**LEAD STORY**
The Statistics
There is a bitter battle over how to combat the nation's fastest-growing crime problem -- juvenile offenders. While overall crime statistics in America's largest cities has dropped, there is one category where it has skyrocketed. That category is homicides committed by youths under the age of 17. Between 1984 and 1994, murders committed by youths under 17 tripled. Demographic studies show that there will be a surge in the teen population in the coming years and experts believe that 25 percent of all murders committed by the year 2005 will be committed by juveniles.
Violence (i.e. Aggravated assaults) committed with guns by youths has also increased at roughly the same pace as homicides. After years of statistical decline, drug use by teens is also on the rise. None of these statistics would appear to bode well for future.
It now seems that everyday we are hearing about horrendous violent crimes being committed by juveniles. The most famous of late was the 6-year-old in northern California who almost beat to death a small baby. The baby was just released from the hospital on Thursday and has suffered brain damage from the attack by the 6-year-old.
There is also the case of the 15-year-old pregnant girl who was shot to death by another student in St. Louis. In Miami, two 16-year-old males have been charged with the murder of a Dutch woman tourist who just happened to end up in the wrong neighborhood. A 15-year-old New York boy tried to steal a pair of earrings from a woman. During the attack, the young woman fell to her death under a New York subway train.
In Fort Meyers, Florida, a group of teenagers shot and killed a high school band teacher. This case will be the subject of an upcoming ENN report, but a police investigation into this group of teens turned up "would-be junior terrorists" that could of rivaled some of the worst terrorist organizations in the world.
On Friday, in St. Louis, one 9-year-old and two 11-year-old males were charged with the rape of an 8-year-old female in an overgrown field. Where are they learning this stuff? This has to be learned behavior.
There seems to be growing awareness now of this juvenile crime problem in the United States. Several experts, as well as this publication, have been trying very hard to get the word out. People who have become victims of these young felons are angry and are calling for changes to be made in the juvenile justice system.
It has been a long-standing belief in the United States that juveniles who kill, rape and rob, be treated differently than adult offenders. But this may soon change. In 1899, juvenile courts were established to help protect "juvenile delinquents." But it seems that today, the reasoning for the protection of the youths in the criminal justice system may be outdated and changes need to be made to accomodate these "14-year-old harden felons." Many critics, today, say that in reality too many hard-core juvenile offenders are arrested, held, and released time-after-time-after-time in a process that is called a revolving door. It seems to only come to an end when a truly heinous crime is committed.
Worse than Better in the Future
Because of the rise in juvenile crime and the experts predictions that the problem is going to get worse before it gets better, many cities, states and even congress are trying to wrestle with the problem. Tallahassee, Florida, has been experimenting with a couple of different programs to deal with troubled youths. In one case, Tallahassee Police received a report of a teenager breaking into an auto. Immediately, officers knew their suspect. The suspect was a 16-year-old, who even held a job at a near-by restaurant. This 16-year-old, who was on parole, had been known to commit 32 similar offenses. Officers had kept the suspect tracked on a point scale. He was arrested after he barricaded himself inside an apartment building. Because of his extensive criminal record, prosecutors immediately sent him to trial in an adult court. This can be called the "get-tough" approach.
In another case, in the same city, a softer approach is taken with another known troubled child. A fifth-grader was repeatedly getting into trouble with the law last summer. In six weeks, after special classes and counseling that were followed by DAILY after-school sessions, the child went from "class problem to developing leader." The child was named his school's "student of the month" in January.
So, which is the best approach to take? Because of the grim statistics and depressing stories about problem youths, cities, states and even the federal government are looking at new ways to get a handle on the problem. On the federal end, Congress is considering rewriting a 22-year-old law that provides anti-delinquency aid to states.
In one state, Massachusetts, the House of Representatives has voted that that anyone as young as the age of 14 may be tried as an adult in a murder case. The State of Tennessee has now eliminated any minimum age for trying juveniles as adults. In 1995, Oregon lowered its minimum age for someone to be able to be tried as an adult from 14 down to 12-years. Wisconsin went even lower. A child of 10-years-of-age can now be tried as an adult.
Causative Factors
What's the cause of all of this? Statistics show mounting concerns. In the mid-1980's there was a cocaine epidemic. Drug wars between street gangs and drug dealers led to an arms race on American streets. The number of black males aged 14 to 17 is due to rise by 26 percent by the year 2005. Unfortunately, statistics prove that such youths are disproportonately affected by social problems linked historically to crime. These social problems include: the breakdown of the family, poverty and poor education. It really is not surprising that facing these kinds of social problems, inner-city black youths are disproportionately involved in crime.
Sixty-one percent of all juveniles arrested for homicide in 1994 were black. Remember, blacks make up about 12 percent of the overall population in the United States. 52 percent of the murdered victims in 1994 were also black. "Black on Black" crime appears to be a major fact of the statistics.
Criminologist James Alan Fox of Northeastern University in Boston said, "Given our wholesale disinvestment in youth, we will likely have more than 5,000 teen killers per year." The United States averages, currently, about 21,000 homicides per year. The number of youths aged 14 and younger who have been charged with homicide has jumped by 43 percent in the past twenty years.
The thing that worries everyone from police officers to criminologists to the general public are the small number of teens who apparently kill or maim with little or no moral compunction. Cincinnati judge David Grossmann, the president of a national juvenile judges organization, says that he sees a wave of "undisciplined, untutored, unnurtured young people." The Judge added, "Gangs have become the alternative to a nurturing family."
Kathleen Heide is a criminologist and a psychotherapist in Florida. She said that many young murderers "are incapable of empathy." Heide related one case where a teen offender shot and paralyzed a jogger who refused to hand over a gold neck chain. When the teen offender was asked what might had been a preferable alternative outcome other than shooting the victim, the teen said, "He could have given me his rope (chain). I asked him twice."
According to John Firman of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, police officers are now encountering more and more "kids with no hope, no fear, no rules and no life expectancy." Princeton University political scientist John Dilulio said that inner-city neighborhoods are raising too many "chaotic, dysfunctional, fatherless, Godless and jobless youths where self-respecting young men literally aspire to get away with murder."
Criminal Justice Response
Some states are getting tough on juvenile offenders. In Arizona, the governor of the state, Fife Symington, is working very hard and is leading a petition drive to abolish the state juvenile court system altogether. The aim is to send the most violent young offenders to adult courts, regardless of age, even if judges, themselves, object. An aide to Governor Symington said, "The current law making everyone under 18 a juvenile is absurd." The aide, who was a former prosecutor, said, "We've had kids arrested ten or fifteen times ... that has to stop." It is said that people "are standing in line" to sign the governor's petition.
In the United States Congress, many conservatives argue that the current federal anti-delinquency statute is out of date. Many Congressmen only want to send aid to states who try their most violent youths as adults.
But even if we, as a country, do crackdown and get tough on these young violent offenders ... it's still not an easy solution. As Donna Hamparian, a crime consultant in Columbus, Ohio, pointed out -- even if we do put more youths behind bars, the projected number of juvenile offenders will probably be so high that "we can't build enough prisons to keep all of them locked up."
Analysts at the Emergency Response & Research Institute (ERRI) say that there has to be another solution, and that ENN will continue to explore the issue and offer alternatives in this continuing series of reports.
(c) Emergencynet News Service, 1996. All Rights Reserved.