Saturday, July 10, 2021

Troubled Signs Leading to Juvenile Violence

Troubled Signs Leading to Juvenile Violence

Dr Abe V Rotor

Do you have children who love guns and bombs? Be aware that this is an indicator, an early sign, a tendency in later years to becoming violent. And it may come in their teen years.

Take these cases. A 17-year old who killed his father and mother and fatally shot two classmates with rifle (October1997 Mississippi), A 15-year old who fatally shot two students, wounding 18 others, both parents, and attacked an arresting officer with knife. And a 14-year old who killed three girls with a 22 semi-automatic pistol (Dec 1997 Kentucky).


It is utterly shocking for very young people committing heinous crimes!

Adolescence indeed may lead to the wrong road. But how do we explain younger boys involved in similar crimes? Just at the crossroad of childhood? Here is a case of a 11-year old and a 13-year old who attacked their school killing five with handguns and rifles. (March 1998, Arkansas)

Observe your boys (and girls), other kids as well if they exhibit the following
Troubled Signs
Torturing animals
Dressing in Black
Vowing grim imaginings like - “I’m going to blow something.”
- “I’ll start World War III.”
- “I’m going to kill somebody.”
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“A child might be defiant at school. What a teacher might not know is that the student spent the morning feeding a younger sibling or taking care of a drug-addicted parent. The child, raised with cruelty, violence and hunger, turns on those around him.” - Pat Kennedy (Erie County Chief Public Defender)
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  • What can we do as parents, teachers, leaders of our community?
  • Keep your family solid, live in peace and harmony
  • Restrict toy guns and war toys, including violent games on the computer
  • Guide their programs on TV, cinema, computer, including magazines.
  • Check your kid’s company. Guard your kid from joining violent groups
  • Communicate with your kids
  • Give quality time with them. (E.g. Participate in their school activities.
  • Show good examples of growing up, live up with these examples
  • Don’t spoil or pamper them
  • Take them to Nature
  • Get proper advice
Youth violence: Contributing factors
  • Poor parenting
  • Drugs
  • Poverty
  • Hopelessness
  • Poor environment
  • Lack of education and training
  • Genetic tendency
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"There is a void created when parents are not doing their job. That void has to be filled." - Judge WR Cunningham, Poor Parenting: Why it hurts.
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A Case Study of a 16-year-old boy

The musician -- in town for a concert by Erie native Pat Monahan's band Train -- strolled along East 12th Street at about 10 p.m. on a Saturday night in August.

He had just come from the Country Fair on Parade Street and was headed back to Tullio Arena.

A 16-year-old boy spotted him from his aunt's front porch, where he sat playing with a BB gun he had stolen from Walmart.

He darted from the porch.

"Hey man, hey man," he said, as he approached the musician from behind.

The musician turned to see a young man holding what looked like a handgun.

"You better empty that wallet for me, man," the youth said. The musician ran, reaching for his phone to call 911.

Moments later, police found the boy with a friend, pushing a bicycle along the street. He had shoved the gun in his friend's backpack.

The boy is only 16 but has been offered what is likely his last chance at "care, treatment and supervision" by the state juvenile justice system.

His parents, who never married, split before he was born in Erie. He has been raised by his mother and his grandmother.

When he got up off the porch to try the robbery in August, he had already been in and out of placement multiple times in the Pittsburgh area and here in Erie County.

His mother and grandmother, standing with him in court in October, want to reach him.

"I am just afraid for him," his mother tells the judge. "He is my son. I love him. I want him to do the right thing."

The boy said he wants help.

"I don't want help like people bossing me around. I want help, like, people actually talking to me," he told the judge.

The boy prefers crime, his lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Ian Murray, said.

"He does not want to go to school and get bossed around. ... The streets have got him right now. He is glorifying criminal behavior."

Brabender asked the teen what he wants for his future.

"I want to play baseball," the teen answers. When Brabender looks dubious, he said he wants to go to college.

For him to have any of that, Brabender said, he will have to, at a minimum, graduate from high school. "No drugs and alcohol," he tells him. "If you ever get a job, you need to keep it. Somebody like you, I don't know if you are going to make it or not."


"I know your family," Brabender continued. "There are a lot of good people in it. You can be a good person. You can be a criminal. It is up to you." -- Lisa Thompson

"Children raised in poor, disadvantaged families are at greater risk for offending than children raised in relatively affluent families." -- "Child Delinquency," U.S. Department of Justice, bulletin series

"Lost kid” - is there hope?

Yes, here’s one successful case. Jose took part in a violent fight, allegedly gang-related, in which one person was killed and another injured. Although tried as an adult, he served his sentence in Juvenile Hall, and by all accounts has turned his life around. To those who worked with him, Jose represents how kids, even those charged with violent offenses, can change when given a chance. To those who worked with him, Jose represents how kids, even those charged with violent offenses, can change when given a chance.
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Reference: Internet, Time

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