Discussion: Rites of Passage

Raising Criminals

In the midsized town of Centervale, there is no more crime than one might expect in a town of a similar size. However, one family found itself in a tough financial situation, which led them to a life of crime. This was a middle-class family that got caught up in the immediate gratification of crime and cash.

One event led to another. Once the parents changed their lifestyle and range of morals, the children began to consider it the normal way of life. In their teens, the children decided to help their family and entered the life of crime they had become accustomed to.

Officer Matt Johnson met this multiethnic family, known for its criminal activities. He worked undercover for two years to build a relationship with the family. He learned that Rob, the father, began selling drugs because he had lost his job and was the sole wage earner for the family. Once Rob realized how lucrative this line of work was, he included his wife, Mary, in the crime business. They are in "tight" with the community and organized crime, and Mary solicits clients on the Internet for drug distribution.

Rob and Mary have two children, Lucy (aged fifteen) and Junior (aged seventeen), who were slowly incorporated as drug runners for the family. Officer Johnson continued to stay close to the family, and through his interactions with the children and Mary, learned why the family dynamics changed from a stable loving environment to a family full of negative behavior and criminal activity.

Their present life can be described as follows:

The stress of the "job" begins to affect the marital relationship between Rob and Mary as they try to make a living through criminal activities. Rob becomes volatile and begins to abuse Mary and Lucy. Junior watches the domestic violence and sees this as a means of gaining power over the opposite gender so that they do as told. He admires the control his father has over the family and the business.