The Affects, Importance, and Future of Violent Teens

A person is a juvenile until the age of 20. According to Dr. Elizabeth Sowell in the article “Adolescent Brain Development and Legal Culpability” it states that the brain is not fully developed to have the organized thoughts of an adult until or after the age of 20. This means that during teen adolescent years they are easily influenced in what they see and hear. The television shows and music that certain adolescents listen to can be somewhat violent without recognizing it. It is not only the music and TV but also how children are being raised. Kids mimic what they see their parents or guardians doing. A child watching their parents fight hit and scream at each other on a daily basis creates a violent environment for that child and increases the chances for them to be violent.

The adolescents of today will run the world tomorrow. It is important that we keep an eye on their behavior because if they are violent as youths than they will most likely become more violent as adults. According to Juvenile Delinquency Theory Practice and Law children that lack a stable supportive family and adequate supervision during the ages of 5 to 18 this is when they will “enter their prime crime years”(Siegel, Welsh, pg. 54). Although some children grow up with violent unstable families they do not always turn out to be delinquents it is in our best interest that we make sure these children are looked after. I have mentored troubled high school teenagers and I have noticed that the well behaved good students are the ones who get more attention and more opportunities than those who misbehave and get bad grades. Isn’t that the opposite of what we should be doing with troubled youth? They should be the top of our priority because obviously they need more help with schoolwork and someone giving them the attention they deserve and what they are not receiving at home. Most of these kids are good kids they just are stuck in bad situations and all they know is crime and violence.

On a daily basis I come in contact with many children, whether on the street or where I work. That being said almost everyone comes in contact with children, so juvenile delinquency and their violence has an affect on almost everyone. To house a child in jail t is very expensive, even more expensive than housing an adult because of all the regulations. According to Siegel, Welsh “…incarcerating a juvenile in some jurisdictions costs an excess of $50,000 per year” (pg. 89). The money to house juveniles is citizens’ hard earned tax dollars. Another way in which juvenile violence affects people is when a child is a victim of their violence. One example that that hurts and will forever hurt me is my cousin Gian who was 22 at the time was shot and killed by a 16 year old boy. Yes this was a gang related shooting, but whether it was on purpose or accident this not only affected our immediate family but also friends of my cousin and friends of our family. It was a sad day not only because of the loss of a beloved son, grandson, brother, cousin, nephew and friend but the way we lost him hurt us even more. Crimes like that make you feel unsafe and think that all of this could have been prevented if we would have paid more attention to these kids and made sure their needs were taken care of so they would not have to find other violent ways to fulfill their needs.

The future of violent delinquents is that they are the future and if we don’t start giving them the attention, prevention programs, and care that they need to become less violent then I can only see this matter getting worse. Children are so precious and easily influenced them that giving them half the time and attention we spend on other things I could see the issue of violence decreasing.

Works Cited

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-heroux/juvenile-delinquency-if-w_3_b_954632.html

Siegel, Larry J., Welsh, Brandon C., Juvenile Delinquency, Theory, Practice and Law. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning 2012, Belmont, CA.