Crime Delinquency Teenagers Adolescent Terror Virtually No

¶ … Crime Delinquency Teenagers

Adolescent Terror

Virtually no one can deny that there is a definite, tangible link between adolescence and crime. Anyone not familiar with this subject would be hard pressed to dispute the eminent statistical data that alludes to that dangerous link. In 1990, teenagers were more than 3.5 times likely to commit an indexed crime than were adults in the United States. Index crimes are both violent criminal activity such as "murder & non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, and aggravated assault" as well as serious property crime such as "burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson" (No author 1990). This point is underscored by the fact that in 2005, approximately 10,000 prisoners in the United States were serving life sentences for actions that were committed before they turned 18 (Liptak 2005). This proclivity of teenage criminal offenders is evinced overseas in other countries as well, such as in Australia where "teenagers aged 15 to 19 were more likely to be charged for a crime than any other age group, including adults, and the offending rate was almost four times as much" (Styles 2011). With the incidence of recidivism on par with general criminal offenses, the message is clear -- teenagers are the population subset that is most likely to engage, repeatedly, in criminal behavior.

What makes this phenomenon all the more compelling, and in certain cases, sad, is the very nature of an adolescence, which is wedged between the final stages of childhood and the impending hopes of adulthood. In much the same way that several physical aspects of teenagers are undergoing rapid changes, their emotional and mental development is also undergoing a number of significant transformations. To that end, teenagers are far from adults and, as some academics and laymen argue, should not be judged for their actions as such. It is quite possible that the link between teenagers and criminal behavior could be an effect of psychic and emotional metamorphosis they are undergoing, much of which is attributed to the fact that their brains are still forming.

A substantial amount of evidence exists that corroborates this thesis, such as the decidedly juvenile and even aberrant nature of some serious crimes that are committed by adolescents. There is seemingly little limit to the astounding nature of index crimes committed by teenagers, a large majority of which are fairly inexplicable. In 1994, 16-year-old Michael Johnson both allowed and watched a pair of friends to stab his grandparents to death (Krueger 2006). In November of 1997, 15-year-old Rebecca Falcon and 18-year-old Clifton Gilchrist were responsible for the murder of a taxi cab driver that was no robbery attempt, and had little practical value for the pair (Liptak 2005). This murder was one of several instances of teenagers being charged with felony murder, meaning that they "participated in a serious crime that led to a killing but" were "not proved to have killed anyone" (Liptak 2005). On Super Bowl Sunday in 1992, 14-year-old Timothy Kane, who had no prior history of violence or any sort of involvement with the criminal justice system, was present when a pair of friends murdered a husband and nearly decapitated his wife during a burglary. Kane is currently serving a life sentence for a deed he did not do (he was not directly involved in the murder), and is just another example of teenagers committing inexplicable crimes that end up shaping the rest of their lives (Liptak 2005).

Admittedly, people commit crimes for a variety of reasons, and the fact that teenagers are not fully developed adults does not absolve them from the responsibility of controlling their own actions. However, there is indisputable evidence that alludes to the fact that due to their process of growth and maturation, teenagers are decidedly at a disadvantage when com[pared to their adult counterparts when it comes to impetuous behavior -- such as the type that can lead to unprecedented criminal behavior and which is proven in the following quotation.

Amygdale: The brain's emotional center, which controls anger, fear, recklessness, among other reactions. In teens, the activity here is in high gear. In adults, it's tempered by a more developed frontal lobe.

Frontal lobe: The brain's executive center, which includes the prefrontal cortex, responsible for anticipating consequences, planning and controlling impulses. In short, it keeps the amygdala in check. In teens, however, this area is barely functioning and will not be full developed until age 20 to 25. (Krueger 2006).

This quotation specifies the specific areas within the brains of teenagers that may partly explain any sort of rash behavior on their part that can lead to criminal activity. Furthermore, it implies that adolescents have a considerable amount of time to wait until their brains are fully functioning (which may occur as late as their turning 25 years old). When the information in this quotation is compared to some of the statistics that demonstrate the high rate of incidence of adolescent crime, the thesis that these young people involve themselves in behavior that is unexplainable, and which they themselves do not even understand, becomes all the more plausible. This statement gains even more credence when one considers the impact that a lack of a fully functioning frontal lobe can have on adolescents' actions. Adults are able to mitigate the effects of their amygdale with the processes of their frontal lobes. Teenagers, however, do not have this luxury -- and have a track record for exceedingly high crime rates to prove it.

