In the summer of 1996, The Frontline Documentary The Lost Children of Rockdale County investigated what happens when teenagers did not have enough supervision from their parents at home. The documentary took a place in the town of Conyers that is located 15 miles East of Atlanta. In this town, the majority of these teenagers come from wealthy families of a middle class. They did not seem to suffer from economic problems because their parents spend most of their time away from home working. Since they did not have anyone who paid attention or controlled them, they took advantage of their freedom in attending more parties, drinking, or having sex at an early age. Many of these events occurred because they were looking for something to do on the…
The documentary “Me facing Life; Cyntoia’s Story” is about a young girl named Cyntoia, who is sixteen years old, going through a trail after committing murder; her life and what may have led her to committing so many delinquent acts is also expressed. Throughout the film her family, lifestyle and way of thinking is shown deeply. Still, after seeing the film I feel as if her pathway to delinquency could have been avoidable by just having more supervision, having a better family structure, and even being more active in school. Cyntoia had hit the streets at thirteen, she was a chronic runaway. “I wasn’t running from; I was running to,” she explains now. The streets of Nashville gave her “what I thought was freedom.”…
Juan often runs away from home because his parents constantly fight and often blame him for their issues. Juan runs away for 2 to 3 days at a time and will do this at least once a week. When he is at home, he typically does not follow the rules and will yell at his parents and siblings. Juan has a history of defiant behavior, but his home environment has often been chaotic. Juan’s parents have been through family counseling, but they feel it was not helpful and are reluctant to do it again. Juan sometimes will run to a local group home that takes in runaway youth.…
When a child is arrested for a crime and let out of jail, the likely hood of them repeating the crime is high. The state of Missouri created the Missouri juvenile system, which helped kids in a different way. Instead of being sentenced to jail, teenagers benefit from staying in a group home. Unlike juvenile corrections, these group homes are not surrounded by barbed wire that would make them feel trapped inside. The homes are styled like cottages, with ten youths and two adults living in each one. The children undergo counseling and therapy. This helps them deal with their aggression and teaches them how to deal with their rough behaviors. If someone becomes rough, others are taught to help talk the person down from acting out in anger. “If…
This program was designed to help young adults and teenagers find places to stay. The young adults were not considered runaways but needed help because of other problems such as sexual assault, victims of domestic violence, substance abuse, or had parents who could not take care of them. Even though, some of them were 18 and considered an adult, they did not have the skills to live on their own. The midway Program offered them a safe place to stay for up to twenty-four months. During their stay, the teens and young adults were taught daily living skills to live on their own. Some of the skills they learned while they were there was laundry, budgeting, cooking, relationship, and communication skills (Burger, 2011). This program was designed to teach them how to live out on their own. There were several case managers to help them get the help that they needed.…
Rotheram-Borus, M. J. (1993). Suicidal Behavior and Risk Factors among Runaway Youths. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150(1), 103-107.…
Juvenile delinquency has become a very predominant occurrence in today’s society. In 2010, there were 6,531 arrest for every 100,000 youths age 10 to 17(Knoll, C, 2010). While it may be that youth are being processed through the criminal justice system more today than ever, rather than actually committing more forms of crime and delinquency (Puzzanchera, Adams, & Sickmund, 2010). Youth are however experiencing increased participation with the criminal justice system are creating problems for parents, schools, communities, and other children who are in the presence of juvenile delinquents. Two of the biggest aspects influencing juvenile delinquency are the family structure that the child is exposed to and the relationship they have with their…
Teenagers, though they have almost crossed the threshold into adulthood, are still immature and irresponsible. Ergo, they need to be treated accordingly. In 2002, forty-one percent of…
Unfortunately, many homeless youth are “befriended” by drug addicts or encouraged into prostitution. For many of the runaways due to abuse, many wonder how bad their situations must be if they would face addiction and sexually…
In a teenage brain, they are not fully formed yet. Teens do not understand the fundamental differences between good and bad (Steinberg). Young teens were given intelligence test and hypothetical legal questions and situations. Studies show one-third of those eleven to thirteen and one-fifth of those fourteen or fifteen could not understand the process (John D. and MacArthur). Many of these teens who commit these violent crimes are not being taught right from wrong by their parents. Teaching your kids right to bad at a young age will help influence them to be a better person. It’s easier to teach young kids from good and bad than when they are adults because their brain is still collecting information. Experts conclude rehabilitation works better for juveniles than for adult offenders (Ash). Teens reasoning and judgment are still developing until their mid-twenties (Steinberg). For the most part, teens are incapable of making wise and good choices all the time. Teens are given pressure all the time from school and their peers and it mixes with their immaturity. Teenage is a stage when an individual is developing and learning through exploration. When teens start to listen to their friends more than their family members they tend to find themselves in bad situations. Teenagers want to fit in with their group of friends to have the feeling of being accepted.…
At some point in time, all teenagers are expected to leave home and venture out on their own. Separating from parents and gaining independence are two central tasks that teenagers must overcome in order to become adults. Teenagers usually learn how to make this transition through either home or school. Unfortunately, there are some teens today that do not fully develop these two tasks before deciding to leave home. These teens are the teens that we see out on American streets today. Leaving home at an early age can be devastating to the teenager, the cities they live in, and our society, in general. Teens are often victimized and exploited fairly easily while they are out on their own. Due to this, crime rates skyrocket in cities with a large homeless teenage population. Teens often turn to drug trafficking, prostitution, and other forms of criminal activity in order to survive. In turn, this also causes a wide range of physical and mental health problems, including substance abuse. Although there are large numbers of homeless teens, they still remain lacking in many services. One of the most important services is education. This journal article focuses on the barriers to educating homeless teens and mechanisms that are being created to assist in helping them to survive.…
Often times, teenagers become despondent because of the pressures of their academic lives, social lives, and family lives. Unfortunately, parents like Scott Fritz who lost his 15-year-old daughter to suicide, had no idea teen suicide was even a…
As a teenager enters there 20’s, a maturing process takes place and impulsive behavior decreases. “Accordingly, rates for homicide and other violent crimes are highest among 18 to 24 year-olds and decrease markedly after this point—an age at which individuals have more emotional tools at hand to deal with conflict”. (Aragon) “A criminal justice system will be imminently more just when laws are amended to include the possibility of a meaningful opportunity for parole for juveniles, at a time when their judgment and behavior have substantially matured, thus rendering them less of a threat to society”.…
Some teens may turn to violence from neglect, neglect after all according to a study done in Penn State University is responsible for large portions of teen violence. What we don’t know however, is how many teens don’t get neglected but have non-authoritative or dismissive parents, such as Bob’s. Teens in this case may feel the need to almost earn their parents attention and to achieve that, people may go to jurassics. Therefore, the Outsiders really can connect to modern day teen violence problems as well. Though the causes can be far and many they all are a problem and need to be…
Kids often like to be rebellious. No matter how much a mother or father my try to teach them, some youth find themselves out there on drugs and alcohol. A lot of kids that experiment with drugs and alcohol at such a young age have a poor relationship with there parents, or they may feel emotionally separated from their parents. Children in today’s society are not getting the one-on-one relationship that they were receiving long ago. Teenagers whose parents talk to them regularly…