Giving Back

The communities that face a lot of crime and delinquency are the communities that need the most help. We need to reach out to the children in these areas and give them something to do so we can actually begin to keep children out of trouble. Adolescents are curious, easy to influence and they are vulnerable. The people who are most involved in their lives are going to be who their mirror their image after and learn from. We have the power to decide whom that influence gets to be. It is proven through research that children develop through nurturing and experiences. If they have these experiences with their gang member next-door neighbor who is selling drugs out on the street and stealing things then they are going to be negatively influenced and taught to believe the behavior is acceptable. If we offer them fun afterschool programs that they actually want to participate in then we will attract more children and get them off the streets and somewhere where they can be looked after and mentored positively.

When I have enough money one day I plan to sponsor sports teams that have both single sex and co-ed team options. Through providing these sports programs to the kids it gives them something constructive to do that will tire them out afterschool. I hope to have multiple teams, supply equipment and have volunteers (parents) ref and coach the teams so that they can be involved with their child’s life. This is one way I hope to give back and help a struggling community in my area.

Other things people can do is donating to organizations that support rebuilding the cities. The future of this country and everything we know is in the hands of the people we leave behind us. If we do not help these children be all they can be, how can we hold high expectations for them? It is time to realize the severity and reality of the situation and actually work to change it. According to the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, “while many public and private agencies must join forces to help youth, close examination of agency responsibility indicates that no other single agency has the degree of responsibility that in incumbent on police” (Brennan, 1956, p. 887). It is the police forces job to control and stop crime yet they cannot seem to get a handle on it; that is why it is time to work together with the police and push to help our struggling youth instead of incarcerating them.

Overall, many experts conclude that risk taking during adolescence is “normal” and that the key is to provide guidance in decision making and encourage the adolescent to channel the positive developmental aspects of this energy into less dangerous and more constructive “risky” pursuits (APA, 2002) instead of criminal or malicious pursuits. In order to help solve the problem there needs to be a clear understanding of the cities people, culture and needs. Group therapy, mentors, afterschool sports teams and educational tutors etc should be available to children in high-risk crime areas in order to lead them down a better and more supervised path avoiding crime and delinquency.

American Psychological Association (APA). (2002). A Reference for Professionals: Developing Adolescents. American Psychological Association Article.

Brennan, J., J. (1956). Police and Delinquent Youth. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Vol 46, Article 16, Issue 6, p 886-891. 

Got Gangs?

Gangs are a group of people who have mutual interests and concerns. In the situation of street gangs, many people join gangs for the sense of protection and brotherhood it creates amongst people. Other reasons people join gangs are for reputation and status as a criminal. Many gangs commit crimes together, it is the same type of co-offending that can begin amongst juvenile delinquents. Studying groups of peers and the social relationships that children build with peers allow researchers to examine criminal style and predictions of crime for specific groups of adolescents. It was proven that “co-offending (committing crimes in groups) has been long proposed as the predominant form of delinquent behavior during adolescents” (Cauffman, 2010, p. 400). People commit crimes in groups to feel a sense of accomplishment, safely and security. It is also argued through research that officials believe people who committed crimes in groups were probably peer pressured into doing it with others instead of on their own. How can you stop gang violence in your neighborhood? There are steps that communities can take to make sure that children are looked out for and delinquency is not a temptation. 

There are things that you can do to help, here are some: 

-First things first…STEP UP to the plate and take action! Someone has to get the ball rolling in your community and everyone is waiting on everyone else.

- Get Informed: Figure out what it is you need to prevent in your specific neighborhood. You have to learn about whom you are trying to stop, and then develop a plan of action to take as a group.

- Take your plan and divide up jobs/positions. Then from there you can plan night watches, security programs, afterschool activities, or neighborhood watch. 

- Keep parents updated and involved…make sure they are in corporation with each other and the police if necessary. 

- If you know your friend could be getting involved in gang violence try to talk to them about the consequences and life threatening experiences that could be associated with the gang. Keep an eye out for any specific colors your friend might be wearing and try to get involved with them in a non-harmful after school activity. 

- Always have respect for your children and only get involved if you need to.

