Adolescent Criminals

[BTDT]

Siblings, 12 and 14, charged in robbery

http://www.thestate.com/breaking/story/595202.html

A brother and sister, 14 and 12 respectively, have been arrested in connection with the robbery of a 77-year-old Sumter woman at her home.
The siblings, whose names are not being released because of their age, are charged with burglary-first degree, kidnapping and armed robbery, according to the Sumter Police Department.
Police officers say that on Nov. 15 they responded to a LIFELINE medical alert call from a Brown Street residence where a woman had been knocked down to the floor and was unable to call police because her cordless phone had been taken.


Where were these kids parents?

[Captain Worley]

I'd wager in prison or off doing their drugs of choice. And I bet they end up tying these hooligans to other crimes.

People like this can't be saved or rehabilitated. Prison for life. And no conjugal visits. Don't want them contaminating the gene pool.

[swampfox]

I'd wager in prison or off doing their drugs of choice. And I bet they end up tying these hooligans to other crimes.

People like this can't be saved or rehabilitated. Prison for life. And no conjugal visits. Don't want them contaminating the gene pool.

All true, I'd wager. But I think we need to keep some avenue open for that one out of many who might be saved. It's just that it's foolish to make it (rehabilitation) a prison-wide program as it often is now.

To me the purpose of prison is to separate dangerous individuals from those who would like to lead peaceful lives. When it comes to violent criminals I would make the sentences harsh indeed. No parole for repeat offenders or for first-timers if the crime was serious enough.

Remember that book Venus on the Half-Shell by Kilgore Trout (Kurt Vonnegut) in which there was a planet where everybody was in prison? They seemed to get along OK, as I recall.

[Gator96]

I think at these kids' ages, the crime will do nothing but escalate. Get them off the street for good.

[swampfox]

I think you're right about the majority of them, and once that unwillingness or inability to habilitate** is shown abundantly I would have no problem with life without parole.

(** "rehabilitate" is the wrong word usually, because it implies that there was a good life to which to return, and often there was not.)

But there are some juvenile offenders who want out but they don't know how and many times they don't even know what they would rather have instead because they've never seen it. Never seen a grown-up with a legal job making a decent income, for example. So how can they aspire to what they've never seen?

And then there's cases like this 8-year-old in Michigan (?) who killed his father and another man. Shot them dead. He is showing no remorse, and is lying to try to cover up the crime. In other words he meets all the requirements of being eligible to be tried as an adult, which his state's law does allow. Do we try him as an adult and throw away the key if he's convicted? Maybe so, maybe not.

We are eft in so many ways.

A friend of mine's first grader go suspended yesterday because he said he would come back (to school) with a gun a shoot some people and that his daddy wouldn't be mad about it. Well, his daddy was mad about it. These are some parents who have done so many things right. Extremely limited TV. No video games. The kid may have been surprised when his birthday party scheduled for this weekend was called off and a lot of toys got put away.

If I had said such a thing in the first grade there would have probably been a meeting with my parents, but I could have just as well have said that I'd come back in a flying saucer to shoot people for all the sense it would have made. Not the case anymore.

So let's be adults and let's be harsh with kids who have done bad things. All good parents must be prepared to be harsh when the time comes. But, as in so many things, let's use our best judgement instead of setting some stone-carved rule that may not apply when we need it to the most.

[Quintessence]

Boy allegedly steals from ambulance as mom treated

From Associated Press
June 30, 2009 9:04 PM EDT

<SCRIPT>document.write('<iframe style="float:right;margin-left:5px" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/news.earthlink.dart/news_300x250_top;a=A3;b=B1;c=0;d=D3;e=0;f=0;g=G1;z =Z29033;sz=300x250;ptile=5;ord='+rand+'?" width="300" height="250" frameborder="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no">http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/news.earthlink.dart/news_300x250_top;abr=!ie;a=A3;b=B1;c=0;d=D3;e=0;f= 0;g=G1;z=Z29033;sz=300x250;ptile=5;ord='+rand+'? (http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/news.earthlink.dart/news_300x250_top;abr=!ie;a=A3;b=B1;c=0;d=D3;e=0;f= 0;g=G1;z=Z29033;sz=300x250;ptile=5;ord='+rand+'?)</iframe>');</SCRIPT>ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. - A boy was arrested over the weekend on charges of stealing from an ambulance while paramedics were treating his mother.
The Johnson City Press reported the boy, who was not named because he is a juvenile, was charged with stealing $5,000 in medical supplies. That includes an oxygen tank and an oxygen sensor machine.