Again, it is virtually impossible to make broad generalizations as to the reasons why any population subset has a proclivity towards criminal behavior. Still, when one considers the nature of many of the crimes they commit, particularly those that are index crimes, there are some commonalities that can be found that attests to a marked lack of reason and thought process, both of which are traits of mature, fully functioning adults. The preponderance of these commonalities and their impact on both adolescents and their victims is one of the reasons why the death penalty was revoked for adolescent offenders in 200?. The following quotation demonstrates some of the shared traits between adolescent index crimes -- and reinforces the notion that reason for the abundance of these transgressions may have to do with the process of development inherent in teenagers.

In the Supreme Court's decision, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said teenagers were different, at least for purposes of the ultimate punishment. They are immature and irresponsible. They are more susceptible to negative influences, including peer pressure. And teenagers's personalities are unformed. "Even a heinous crime committed by a juvenile," Justice Kennedy concluded, is not "evidence of irretrievably depraved character" (Liptak 2005).

There are several eminent aspects of this quotation that suggests that teenagers commit so many crimes because they are not fully responsible for their actions since their minds and bodies are in the process of developing. One of the most notable is that Justice Kennedy was one of the principle people responsible with discontinuing the death penalty for adolescents, since due to the nature of their maturation process he believes their actions do not necessarily coincide with a "depraved" nature or personality. Furthermore, this quotation reinforces the notion that adolescents are prone to a number of influences, such as "peer pressure" and other forms of potential negativity, which their criminal behavior may result from. When the prudent scholar pauses to analyze the fact that many adolescents do in fact no wrong from right, yet are still compelled to do insidious actions of a criminal nature, the need to examine the reason -- one which is endemic to the state of maturation and growing up in which these offenders are going through -- why becomes all the more prudent.

The group mentality that appears as an integral component in the committing of teenage crimes is not only germane to the United States, but to other parts of the world as well. In fact, the ubiquity of this phenomenon of high rates of adolescent crime from a global perspective helps to underscore the fact that the root of this issue lies with the development of the human mind and body, and not just the particular circumstances of a specific crime. However, it is interesting to note the role of the susceptibility to outside influences that seems to be relevant to many teenage crimes across the globe. For instance, in Western Australia,

Youth Crime gangs are the greatest emerging threat to law enforcement… These teenagers, who were mostly boys charged with crimes of theft, unlawful entry and assault, were offending at the highest rate since 1996-97, outstripping adults whose offending rates have been in decline and drop after a certain age (Styles 2011)

This quotation highlights another fairly important aspect of teenage crime, one that is firmly related to teens being susceptible to peer pressure and outside influences. Gang activity plays a large role in the criminal behavior of teenagers. There are several gangs and gang members that are adults; gang activity is not a form of crime that only pertains to adolescents. However, most gangsters largely tend to join gangs when they are young, as teenagers. Quite frequently, adult gang members of notorious street gangs such as Crips and Bloods (which originated in Southern California and now can be found throughout the continental U.S.) were 'jumped in' to gangs as teens and have merely continued their membership into their adult lives. Furthermore, older gang members typically look to young members to recruit to preserve the vitality, youthfulness, and ruthlessness of their particular sect.

However, adolescents do not necessarily have to be in a formal street gang to feel the effects of the gang or mob-like mentality that plays such an influential role with peer pressure. Even the most virtuous teenagers endure a period in which they strive to find and identity and both a self and public image that represents them. This need, which is innately human and certainly understandable, can play a part in criminal behavior that is not related to gangs. The sociological component of acceptance and identity that factors into adolescent criminal behavior is alluded to in the subsequent quotation related to the criminal case study of Rebecca Falcon, and her involvement in the crime that got her sentenced to life imprisonment.

