate" (i.e., morally correct) physical punishment as: a legally permissible attack on children. "Violence, Youth and a Way Out." Children Today, September- October 1988, 9-11.Came, Barry. that honor is a normative code that stresses theinviolability of one's manhood and defines breaches of etiquette . 139.Ibid., 141."A Tide of Teen Violence," Scholastic Update, 5 April 1991, 4.Ronald Henkoff, "Kids Are Killing, Dying, Bleeding," Fortune, 1 August 1992, 63,Karl Zinsmeister, "Growing Up Scared," Atlantic Monthly, June199 , 51.Lance Morrow, "Childhood's End," Time, 9 March 1992, 23.DeNeen L. But viewers see no consequences. A programdeveloped by Deborah Prothrow-Stith in 1987, "Violence Prevention Project,"is now in use in several high schools.[xliv] A 1 -session curriculum isdesigned to use a "public health strategy to involve everyone in contactwith youth--from pediatricians to coaches--to reinforce the message that itdoes not make sense to 'fight it out.'"[xlv] Other curricula are beingdeveloped for middle schools, but some believe that five- or six-year-oldsare not too young to "understand many elements of arriving at solutionswhere both sides win."[xlvi] While there are widely varying opinions on what the causes andsolutions to the problem of juvenile violence are, there isone belief which may be inescapable. . Calhoun, "Violence, Youth and a Way Out," ChildrenToday, September-October 1988, 9-1 .Ibid., 1 .Ibid.Albert Reiss, ed., "Why Are Communities Important toUnderstanding Crime?" Communities and Crime (Chicago: Universityof Chicago Press ' 1986), n.p., quoted in John A. To roll someone is to beat the shit out of someone till they don't know what's going on and then take their stuff.[xxiv] Children are killing each other over things such as earrings, $125tennis shoes, $3 leather jackets ;[xxv] deaths are resulting from drugturf wars, from fistfights which escalate to stabbings or shootings.[xxvi]Some of it is impulsive and random; in Oakland, California, a boy stabbed aclassmate over refusal to pay up on a 25-cent bet, and in Los Angeles, acheerleader was shot by a boy who wanted her Walkman radio.[xxvii] Gunsare viewed by violent youth as "equalizers," and they are being used byboys and girls.[xxviii] As Baltimore City Public Schools chief of securityLarry Burgan says, "[A child's attitude is] 'Nobody will mess with me; I'llresolve the problem with ray piece.[xxix] At New York City's Thomas Jefferson High School 7 students wereshot, stabbed, killed, or permanently disabled between 1988 and 1992; 5 percent of the 19 students there are reported to have puncture wounds ontheir bodies at any given time. And police arrestedfive teenagers who were caught while boiling three human heads over abonfire. Kennedy, andStephen W. Academicians have theorized that there is a subculture of violence [which] proposes that variations in the use of violent behavior stem from the adherence to subcultural normative systems that support and encourage violence. Youth gangs in the city of Kazan (about 64 km from Moscow)determined in May1991, that they would "turn Kazan into a city without virgins," whichprompted police to recruit reinforcements from neighboring towns--butdespite the efforts crimes committed by juveniles in that city increased by3 percent in the following year.[xxxiv] Canadian gangs are reported to be imitative of American gangsdepicted in motion pictures such as "Lost Angels" and "Colors." In SaoPaolo, Brazil, "trombadinhas" (little crashers) appear out of nowhere toterrorize and rob unsuspecting adults.[xxxv] In Germany, a survey of highschool students in the state of Schleswig-Holstein revealed that 1114percent of those questioned had seen brutal beatings among students 'oftento very often.' About 7 percent reported that clubs, brass knuckles, orstones were used in those beatings," where it has also been observed that"compassion is frowned upon as uncool . Victims never bleed and never suffer. Violence at the school is so common thatthere is a "grieving room" for peace and quiet and counseling, and there isa burial fund to help poor families with funeral expenses![xxx] Children in Washington, D.C., are so close to violence and death--224children under the age of 18 have been killed there in the past five years--that they plan their own funerals. "The Young and the Fatalistic." Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 8-14 November 1993, 9."A Bullet for Teacher." Economist, 24 July 1993, 29-31.Calhoun, John A. "A National Emergency." Scholastic Update, 5 April 1991, 2-3.Morrow, Lance. "Growing Up Scared." Atlantic Monthly, June 199 , 49- 66.-----------------------Wolfgang and Ferracuti (1967), cited in Leslie W. The results of this particular program have been remarkable. . . Thusit happens that bystanders not only do not help the victim but evenencourage the culprit.[xxxvi] There are no unified theories to explain the root cause (or causes)of juvenile violence. In theformer Soviet Union, Juvenile "delinquency" only became public afterMikhail Gorbachev implemented his glasnost policy of openness.