Yummy Sandifer Thesis
Yummy Draft
Throughout history there are people who are doomed to die without living a full life from the moment they take their first breath. Robert "Yummy" Sandifer is one of the hundreds of deaths in Chicago who did not have the chance to live a good life, no chance to be happy, or even experience what most children take for granted. Robert didn't have the oppertunity to become a functioning member of society because of his family, negative gang influences and laws that did nothing to protect the at risk youth in Chicago.
One of the most influential people in all our lives are our parents, by watching them we develop our morals and actively try to become who they are. In the case of Robert Sandifer both his parents were not present.“He …show more content…
One example is the law that would not allow the state to convict a juvenile of a felony.“Police suspect that gang leaders use the little ones as drug runners and hit men because they are too young to be seriously punished if they are caught”(Time 4). This law would make juveniles a target for gangs, because they could not be punished. This made at risk youth like Robert vulnerable to gang life because this law gave gang leaders a new source of gang members that could not get a life sentence for there crimes. “But the most they could do under Illinois law was put him on probation”(Time 2). In Robert's case, he had committed over 23 felonies but was not given any therapy or help, he was just spat back out to commit felonies until he died or was old enough to get a life sentence. The justice system also failed to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents by placing juveniles exposed to violence together. In any such setting, juveniles establish a predictable social hierarchy. The kids who have behaved worse than others such committing robbery, for instance, vs. smoking cigarettes, earn the most credibility with their peer group, which encourages further bad behavior. “He got picked on for being little and having a teddy bear”(Neri 28). This is what should be expected when you put troubled children together. Kids who entered the juvenile-justice system even briefly, with limited exposure to other troubled kids, were twice as likely to be arrested as adults, compared with kids with the same behavior problems who remained outside the system. In the case of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer even the justice system meant to protect failed, leading to a life of crime and eventually
Throughout history there are people who are doomed to die without living a full life from the moment they take their first breath. Robert "Yummy" Sandifer is one of the hundreds of deaths in Chicago who did not have the chance to live a good life, no chance to be happy, or even experience what most children take for granted. Robert didn't have the oppertunity to become a functioning member of society because of his family, negative gang influences and laws that did nothing to protect the at risk youth in Chicago.
One of the most influential people in all our lives are our parents, by watching them we develop our morals and actively try to become who they are. In the case of Robert Sandifer both his parents were not present.“He …show more content…
One example is the law that would not allow the state to convict a juvenile of a felony.“Police suspect that gang leaders use the little ones as drug runners and hit men because they are too young to be seriously punished if they are caught”(Time 4). This law would make juveniles a target for gangs, because they could not be punished. This made at risk youth like Robert vulnerable to gang life because this law gave gang leaders a new source of gang members that could not get a life sentence for there crimes. “But the most they could do under Illinois law was put him on probation”(Time 2). In Robert's case, he had committed over 23 felonies but was not given any therapy or help, he was just spat back out to commit felonies until he died or was old enough to get a life sentence. The justice system also failed to rehabilitate juvenile delinquents by placing juveniles exposed to violence together. In any such setting, juveniles establish a predictable social hierarchy. The kids who have behaved worse than others such committing robbery, for instance, vs. smoking cigarettes, earn the most credibility with their peer group, which encourages further bad behavior. “He got picked on for being little and having a teddy bear”(Neri 28). This is what should be expected when you put troubled children together. Kids who entered the juvenile-justice system even briefly, with limited exposure to other troubled kids, were twice as likely to be arrested as adults, compared with kids with the same behavior problems who remained outside the system. In the case of Robert "Yummy" Sandifer even the justice system meant to protect failed, leading to a life of crime and eventually