Author Archives: jt077756

The medicalization of deviance has its pros and cons like many other social issues, however when it reaches children believe it is taken too far. Kids will be kids; they will act out and behave in their own unique ways. At times these behaviors and a child’s personality can be difficult to deal with and may considered deviant. But aren’t kids expected to be deviant at times?

Medicating children is a new phenomenon in society. Even when I was a kid, kids that acted out or did not conform were not sent to be tested for ADD/ADHD or Bipolar disorder, they were given detention. Medicating children is all about keeping them conformed within a social institution such as school. They are medicated to make them conform and easier to deal with.

The video here discusses this issue of over-medication within the population of foster children. The opening line explains why children are over-medicated in general, “possibly just because adults and doctors don’t know what else to do with them.” This just may be the sad truth of today’s society. Foster kids are medicated 13 times more than other kids. It is understandable that a foster child has gone through many ordeals, however the solution to a sad child is not to label a diagnosis and prescribe anti-psychotic drugs.

As the video in class showed, sometimes a child really does have one of these disorders, however it is not as common for a child to be bipolar or have ADD/ADHD (a fairly new and too common of a diagnosis) as the amount of children that are on medication shows. Many of these children are medicated to conform, not because they truly have a kind of disorder.

The link above is about how innocent people that are convicted of crimes who do end up being exonerated lose the lives they knew before prison.  Surprisingly, this story tells the story of Beverly Monroe, a middle class mother with a master’s degree was convicted of the murder of her “long time companion.” In spite of evidence pointing to a suicide, law enforcement told Beverly that she was a suspect and was charged and convicted for 22 years for murder. Luckily her daughter was a lawyer who found 7 years later that prosecutors withheld evidence that would have shown that she was innocent.

When she was exonerated, she lost everything she had before. This ties into the subjects of false convictions and stigma. From the moment someone is even charged with a crime they did not commit, their lives are changed.

This video also shows two other stories of two men, Larry Peterson and Thomas McGowen.  Larry Peterson was sentenced to life for a murder and sexual assault of a woman. He was finally freed from prison due to DNA tests that proved his innocent. He talks about how he was denied every chance at employment because exoneration does not erase the criminal record. This all but takes away the chances of exonerated people to find a job, obtain credit, or obtain what is necessary to continue a life.  Thomas McGowen was convicted for a burglary and rape that he did not commit. He served 22 years before being released from prison.

The end of this video exposes the harsh and sad truth that police and forensic scientists have manufactured physical evidence and prosecutors that know their witnesses are lying have pushed to convict innocent and falsely charged people.

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.