Children Who Kill

CHILDREN WHO KILL                                     2
Children who Kill: Why and How to Treat Them
KILLER… When we see this word what comes to mind… Serial killers who stalk and prey upon women, mothers who kill their children as a result of post partum depression, jealous spouses who catch their loved one cheating… But what does not come to mind is children killing family, friends, and strangers. It may not be a topic that comes to mind when thinking about killers, but it is a reality.
Children are really a different type of killer, and they usually have different motivations for killing. In my research a lot of children kill because they have an underlying psychological disorder, but in these cases they can only be diagnosed with conduct disorder and given some sort of treatment. Most treatments are one of two types, either in-patient psychiatric care or juvenile detention with psychiatric treatment. In this research paper I will be discussing why children kill, how to interview and get information from them, and the different types of treatments.
On the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2001, two Florida brothers, Alex King, twelve, and Derek King, thirteen, bludgeoned their father, Terry King, to death with a baseball bat while he was asleep. The boys then set the house on fire in an effort to cover up the crime. The brothers confessed to committing the murder, but implicated forty one year old convicted child molester, Ricky Chavis, who they said was involved in a sexual relationship with Alex and persuaded them to kill their father. Alex and Derek pled guilty to arson and third-degree murder and were sentenced to seven and eight years in state prison, respectively Ricky Chavis,
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who helped the brothers avoid arrest after the killing, was sentenced to thirty five years after he was found guilty of accessory after the fact to first-degree murder and evidence tampering. This is one example of... [continues]

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