Cauffmanm E., Dmitrieva, J., Goldweber, A., Piquero, A. R., Steinberg, L. The development of Criminal style in adolescence and young adulthood: separating the lemmings from the loners. ProQuest: Empirical Research, 40, 332-346.

Cops in the Hood

In high crime areas there is a need for more policemen and women to be patrolling and on the force. I have personally seen crime rates reduced in cities back home by putting cameras up on every corner around the projects. Before the cameras there were countless fights, stabbings, shootings and drive bys. After the cameras were put up a majority of the crime stopped because people did not want to get caught on camera. I feel like this should be done in all high risk for crime areas just as a pre-caution because it helps make people feel safer and confident that they wont get a bullet through their front door from a drive by. Policemen and women that work in high-risk areas definitely face more daily challenges such as these, however I believe the key to crime prevention is to begin with preventing it in youth. If we can stop it before it develops into a problem and we fix the child foster care systems I believe we would have less delinquent crime.

Children develop a think skin when their growing up in a dog eat dog world. If you don’t have thick skin in a tough situation then you may not survive. However, as children experience more negative influences in bad areas they can develop problems with authority and their attitudes. In a criminal justice blog called Simple Justice I read an interesting article that relates to the topic of attitude problems in adolescents and where it can get them when the police get involved. The power of authority and the fear it instills is what makes people become obedient. But, when that authority is not respected there can be problems and consequences for the adolescent that may be extreme. It can be argued that police who patrol areas that have high crime rates and severe poverty tend to be harder on children who get in trouble in these areas because they want to scare them away from delinquency and crime. The article that I found on the criminal justice blog depicts the extreme consequences that can come with mouthing off to authority.

Eleven-year-old Yajira Quezada was a 6^th grader at Shaw Height’s Middle School in Colorado. According to the states public school rankings, Shaw Height’s is a low performing middle school that has been performing worse every year since 2004; they are now ranked at 384^th out of 418 in the entire state. While at school one day Yajira was handcuffed and detained for talking back to the assistant principle after she was questioned for being in the hallway. Yajira was trying to get her sweatshirt during lunch because she was cold; she became annoyed when she was stopped and questioned for such a harmless thing. The assistant principle took it as her disobeying orders to stay in the lunchroom. After unsuccessfully forcing her to talk to a counselor, they police stepped in and she was taken to a juvenile holding facility. According to the Criminal Justice Blog, Steve Saunders director of communications and community relations for The School District, said, “You hate to see something escalate to where it becomes a police matter. Once they step in and take over a case, it is really in their hands. The conclusion was, as far as the district was concerned, everything was handled appropriately” (Greenfield). I personally think it is a little ridiculous that the poor girl got hand cuffed and taken to juvi because she mouthed off to the assistant principle…maybe a detention would have been a less severe punishment for the child. This just goes to show you how seriously police and authority figures take their power, especially in difficult areas and bad school systems. 

http://blog.simplejustice.us/2012/03/08/schools-have-rules-attitude-adjustment/

Family Matters

When you were growing up who did you look up to? Seriously ask yourself that question…was it a super hero, a friend, a parent? I personally always looked up to my mom as a kid and still do to this day. My parents were my rocks, and my mom was my superhero. But sadly not everyone gets to have that type of relationship with his or her parents.

There are three interrelated factors that influence the child and those are the style of parental family management, the strength of parent-child bonding, and the degree of conflict among family members (Abbott, 2010, p 671). How a child is brought up will almost always influence how they will turn out in the future unless they decide to change their path. Having a family that is not connected or having parents that are not involved in the child’s life it becomes a negative influence for that child and can warp their view of family, love and relationships, in my opinion. If you have a bad relationship with your parents that can also bring stress into the situation and push the child to spend more time away from home and elsewhere instead like with peers or on the street. Also if the child is exposed to violence and conflict at a young age and regularly, that will negatively influence them and could make them at higher risk to be violent, aggressive or commit crimes.

