Recommended: Teenage offender epidemic
Most of the teens in this documentary faced abuse such as mental, physical, and sexual abuse. Though what these teens did was horrific, it was understandable. Many of these kids were pushed past their breaking point, causing them to snap. This documentary shows that most of these teens did not kill out of cold blood, but out of fear. In fact, 59% of juveniles who receive life without parole the crime they committed was their first crime ever (Second Chance 4 Youth, 2016).
There are indication that most criminals have a juvenile records in the US, indicating that crime manifests from a tender age. Therefore, to reverse the incidence of crime, it follows that the best strategy is to reduce the criminal orientation in the juvenile offenders as opposed to hardening them and preparing them for criminal careers. The case of the Crossroads Juvenile Center demonstrates the willingness of the juvenile justice systems to make these changes on the children. References Day, S. (2014). Runaway Man: A Journey Back to Hope.
It sad these youth play both parts the offender and a victim prior or after their involvement in the Criminal Justice System. In Jacob Ind case he was a victim prior to his involvement in the Criminal Justice System because he was abuse by his mother and stepfather. Jacob abuse has been the cause of his parent death, due to the culmination of years of abuse. It sad because Jacob was having thoughts about killing his parent two years prior before he has committed the crime. Jacob and his brother where been abuse physical, emotional, and sexual, and Jacob was back up to a corner and he felt he had no way out.
Erika Gebo’s article A Family Affair: The Juvenile Court and Family Violence Cases, discusses the differences and outcomes between adolescent crimes against their families or crimes committed against other families. Gebo’s focus is to bring more attention to these types of crimes because they are not treated as a serious crime. A further explanation to the previous statement is that adolescents who are violent towards their family members, more specifically their parent(s), are written off and not tried as equally as an adolescent who is violent towards someone who isn’t their family. Gebo’s (2007) findings have estimated that “2.5 million adolescents, 9% of the population have committed child to parent violence.”
These children killed people and the attention is all on them and not the victims. In Jennifer Jenkins' article, “On Punishment and Teen Killer”, she writes about a story of a boy who mentions a boy who never got in trouble for his crimes and was actually a very smart boy who planned his crimes very carefully. “The offender in our case was a serial killer in the making. He came from privilege…he planned the murders for months… He did not act on impulse or because of peer pressure…Bragging to friends led to his arrest”.
The juvenile system was designed a long time ago to try and rehabilitate also to reform juveniles that committed crimes. In some cases, juveniles today have evolved to many more adult crimes. Many of these crimes have come on the form of raping’s and murders. The original
This puts it into the reader’s minds that these juveniles are indeed not yet adults, and therefore should not be tried as such. Lundstrom also uses statistics that prove that juvenile crime is down, that “the nation’s juvenile arrest for murder fell 68 percent from 1993 to 1999, hitting its lowest level since 1966, according to the Justice Department. The juvenile arrest rate for violent crime overall fell 36 percent from 1994 to 1999.”(19) The reason why she adds this is because, in a previous paragraph, Dan Macallair from the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco stated that “We’ve created this image tht teenagerrs are something to be feared,”(16) proving that the crime rate for these teens have dropped dramatically, showing that adolescents are not as violent as they once were.
Predators Target Vulnerable Teenagers Every year, sixteen percent of children ages fourteen to seventeen have been sexually victimized, according to David Finkelhor, Director of Crimes Against Children Research Center (Child Sexual Abuse Statistics). In a true story called “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and a recent news article, young girls and boys seem to be targeted by much older men, who then abuse them sexually. In both stories, there is a pattern of central themes including the role of parents, vulnerability of teenagers and pre-teens, and the predatory behavior displayed by pedophiles.
Based on strong textual evidence and corresponding research it is clear that mandatory life sentence for juveniles who commit murder is unfair because juveniles are immature, cannot remove themselves from a toxic home environment, and is
Imagine being a child imprisoned for committing a crime for which you did not understand the consequences. Alone and afraid, with only hardened criminals and psychopaths as adult role models, you live in fear. Through a vicious combination of physical, sexual, emotional, and mental abuse, there is no option but to turn back to crime as an adult, and continue the cycle. This is a daily reality for thousands of American juveniles. Yet, we continue to call it the juvenile justice system.
Juveniles are the offenders in 43% of assaults on children under age six. Of these offenders, 14% are under age. Juveniles who commit sex offenses against other children are more likely than adult sex offenders to offend in groups, to offend at schools, and to have more male victims and younger victims. The number of youth coming to the attention of police for sex offenses increases sharply at age 12 and plateaus after age 14.
This experiment was conducted in the Netherlands in 2009 by Lisette A Hart-Kerkhoffs, Theo Doreleijers, Lucres Jansen, Anton van Wijk, and Ruud Bullens. Around 20-50 percent of all sex crimes are conducted by juveniles. This article states that juveniles who have sex offense related characteristics and the psychosexual development of subgroups who are sex offenders. The research shows that sexual offending by juveniles is often considered to be an experimental stage during sexual development. Studies have shown that many juvenile sex offenders had prior victims and also have similar behavior of an adult paraphilic sex offenders.
This can be evidenced through recidivism rates, which are over 13 percent for males, in comparison to only 1 percent for females. Additionally, in the limited cases whereby young sexual offenders are shown in the media, studies show this has a detrimental impact on reintegration. When information about youth offenders is spread within society, they become recipients of violence and abuse. These individuals are excluded from education and shunned out of the community, have issues with employment in adulthood and have a higher chance of reoffending. It is important to note that data relating to youth and female sex offenders is particularly limited, making it more difficult to draw comparisons to that of adult male sex offenders.
“Juveniles are different from adult sex offenders and hold special characteristics regarding the sexual offense and recidivism” (Gill & Raphel, 2009). They tend to have fewer victims than adult offenders as well as being much less violent with them. Juveniles also do not experience the deviant fantasies that many adult offenders do, nor do they normally account for sexual predators or pedophilias. Problems tend to arise when trying to distinguish normal adolescent behavior from deviant sexual behavior as our laws have been tweaked to account for mostly adults regarding sexual offenses and as laws grow harsher and harsher for sex offenders, juveniles who are prosecuted are usually treated as adults regarding sexual abuse
53). Aamodt and Mitchell (2005, pp. 40-47) conducted research into the incidence of child abuse in serial killers, obtaining results which indicate that rates of abuse are significantly higher in serial killers in comparison to the general population, labelled the ‘societal norms’. 68% were found to have suffered some type of abuse – however, many incidences go unreported and it is connoted that on occasion, serial killers fabricate such events in order to provide an explanation for their criminal acts. Therefore, this figure may not be accurate.