[xxxiii] In1991, Moscow police reported that some 4, youths were involved in atleast 3 separate incidents involving street gangs. "Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic--An Education in Violence." Crisis, April/May 1993, 8-1 .Henkoff, Ronald. Still otherssuggest that today's youth receive far less time with their parents thandid previous generations.[xvi] According to the National Crime Prevention Council, to a certainextent crime is a reaction to conditions within a community.[xvii] Failureto establish links of trust, even within disadvantaged neighborhoods,jeopardizes the community's security. . He committed the murder when he was 13. Abullet can answer the problem in an instant. Brown, "The Young and the Fatalistic," Washington PostNational Weekly Edition, 8-14 November 1993, 9.Steven Manning, "A National Emergency," Scholastic Update, 5April 1991, 2-3.Diane Williams Hayes, "Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic--AnEducation in Violence," Crisis, April.May 1993, 8.Henkoff, 63.Anastasia Toufexis, "Our Violent Kids," Time, 12 June 1989, 55.Hayes, 9.John A. "Blown Away by School Violence." Education Digest, November 1992, 5 -53.Hayes, Diane Williams. . When Idie, I want to be dressy for my family."[xxxi] Hannemann UniversityHospital psychologist Douglas Marlowe says planning a funeral is "extremelyfatalistic" and not a normal characteristic of adolescent development."Once they start planning their own funerals, they have given up. Strauss has spent more than two decadesexamining in various contexts the transmission of violence from parents tochildren, and from that to adolescent and adulthood violence. At Roth Middle School in Dayton, Ohio (almost9 percent African American), several hundred African American students areenrolled in a program called PACT-Positive Adolescents Choices Training.The programs teaches children how to talk instead of fighting. . Teens are, quite naturally, in astate of transition. Subcultural norms serve as guides for the perception and interpretation of certain situations (the jostle, the derogatory remark, the appearance of a weapon) where violence is viewed as an appropriate response.[i]And others have suggested that gang violence "revolves aroundinsult and honor . Jobs which offer little stability and low pay arefrequently the only ones available to young people, and they are weakinducements to counter the temptations of a quick, illegal buck. Guns are legally bought by proxy, stolen,or traded on the streets.[xli] Efforts to utilize metal detectors oftenjust provide children opportunities to exercise creative freedom as theyinvent ways of circumventing the system: at New York's Jefferson High, ittakes two-and-one-half hours to check all3, students coming to school, and students still manage tohide weapons outside the campus and smuggle them in later.[xlii] Other alternatives have included programs designed to helpyoungsters cope with anger. The physical, intellectual, emotional, and economicchanges which are at work can easily injure an already fragile self-esteem. "How Schools Can Help Stem Violence in Today's Youth." Education Digest, November 1991, 4 -43.Strauss, Murray A. Reprinted in World Press Review, June 1993, 21-23.Harrington-Lueker, Donna. . Sociologist Murray A. "Childhood's End." Time, 9 March 1992, 22-23.Steinberg, Adria. But among the 1,2 4 familiesserved by Healthy Start between 1987 and 1989, "there were just three casesof abuse and six of neglect-less than 2 percent."[xxxviii] It has beenpredicted that once the program is fully implemented, its $16 millionannual cost should substantially reduce the current $4 million in annualexpenditures now spent in that state for "post-abuse" foster care andprotective custody.[xxxix] Obviously, keeping guns and kids separated would be a remarkableachievement. . . It has been estimated that up to 8 percent of the gunschildren carry into U.S. . He said of the murder that it was "no big deal, it was just another crime.[iii]Something is dreadfully wrong in society when teens view as "no big deal." But what is wrong? . Mostimportantly, the program relies heavily upon parental responsibility--educating parents to discipline their children appropriately andeffectively.[xliii] Schools are the most likely candidates for implementing broad changesin attitudes toward violent behavior. Parents in the United States and most countries have a legal right to carry out these attacks, as do teachers in most U.S. In 1988, USAToday quoted from one of Strauss' many studies: The more adults use violence for either criminal or legitimate purposes (such as corporal punishment in school), the higher the rate of youth violence. 'I think my[sixth grade] prom dress is going to be the prettiest dress of all. Kennedy, and Stephen W. states and most nations; whereas, the same act is a criminal assault if carried out by someone not in a custodial relationship to the child.