 

Many times domestic violence, abusive parents, and victimization are all factors that lead many adolescents down the path of delinquency and crime. For years we have studied why there is a correlation between crime and adolescent violence. Past studies have “gained considerable momentum in the U.S due to the accumulation of empirical evidence indicating that youth commit a significant portion of all violent crime and experience higher rates of criminal victimization than any other age group (Haynie, 2001). Unfortunately, large proportions of adolescents are routinely exposed to violence through family exposure, neighborhood exposure or direct victimization and these factors have detrimental effects on behavioral transitions and life chances that an adolescent will have.  If a child see’s their parent acting inappropriately or violently, they will think that the behavior is socially acceptable. Their decision-making processes are extremely susceptible to the influence of their immediate family at this time and exposure to violence can increase the adolescent’s chances of early delinquency and crime.

Your family life and how you are brought up in the surrounds you have are all major influences on a child's development and future. 

Abbott, R. D., Catalano, R. F., Fleming, C. B., Haggerty, K. P. (2010). Relationships between Level and change in family, school, and peer factors during two periods of adolescence and problem behavior at age 19. ProQuest: Empirical Research, 39, 670-682.

Belsky, J., Caspi, A., Jaffee, S., Moffitt, T, E., Silva, P. (2001). Why are Children born to Teen Mothers at Risk for Adverse Outcomes in Young Adulthood? Results from a 20-year longitudinal study. ProQuest: Criminal Justice. 13, 377-397.

Haynie, D. (2001). Delinquent Peers Revisited: Does Network Structure Matter? American Journal of Sociology, 106:1013-1057.

Negative Influences

Adolescence is a key point in a child's development and when their environment is most influential. Negative outside influences could steer the course of their lives in a negative direction. When a child is growing up they will look to their parents and family for guidance on how to live their life. How the child acts, thinks, perceives and responds are all learned traits that have been observed from parents, family members or individuals involved in the child's life. As a parent you influence your child more than you know, make the decision to learn about positive and negative influences you can have on your child and take their future seriously! 

So think about it, What could be a negative influence in a child's life?
Outside influences that affect a child’s life and development are their environment/neighborhood, peers and violence. If a child grows up in an environment that is influenced by drugs, crime and poverty then they are at higher risk to fall into the cycle themselves. If they choose to hang out with a bad crowd of kids that gets into trouble and likes vandalizing things then that is a negative influence on the child from their peers. Or if the child witnesses and/or is the victim to violence that is also a negative influence that can taint their view on right and wrong as they grow older. These to me are not considered generalizations because I know many people who have been in these situations. I have also worked hands on with children that are growing up in poverty compared to children who are not.

My parents own two Early Learning Education Centers in my hometown, Rhode Island. I have worked for both of the centers for many years and have grown to know the kids and see them grow from infants to school age and then off to first grade. One of the locations is in a poor and run down area called Cranston. The day care is filled with a majority of state kids. When I say “state kids” what I mean is that they are on welfare or in a foster/adoption program that makes them the responsibility of the state. The state pays for the child’s day care and food because many of the parents cannot afford to feed their children breakfast, lunch and dinner. The children here are a handful, but they are the craziest and most lovable kids around. While I worked there, I noticed that a lot of these kids went without and came from a broken family or foster home and many where shut off, angry and cold. There was a 5 year old who had been put in foster care because her mother beat her senseless as an infant, all this little girl wanted was love and she didn’t even get it with her foster mom. Situations like that always broke my heart because it seemed like no one cared enough to help her out and she was just going to get lost in the system. She had a different social worker every few weeks and never got the chance to develop a bond with anyone. She always acted out, craved attention, cried, wet the bed, stole and hit other classmates. She was a handful, but it was not her fault that her environment had a negative influence on her. 

Now, compared to the other school I worked at in Exeter, RI it is a different world it seems. Exeter is a very wealthy town with one of the best school systems in our tiny state. The children there all eat organic food, refuse to take naps and many are spoiled brats with the occasional kid who isn’t going to give you a hard time.

To make a long story short, I was able to observe first hand the differences in quality, appearance, materials and attitudes between the two schools. One school was in a poor location and the other one in a rich location. I made the conclusion that negative outside influences in a child’s life can hurt them in the long run as they develop in an environment that is a poor influence.

Know someone who is being affected by violence in a relationship of any kind? Or need some advice yourself? Visit or Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline for help and advice if needed! You're never alone, stand up against violence!