Examining Juvenile Violence
June 4th, 2009
Utah Stories met with people directly involved in crime, criminal justice and law enforcement to find answers from a local perspective.
Story by Anand Rao
Did you know that there are more Americans in prison than the whole population of Ireland? Did you know that American government spends more to keep a criminal in jail than a homeless off the street? Why are we increasingly becoming a crime prone nation? When, where and how does crime begin? What can we do to prevent it? We met a few experts in the area of crime, law enforcement, criminal justice and criminal psychiatry to find answers from a local perspective.
When Julia woke up after a short nap, she found herself surrounded by knives from the kitchen. Her three-year-old nephew was standing by her bed, looking at her and smiling. The kid later grew up to become obsessed with sex and violence. Many years later he died on the electric chair for thirty five murders and rapes. That was a short snippet from the sordid saga of the infamous Ted Bundy.
Fifteen year old Kipland Kinkel reacted to his expulsion from school by going home and shooting both of his parents in Springfield, Oregon. After spending the night with their dead bodies, he booby trapped the house with explosives, drove twenty minutes to his school, and opened fire on his classmates. He killed one and wounded fifteen before they managed to wrestle him down. His reason for the cold and calculated crime: "I had no choice, I had to do it."
No one would have thought that 10 year old Mary Bell was capable of strangling the three year old neighborhood boy Brian Howe to death. Or who could have guessed that fifteen year old Willie Boskett's crimes would creat the law that teens could be tried as adult murderers?
Closer to home, the innocent-looking face in the mug-shot above (3rd from right) is of a young Sulejman Talovic, whose first offense as a youngster was throwing rocks at cars. Talovic was killed after opening fire in Trolley Square in Salt Lake City in 2007. So was Kipland Kinkel's, who hurled rocks at moving cars.
A release issued by FBI on June 1st of this year shows a 2.5 percent drop in overall reported crime nationally from the previous year, including a 4.4 percent decline in murders. These statistics appear encouraging, but beneath the surface the figures are still alarming.
Children between the ages 12-17 are three times as likely to be involved in a violent crime than adults and according to The National Center for Health statistics homicide is the leading cause of deaths among African-American males between the ages of 15-24.
When Utah Stories tried to unravel this ancient mystery from a local perspective, the facts and figures that came out were shocking.
Here in Salt Lake City, placing Police Officers and surveillance cameras in schools are definitely steps in the right direction to nip juvenile crime in the bud. Consider this, Police Officer Derek Christensen who was the School Resource Officer at Highland High says, "In three years of working with schools my colleague and I have together made close to 800 arrests." He broadly described the nature of crimes as possession of loaded guns, drug activity, thefts and robbery.
Gangs Detective with the Salt Lake Police Department Andy Leonard said, "In my nine years of watching gangs, most of the active gang members are around sixteen years old. By the time they reach twenty, they are either in jail or dead."
It's common knowledge that early childhood and families play an important role in a child's choices. Officer Christensen points out that a wrong structure at home or the total absence thereof can lead to criminal behavior later on in life. "In gang families crime runs in the blood," he says. "In such cases there is a wrong example for children to follow. The second category is the parents who have no time to supervise their children. Such kids for lack of structure at home unfortunately fall into a "high-risk" category for crime."
Officer Leonard expresses concern over the problem of denial. "Most parents live in constant denial. They believe that their kids can do no wrong because they go to church on Sundays. They certainly do but Friday and Saturday nights they will be out robbing banks and firing guns."
Officer Christensen gives an interesting example, "I would know when my son has played with a kid who talks back to his mom disrespectfully. Kids learn such attitudes easily and if I don't intervene and stop it right there, the same disrespect is carried forward everywhere."
Defense Attorney Paul Grant says that crime and violence are not restricted to the poorer sections of society. He says, "Children from educated and good families make mistakes too." Grant mentions that his professional expertise is often sought by affluent parents willing to spend any amount to get their kids out of trouble.
"When the parents come in I know straight away why the child behaves that way. Many of them blame the police for the child's behavior instead of owning up their responsibilities," says Christensen.
Read the other parts in the Cradle of Crime series