[v]In this study, Strauss documented that the more parents had been physicallypunished as children, the more likely they were to physically punish theirown children.[vi] While there may be an obvious correlation between parent-to child-tosociety violence, statistics reveal that the increase in violent juvenilecrime is not mirroring crime as it affects the whole of society. A five-year study by the American Psychological Association foundthat by the time an average child had completed the sixth grade, he or shehad witnessed some 8, murders and 1 , other acts of violence ontelevision alone.[xiv] This may actually represent a change for the better--in 1989, Time magazine reported that by the age of 16, the typicalAmerican youngster had seen 2 , violent acts and 33, murders ontelevision.[xv] But television is only one medium among many which mayhave an influence over our youth. schools come from home.[xl] State and federallegislation designed to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, however,seldom achieve the desired goal. Television cartoons feature dehumanized, machinelike characters, such as the Transformers and Gobots, engaged in destructive acts. The reader is encouraged toexamine Strauss' "System Model of Causes and Consequences ofPhysical Punishment" [Figure 2], p. The rising tide of juvenile violence is one of the core issues facingcontemporary American society and, indeed, many other societies in theworld. "Our Violent Kids." Time, 12 June 1989, 52-58.Wilson-Smith, Anthony. . Low self-esteem and educationaldeficiencies have been cited as reasons why black teens "resort to machodisplays of violence to preserve a'twisted sense of dignity. . . "Discipline and Deviance: Physical Punishment of Children and Violence and Other Crime in Adulthood." Social Problems, 38 (May 1991): 133-154."Teen Homicides Reflect Society's Violence," USA Today, April 1988, 5."A Tide of Teen Violence." Scholastic Update, 5 April 1991, 4.Toufexis, Anastasia. 1 , adolescents are confined in correctional institutions-nearly twice the number confined in 1965, when there were 6.5 million morepeople under age 18 in the country."[xii] The National Education Association estimates that 1 , studentsare carrying guns to school, that 3 million incidents of street crime suchas assault, robbery, rape, and theft are being committed annually on schoolcampuses, and that nearly 3 , high school students are attacked eachmonth--one in twenty teachers are likely to be assaulted.[xiii] Clearly,there is something going on here which defies all reason. As varied as are the causes, so, too, are the proposed orexperimental "cures" and "treatments" which run the gamut from stricterlaws and longer incarcerations for offenders to more moderate approachessuch as Hawaii's "Healthy Start" program. Baron, "Routine Activities and a Subculture ofViolence: A Study of Violence on the Street," Journal ofResearch in Crime and Delinquency, 3 (February 1993): 89.Horowitz (1983), and Horowitz and Swartz (1974), cited inLeslie W. Rather,violent teens make statements such as: The violence here is provoked. According to Alfie Kohn, author ofThe Brighter Side of Human Nature: Altruism and Empathy in Everyday Life: The attitude of many people is that once you get kids well behaved, that's where the responsibility ends. [T]he violent subculture promotes a relatively greater number of conditions under which violence is expected or required of its members. Writers such as Toufexis are quick toclaim that: Today's children, unlike those of earlier generations, are fed a steady diet of glorified violence. Calhoun,"Violence, Youth and a Way Out," Children Today, September-October 1988, 1 .Alvin Poussaint, quoted in John A. Arnie is at Giddings (State Home and School for youthful offenders, near Austin, Texas) for killing a man. . inan adversarial idiom."[ii] Less formal observation may paint a picture closer toreality: It's easy to see how Arnie Hall, 17, became a criminal. [But it has been demonstrated] that children can be raised to work with, care for, and help each other, and that schools can play a major role in that process.[xlvii] Endnotes BibliographyBrown, DeNeen L. "Taming the Killers." Time, 11 October 1993, 58-59.Zinsmeister, Karl. "Routine Activities and a Subculture of Violence: A Study of Violence on the Street." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 3 (February 1993): 88-112.Manning, Steven. I mean mugging people is provoked. Youngsters mimic the behavior with toys based on the shows. Strauss, "Discipline and Deviance: Physical Punishmentof Children and Violence and Other Crime-in Adulthood," SocialProblems, 38 (May 1991): 134. Loss ofcontrol on the part of parents and the broader community permit thesubstitution of a peer-group system which "supports co-offending" andcreates networks which "simplify the search for accomplices." Absence of role and recognition sees a connection betweenpowerlessness and the incidence of crime. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.