He is also accused of stealing a purse belonging to one of the rescue workers and of breaking into a car several hours earlier and stealing credit cards, a cellular phone and a PlayStation portable video game.

The boy was taken to the Juvenile Detention Center in Johnson City.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/str?guid=20090630/4a499bd0_3ca6_1552620090630-751043241

[swampfox]

I can tell you from hearing my students talk that a lot of them have a bizarre "moral" system in which it is wrong NOT to steal when there is an opportunity. For example, they sometimes get minimum wage retail clerk jobs and actually invite their friends to come in and shoplift. And of course the favor is returned. And if they lose their jobs because of it? It's usually not hard to find another minimum wage job.

Kids learn a lot more from what they see than from what they are told. I hate to think what they are learning right now from our governor.

[ZooFuzz]

That could be a real Hard lesson. Right now there are approximately 20 kids ranging in age 12-16, males & females, at the Richland County Detention Center/Juvenile. Charges ranging from incorrigible (can't behave @ home, school, social settings, etc) to Murder and if they are in there long enough to turn 17, then they will be taken next door to the adult DC. I don't blame the kids, I blame the parents and the government for taking away the right to punish children. For thoses parents (and I use this term loosely) that cannot control their children by any other means that to beat, choke, drop, throw, slam, and other ways that I won't mention at this time, they should either be sterilzed.

[swampfox]

Of course I blame the parents too, except I do understand that their job is a LOT harder around here at this point in history. Nearly everything that kids look to for group acceptance ("liking" the "right" music, movies, games, etc) is expertly engineered to promote and appeal to very negative behavior, partly because it can actually be physically addictive and therefore the sales will just keep on pilin' up.

But they could move somewhere else. If I had a kid to raise right now I'd move far away. The more remote the better, at least to a point. And I wouldn't rule out other countries either.

I've been a few times to northern Maine because we had some friends there for a while. There are no towns much bigger than Lexington USED to be back before the subdivisions, and not many that big. They just do not have the kind of crap (crime, for example) that is rampant and growing a lot of other places, like here. That's also one reason why national crime statistics end up being misleading.

How's that for a liberal viewpoint?

And I'm sorry to say that as long as slack parenting and toxic communities are anywhere close to being the norm (which it seems to be at least close to it in ALL social, ethnic, and money groups) it is only going to get worse.

But in one important way who's to blame is not an issue. The whole point of prisons is to separate violent (especially) individuals from the rest of us. "Rehabilitation" is rare. Revenge is not the most important motive to be imprisoning people. And most people would be surprised that it's not really considered to be punishment, particularly by younger offenders. It gives status. I say for the violent ones, life without parole should be pretty much assumed unless there is a darned good reason why not.

[ZooFuzz]

http://crime.about.com/

Most Juvenile Crime Victims Are Other Juveniles

<SCRIPT type=text/javascript>h1 = document.getElementById("title").getElementsByTagName("h1")[0];h1.innerHTML = widont(h1.innerHTML);</SCRIPT>Most Sexual Assaults Are Against Other Juveniles

Analysis of Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Incident-Based Reporting System data from 1997 and 1998 shows that 19 percent of the victims of nonfatal violent crimes were victimized by a juvenile offender —- either a juvenile acting alone, multiple juveniles, or juvenile and adult offenders acting together.