But Barney Jones, another juror, said he believed Ms. Falcon shot the gun. "She was confused," he said. "She was probably a typical teenager. She was trying to fit by being a violent person. The people she hung out with listened to gangster rap, and this was a sort of initiation (Liptak 2005).

Despite the allusion to gangs in this quotation (exemplified by the references to "gangster" music and an "initiation"), its overall importance is found in the fact that one of the jurors for this case believed that the defendant was attempting to "fit in," and it was this attempt to gain acceptance that led to her manifestation as a "violent person." Furthermore, this quotation indicates that the defendant's need for acceptance was simply a part of being a "typical" adolescent -- which implies that craving acceptance and committing misanthropic acts (such as crime) is an inherent part of teenage behavior.

Furthermore, the short-term causes that may trigger aggressive behavior in situations such as those described in the preceding paragraph may in fact directly correlate with the activity that is a part of the amygdala, which is where most profound emotions that can trigger violent behavior originate from. The tendencies that these feelings can result in relate to sociological factors of that may engender a mob-mentality, since they are not properly restrained by the processes of the frontal lobe. The effects of this combination are discussed in the following quotation, which references information from psychologist Laurence Steinberg.

Without the frontal lobe on board, it becomes physiologically harder for a teen to completely understand the future consequences of his or her emotional or impulsive actions, scientists contend. "Thus, there is good reason to believe that adolescents, as compared with adults, are more susceptible to influence, less future-oriented, less risk averse and less able to manage their impulses and behavior," Steinberg said (Krueger 2006).

The ramifications of this quotation are fairly substantial. Due to the fact that their frontal lobes are not fully formed, teenagers are not able to adequately manage conceptions of the future. They know that time exists beyond the present moment, but they cannot damper the effects of their amygdala, which is fueling their minds and bodies with torrid emotional impulses that can be potentially destructive, so that they are not able to give sufficient consideration to those future moments in relation to how their present activities will determine. Thus, adolescents act without rationalizing the logical consequences of those actions, which definitely seems to contribute to the abundant instances of teenage crime.

The implications of these inherent differences between the psychological and cognitive processes between adults and teenagers are manifold. However, historically and in contemporary times, one of the most widespread topics of discussion regarding these differences has to do with the punishment for the criminal activity of adolescents. As mentioned earlier in this document, the death penalty for adolescents was discontinued in the United States in 2005. Therefore, the next most contested grounds for punitive measures related to teenage offenders has to do with life imprisonment. That someone should have to forfeit the duration of his or her life due to an action committed before he or she fully had the capacity to reason, and evaluate one's emotions and actions in terms of their relevance to the future, may initially seem exceedingly harsh. However, some of the egregious crimes committed by adolescents -- horrid acts that seemingly indicate deliberately malicious intent -- are the basis for proponents for the continuation of life imprisonment for such offenders, as well as for life sentences without the possibility of parole. The following quotation alludes to the severity of this topic of discussion, particularly within the borders of America.

Life without parole, the most severe form of life sentence, is theoretically available for juvenile criminals in about a dozen countries. But a report…issued…by the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International found juveniles serving such sentences in only three others. Israel has seven, South Africa has four and Tanzania has one. By contrast, the report counted some 2,200 people in the United States serving life without parole for crimes they committed before turning 18 (Liptak 2005).

In many ways, this quotation contrasts with information presented earlier within this document that indicated that criminal activity was endemic of teenagers in all parts of the world. However, what is actually demonstrated by this quotation is the fact that the punishment for adolescent crime is much more severe in the U.S. than in other parts of the globe. Other statistics show that "Juvenile lifers are overwhelmingly male and mostly black. Ninety-five percent of those admitted in 2001 were male and 55% was black" (Liptak 2005). Again, these statistics regarding life imprisonment for adolescents alludes to the fact that the punishment for these offenders is not necessarily uniform. The primary information gained from this quotation is that male adolescents appear to be significantly more inclined towards criminal behavior than their female counterparts are, at least in terms of committing the types of serious infractions that result in life sentences within the borders of America. These statistics do not necessarily imply that African-American teenagers have a greater propensity for criminal behavior than other types of teenagers, but simply indicate that when it comes time to punishing such adolescents, African-Americans seem to fare the worst.