Essay 2

Community Life

Unfortunately, one of the bigger issues than the justice system itself, is where these youths are coming from, whether speaking about their home lives or communities at large. Many of the youths who are committing crimes come from broken homes, are children of criminals, or are from areas where crime is prevalent. Marripedia, an “online social encyclopedia,” cites absent fathers as being one of the biggest causes for increased crime rates amongst youths. Those children who lack a father from the time they are born are three times more likely to commit crimes, and children whose fathers leave around the ages of 10-14 are twice as likely to commit crimes as those children who are raised in an unbroken household (Marripedia). Adolescents who have present fathers and good relationships with their fathers are not only less likely to commit crimes, they are also less likely to experience issues such as family poverty, decreasing the need for community welfare (Marripedia). While fathers are of extreme importance, a youth’s relationship with their mother is equally as imperative to decreasing crime rates and bettering the community. Mothers are essential to one’s ability to form and maintain relationships with others because in a traditional sense, they are the people closest to their children most of the time. When a child has an absent relationship with their mother or a negative relationship, there is an inability to form positive relationships with others, which has an impact on the likelihood of the child turning to crime, perhaps a gang, to get the emotional attachment they didn’t receive from their mothers (Marripedia).

Other factors within families that contribute to crime rates in the area are family fighting, dissolution of marriage, quality of parenting, and most importantly, having criminal parents. An article from Advance Data from the Vital and Health Statistics of the National Center for Health Statistics, notes that in 2007 more than 1.5 million children had a father who was in prison, along with close to 150,000 children who had a mother in prison (Marripedia). Those youth who have violent parents and those who have witnessed violence between their parents are most likely to commit violent crimes in the future. The community that youths reside in can also be an important factor in the crime rate because a community that is riddled with violent youths and broken homes, creates a ripple effect and the individuals coming from these environments are taking the violence from their homes to schools and other establishments. Essentially, there is a certain culture that is carried around by everyone in the community, and unfortunately in some areas it is not a positive one (Marripedia).

Another concept that should strongly be considered when young people are affected is that of gang culture. Present day gangs are their own “organizational structures” that work through means of a hierarchy. These groups see themselves as their own private entities devoid of other societal groups. They have many of their own distinguishing characteristics such as clothing, hand signals, colors, language, rules and regulations (Carlie 2002). New members of the gang are typically initiated through various methods, and often, new members are brought in on a generational basis, leading to the possibility of families being associated with a gang for decades (Carlie 2002). The reason this notion is so important to explore is because as mentioned in the documentary by one youth, he felt like the gang was his family. His mother had a rough time always working and being a single mother to eight children, so he lacked the relationship that could have led him down a different path and instead was handed a different path by those he considered to be the closest to him (INC 2016).

All that being said, it is imperative that we restructure the way youths are growing up and inevitably being dealt a bad hand, often times because of one offense or a simple mistake. Being thrown into detention centers and in some cases prisons, if there is a chance for release, is only putting youths in an intermediate brewing place for hardened criminals plagued by exorbitant recidivism rates. There is a real necessity to look at the youths of America as people, who have their own sets of feelings, stressors, and experiences, in the same way that adults do, however instead of trying them as adults, they should be treated with understanding and compassion. Handling children and their issues at the source can be a very effective means to ensuring that they don’t become criminals, especially over minor offenses committed out of frustration. Children are often timing a product of their circumstances, and it is up to the adults of the world to make sure their circumstances are the best they can possibly be.

Case by Case Basis

In his article Brain Development in Young Adolescents, Peter Lorain references his interview with Jay Geidd, a neuroscientist. Within this discussion, it is noted that during adolescence, youths are moving from thinking in an abstract fashion and using their brains with more regulation and attention to their thinking processes (Lorain 2002-2019). This time period marks the start of one’s ability to problem solve, use deductive reasoning, plan impulses, think critically, problem solve, and control impulses, among other cognitive functions (Lorain 2002-2019). Shawn, a youth from the presented video, is facing attempted murder charges for stabbing his father. When looking at his case specifically, information is presented that leads several people to believe that he committed this crime during a sleep-walking episode. Based on the information provided, there is a necessity to look at each youth case individually, there are some people who do not actually mean to commit crimes. Furthermore, it is important to look at the demeanor of youths on an individual basis because there are some people who are not monsters, they are actually good people who got caught up in an extenuating circumstance.

Background and Records

Another interesting facet of this conversation is the subject of Proposition 21 as presented in the documentary. This movement is being sought to put into place to be a means for prosecutors to have more power over how they choose to charge adolescents (Frontline 2001). Part of this subject matter, maybe one of the most important parts, is looking into the background and record of the youth. It is important when punishing youths in the justice system to look at the life the child had growing up as well as their criminal record leading up to their current situation. There are some people who have never been in trouble and some who seem to be constantly in trouble.

References

Carlie PhD, M. (2002). Into The Abyss: A Personal Journey into the World of Street Gangs. In

Missouri State.

(2001). Juvenile Justice [Motion picture]. Columbia College.

Lorain, P. (2002-2019). Brain Development in Young Adolescents Good News for Middle