About two-thirds (62 percent) of the victims of nonfatal violence committed by juvenile offenders were themselves younger than 18, and about one-third (38 percent) were adults. Other findings include the following:

Most (95 percent) of the victims of sexual assaults committed by juveniles were younger than 18, as were 43 percent of victims of robberies by juveniles, 53 percent of aggravated assaults, and 61 percent of simple assaults.
Almost half (48 percent) of the victims of nonfatal violent crimes committed by juveniles were other juveniles who were acquaintances of the offender.
About 1 in 15 victims of nonfatal violent crimes by juveniles (7 percent) was an adult who was a stranger to the offender.
Most (74 percent) of the victims who reported violent crimes by juveniles said the offender was a male.
Many (42 percent) of the female victims of violent crimes by juveniles were victimized by other females.
Among victims of simple assault by juveniles, more than half (52 percent) of those older than 30 were the offender's parent or stepparent.
Among all victims of violent crimes involving juvenile offenders, 17 percent faced multiple juveniles acting together and 15 percent faced juveniles and adults acting together. Among victims of robberies involving juveniles, 61 percent faced multiple offenders.
In sexual assaults, robberies, and aggravated assaults committed by juveniles, 40 percent of victims were injured, compared with 48 percent of the victims of the same offenses committed by adults.
About 1 in 2 juvenile victims of violent crime (51 percent) faced a juvenile offender.
About 1 in 10 adult victims of violent crime (9 percent) faced a juvenile offender.
Source: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

http://www.iir.com/nygc/summaries.cfm?m=01&y=2009&State=SC&dir=1

Myrtle Beach teen identified as gang member, arrested for having knife (Myrtle Beach, SC): A Myrtle Beach teen, who was identified as a gang member, was arrested for having a knife, according to a police report.
Source: The Sun News Date: June 23, 2009

15-year-old was first to enroll in local gang program (Rock Hill, SC): Nearly three months before her fatal stand-off with Rock Hill Police, 15-year-old Yvette Williams had enrolled in a program to help young people get out of gangs. Source: The Herald Date: June 11, 2009

Juveniles linked to 2nd robbery of store (Beech Island, SC): Police think two juveniles involved in the Saturday night holdup of a Beech Island convenience store returned Wednesday morning and robbed it again. Source: The Augusta Chronicle Date: May 21, 2009

One killed in gang fight, police say (Columbia, SC): A six-week dispute between two gangs left one man dead Friday and one charged in that killing, Columbia police and Richland County deputies said. Source: The State Date: May 09, 2009

Gang-related activity raises concerns (Walterboro, SC): The gang member leaned into the crowded nightclub and beckoned to Donald Green to join him outside. The gang member wasn't there to talk, debate or ponder what would come next. Source: The Post and Courier Date: April 26, 2009

Gang members tied to shootings (Walterboro, SC): Gang members are responsible for the last two Colleton County shootings, Sheriff George Malone said Monday. Source: The Post and Courier Date: April 21, 2009

26 people arrested in gang-related shooting (Union, SC) : Union County deputies arrested more than two dozen people over the weekend in connection with a shooting that investigators said was gang-related. Source: WYFF 4 News Date: April 20, 2009

Street gang leaves mark on neighborhood (Bennettsville, SC): A criminal street gang has marked it's territory in a Pee Dee neighborhood. Police tell us they're using an abandoned house to funnel their drugs and weapons operations. Source: WPDE NewsChannel 15 Date: March 31, 2009

Trial starts for man indicted under SC gang law (Columbia, SC): The first man indicted under a South Carolina gang crime law is going on trial. Source: WBTV 3 News Date: March 31, 2009

Database will track S.C. gang members (Greenville, SC): SCGangNet, a statewide Web-based gang database, will be unveiled today at a Greenville conference hosted by the South Carolina Gang Investigators Association. Source: The State Date: February 22, 2009

Gangs are growing threat (Loris, SC): That strange kid who always eats lunch alone - the one who everybody picks on -- may be a prime target for gang recruitment. Corp. Darren Alston of the Conway City police Department recently presented Gang Information for Teens at Loris High School. Source: Loris Scene Date: February 22, 2009

