Prison Youth

One thing i have noticed is that everyday on the news on in the paper there is always some news about a crime committed by the youth. The numbers vary from year to year, but generally, rates of delinquency in the United States were higher in the late 1980s and early 1990s than they were a generation ago. ( Lundman, 1993:8-15). Now a lot of people might have different reason why these juveniles are committing crimes or whats wrong with the system, but i really want to focus on the root of the problem which is why these children are committing crimes.

One of the reasons many people believe that juveniles commit crime is because they are raised in single parent homes. It is said that juveniles who are from single parent homes frequently receive less adult- supervision and may not form strong human attachments during infancy, and they may not develop empathy and self control. (Holmes,S.E, James, R.S & Javad K. (2001). Jennifer Morse also believes the same thing, she believes without two married parents a child is more likely to end up in the criminal justice system at some point in his life. Without parents, prison becomes a greater probability in the child’s life. Second, if a child finds himself in the criminal justice system, either in his youth or adulthood, the prison will perform the parental function of supervising and controlling that person’s behavior.( Morse 2003, p.49). The basic self-control and reciprocity that a free society takes for granted do not develop automatically. Conscience development takes place in childhood. Children need to develop empathy so they will care whether they hurt someone or whether they treat others fairly. They need to develop self-control so they can follow through on these impulses and do the right thing even if it might benefit them to do otherwise.( Morse 2003, p.49). It is proven that a lot of high-profile cases of juvenile crime fit this pattern of what happens when both parents aren't in the home. For example, Alex and Derek King, aged 12 and 13 repeatedly beat their sleeping father to death with a baseball bat and then set the house on fire to hide the evidence. The mother of the King brothers was not present and for several years before the crime , and Derek had been in foster care for majority of those years until his behavior was too bad for his foster parents and he was returned to his father's custody and two months later is when the the murder took place.

Another reason why juveniles commit crimes is because of