This video discusses the problem of juvenile crime on the rise is Mobile, Alabama. Although the video is from 2009, I did further research and found that this continues to be a problem today. This month, July 2012, “FOX10 has reported on violent teenage crime, including a 15-year-old accused of shooting his 16-year-old girlfriend in the face” and “16-year-old Kendall Howard was also arrested and charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting another teen on Althea drive.” Juvenile crime has continued to be a big issue in the society of Mobile County. The judge who discusses this problem, judge Namon, says it is mainly due to lack of parenting and parental vigilance and involvement. This is often the case for minors that become involved in crime. If a child is not being attended to, not being cared for and not being supported by their home, they will find another source for that support. Often times this leads them to the streets and succumbing to peer pressures that get them involved in crime, amongst other possible activities such as drug use.
Although I agree with the judges view on that point, something he says leaves a big question as to what are the institutions of that society doing to fight this problem? Judge Namon says that “almost all serious crimes committed by minors start with the child being arrested for possession of a gun, the child is later arrested for robbery and down the line, murder.” If this is a trend that is seen, something is wrong with the institutions of Mobile that enable a minor to even gain possesion of a gun, and to then be free to go on to commit robbery and even murder. These minors that are arrested for weapon possession should be rehabilitated and/or their family situation should be looked into in order to prevent that child from committing crimes in the future.
I think that this video highlights some very important issues concerning juvenile delinquency, as well as delinquency in general. I would have to partially agree with Judge Namon when he asserts that the main reasons for this continued, and progressively-worse, juvenile crime problem is lack of parenting in some way. The reason why I only partially agree with Namon’s assertion is because I feel that it is the juvenile’s environment, in general, that is conducive to such behavior – this detrimental environment may or may not include actions, or lack thereof, of parents. From what we have read for class, it seems that, although a juvenile’s parents/home-life can have a negative impact on his/her wrongdoings within society, it does not absolutely have to.
I also agree that the fact that minors are continuously obtaining guns is a definite problem. However, I don’t think that it is so easy to eradicate said problem. Rehabilitation for young illegal gun-possessors could be beneficial, but, again, it is their environment that may pose an issue. Even if the youth’s home-life is “looked into,” and deemed to be, for the most part, a positive atmosphere, the same youth can be negatively influenced by individuals that are located outside of the home – friends, acquaintances, other family members, etc. Hopefully Mobile, and other similar juvenile crime-infested areas, will find a sociological solution to the problem in the near future.
When face with the issue of juvenile delinquency, it is easy for society to fall victim to playing the blame game. Lawmakers and taxpayers point to the home declaring a lack of parental presence in an often-single parent household that is well below the poverty line. In families where both parents are present, it is not uncommon for many middle class families to have both parents working in order to maintain their current lifestyle. The once uncommon latchkey kid has now become the norm for most American youth. Thus, due to the growing economic burden mixed with a feeling of guilt resulting from their absence many parents look to the government for help. One could argue that the dual working parent home has helped in the growth of the economy, however unless taxes are increased government afterschool programs will cease to exist. History has shown us countless times that “the idle mind is indeed the devil’s play ground.”
It is my belief that it is our economic system that is to blame for the root of this issue. Like the old saying goes, it takes a village to raise a kid. An ideal village would be one that has communist qualities where everyone works for the good of the group and not for enriching oneself. In a country where such socialist talk is unaccepted, one is forced to watch helplessly as crime rates increase among our youth.
After watching the video, I question the purpose of the video is actually addressing. Is it really the kids or the environment. Because if you question whether or not the children have proper support and care, then they would not end up committing such acts, it is more likely saying there is a problem within the family or community. If you want to examine the kids, it should reflect on what the child is being exposed to and how he/she rationalizes the new information being fed to him/her. You can not really target the family and blame them and turn around saying the increase of juvenile crime increased, because if the family is failing to teach and make them understand, the adults would be in the same situation, meaning crime level as a whole has increased. So it is not really just juvenile crime if you expand the range of causes. I am not sure entirely of where this town is, but I can only assume from the images being fed to me from the video that it is trying to point out an urban environment and that is the message people will see. And with that, people will assume kids in those environment are automatically more prone to committing crimes. That brings up is the video really addressing kids and crime or ‘bad neighborhoods’ and crime. I believe it is up to the child to figure out what is right and wrong, with or without others, because a rational being knows what to do and what not to do.