Juvenile Crime Statistics

Juvenile crime statistics are gathered from local law enforcement agencies by the FBI in order to better understand the nature and extent of juvenile crimes in the United States. Juvenile crime statistics reflect arrest information and do not account for unreported juvenile crime rates. Juvenile crime statistics rates have steadily dropped since 1994 when crimes involving juveniles reached a record high. Since 1994, juvenile crime statistics have dropped by forty seven percent.
There are currently about seventy million Americans under the age of 18, or a quarter of the total US population. Juvenile crime statistics report that 2.3 million juveniles were arrested in 2002. This accounts for 17 percent of all arrests and 15 to 25 percent of all violent crimes. According to juvenile crime statistics, murder accounted for five percent of violent crimes committed by juveniles, 12 percent for rape, 14 percent for robbery, and 12 percent for aggravated assault.
According to 1997 juvenile crime statistics, 1700 juveniles were involved in 1400 murders that year. One hundred thirty of these murders were perpetrated by a female. Approximately eighty percent of juvenile murders involve the use of a firearm. Forty percent of these crimes involve two or more juvenile offenders. Fifty six percent of the victims in these crimes are acquaintances of the murderer and 34 percent are strangers.
Juvenile crime statistics show that crimes committed by juveniles are most likely to occur on school days in the hours immediately following the end of a school day. On non-school days juvenile crimes are most likely to occur between the hours of eight and ten at night. Between 1993 and 2002, juvenile crime statistics rates for drunk driving offenses increased by 46 percent, with a very dramatic increase for female offenders (an increase of 94 percent versus 37 percent for male offenders).
The first juvenile court was established in Chicago in 1899. With an increase in juvenile crime statistics in the 1990s, state and federal legislatures have implemented many new laws in an attempt to crack down on juvenile crime. Juveniles enter the justice system through arrests, and two thirds of these juvenile criminals are processed through a juvenile court. In some cases, a prosecutor will file juvenile cases in the adult court system. According to juvenile crime statistics, one million juvenile crime cases are processed through the juvenile court system each year and 200,000 are processed through the adult legal system.
Probation is one of the most common sentences given to a juvenile criminal. Fifty eight percent of all juvenile sentences involve probation punishments. In fourteen percent of juvenile crime cases, the court orders out-of-home residential placement of offenders.
Juveniles who commit crimes have the right to seek legal representation in their cases. There are attorneys who specialize in juvenile criminal defense, and can help secure and protect a minor''s rights in a criminal case.
http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/

Juveniles linked to 2nd robbery of store
Police think two juveniles involved in the Saturday night holdup of a Beech Island convenience store returned Wednesday morning and robbed it again.<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> storyPhotos(); </SCRIPT>
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http://chronicle.augusta.com/images/headlines/2009/05/21/3387272_170.jpg (http://spotted.augusta.com/chronicle/lookup.html?date=2009/05/21&photo=3387272&title=metro)
Annette M. Drowlette/Staff
Tony Ready talks to his sister about witnessing robbers running away from the Manis Mart in Beech Island.
Click photo for options (http://spotted.augusta.com/chronicle/lookup.html?date=2009/05/21&photo=3387272&title=metro)


Authorities are also considering whether the young robbers, dubbed the Munchkin Gang because of their size, might be connected to older gang members, Aiken County sheriff's Capt. Troy Elwell said.
"We see juvenile crime all the time, but not to this extent," Capt. Elwell said. "This is something new for us."
He said two juveniles, believed to be as young as 15, entered the Manis Mart on Sand Bar Ferry Road at 9:17 a.m. Wednesday with someone described as a young adult with a deeper voice.
One robber had a handgun, and another had a shotgun, Capt. Elwell said. After the holdup, they ran away with the money, possibly getting into a car about a quarter-mile from the store.
In Saturday's robbery at the same store, Capt. Elwell said there was "a very small kid in it, 10 to 12 is the way we've described him. That individual was not involved in this one (on Wednesday)."
The same location was also robbed in March, but that case is connected to other suspects, he said.
Capt. Elwell said the young adult involved in Wednesday's holdup has police considering whether it could be a gang initiation or whether the youngsters are working for a gang that might think children won't do hard time if caught.




<!-- end blurb_1 -->

[Captain Worley]

I've been a few times to northern Maine because we had some friends there for a while. There are no towns much bigger than Lexington USED to be back before the subdivisions, and not many that big. They just do not have the kind of crap (crime, for example) that is rampant and growing a lot of other places, like here.

It is also a much more homogenous society up there and much less tolerant of behavior outside the norm of that population.

Just saying.

[swampfox]

And also there are not that many people in general. The whole northern half of Maine is pretty much owned by timber companies, except for right on the coast where our friends lived. Of course I never went there in the winter.

They key is remote. I saw kids walking along the road in Goth attire. I got the impression that they were kind of down because there was just not much trouble to get into.

Even better was Quebec. In Quebec City even the young people on the street and in the stores were very polite and friendly, although I understand that is changing, as it is in Europe, as they get more and more American media.

I have been at odds with a lot of people over the years regarding the effects of antisocial media. I have seen the effects firsthand, and I understand the psychology pretty well. It's similar to what we saw happening in A Clockwork Orange back in the day. The social motivation to be violent and deviant in general is very powerful. And of course it's not just the media. So many communities, even wealthier ones, have become toxic in general and after a kid is about 4-5 years old that has an extremely negative effect on them. I have two close friends, one in Irmo and one in Newberry, whose kids had good parenting and every advantage (without being really wealthy) and both ended up in jail. Both extremely bright kids.

I say abandon ship for the kids' sake.

[Quintessence]

They were only trying to help....

Police: Conn. teens mishear sex screams, beat man

From Associated Press
July 02, 2009 12:01 PM EDT

<SCRIPT>document.write('<iframe style="float:right;margin-left:5px" src="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/news.earthlink.dart/news_300x250_top;a=A3;b=B1;c=0;d=D3;e=0;f=0;g=G1;z =Z29033;sz=300x250;ptile=5;ord='+rand+'?" width="300" height="250" frameborder="no" border="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no">http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/news.earthlink.dart/news_300x250_top;abr=!ie;a=A3;b=B1;c=0;d=D3;e=0;f= 0;g=G1;z=Z29033;sz=300x250;ptile=5;ord='+rand+'? (http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/news.earthlink.dart/news_300x250_top;abr=!ie;a=A3;b=B1;c=0;d=D3;e=0;f= 0;g=G1;z=Z29033;sz=300x250;ptile=5;ord='+rand+'?)</iframe>');</SCRIPT>TORRINGTON, Conn. - A group of teenagers misunderstood a woman's screams during sex and, thinking they were stopping an assault, beat a 25-year-old man in her bedroom, police said.

A 16-year-old girl who lives in the same Torrington home as the 34-year-old woman overheard her and the man on June 6 and rounded up four friends to stop what they thought was an attack, police Lt. Bruce Whiteley said Thursday.

One of the five teens beat the man with a bat and others punched him, police said. The man was treated at a hospital for injuries that were not life-threatening, and was released that night.

"Apparently he didn't have time to explain himself," Whiteley said.

The girl, two 17-year-old boys and Dilyen Langdeau, 19, of Torrington, were arrested Tuesday night and arraigned in Bantam Superior Court on Wednesday. Langdeau was charged with assault and conspiracy; the teens face similar counts. The fifth teenager was not charged.

A judge sealed the police report. The names of the girl and the two boys were not released because of their ages, and her relationship to the woman wasn't clear.

Messages left at a phone listing in the woman's name and at a phone listing for Langdeau's address were not immediately returned. It wasn't clear if Langdeau has hired an attorney.

There was no phone listing for the victim.
http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20090702/4a4c3ed0_3ca6_1552620090702-654230374

[Captain Worley]

Now that would suck.

[ZooFuzz]

$147 stolen from pool party was to benefit a father’s struggling business
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/857690.html



Their defense wil be "it was just a joke". It will be real funny when they go to jail.

[Quintessence]

15-year-old doused with rubbing alcohol and set on fire -

Five teenagers have been charged in the attack.

http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20091015/4ad6ac50_3421_1334520091015-911716340

[swampfox]

This problem is now much more widespread than it has ever been. A teenager can be a "hardened criminal". If I could go back and change the things that made him that way I would, but once he is that way we would be foolish to pretend that he's not.

And I've been saying "he". The problem is getting to be just as bad with girls. While I was teaching, just a few years ago, the worst fights, the ones where you knew that both parties were prepared to kill the other, were with girls.

The purpose of prison is to separate violent offenders fromt he rest of society. Not punishment, not rehabilitation, but separation. If we look at it this way the answer is clear.

[Captain Worley]

^ You're right. Also, there are certain crimes that should come with life sentences, no parole. Much more than are that way now.

[swampfox]

That's what I've been saying for years. I'd do it for almost all violent crimes.