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Kenneth Esquivel

Prof. Jamie Brody

English 301

05/17/19

Reasoning Crimes Are Being Committed

Crime will always be committed, but are there solutions to prevent it from happening? In

reality, there will never be solutions instead society can easily seek to diminish the problem. In

today’s world, we see young age individuals committing crimes everyday. Many innocent

children have been surrounded with violence, gangs, drugs, alcohol, etc, which leads to physical

and mental issues. Society can diminish this by parents or loved ones being there for their

children. Adolescence plays a huge role in someone’s life before reaching adulthood. Childhood

is an important factor of a human’s life because this is the stage where one learns and

comprehends everything that is being thrown at them, no matter if it’s good or bad. Crimes will

continue to happen at an early stage of a person’s life. Crimes are being made in society by

children due to the physical or mental elements they are surrounded by, such as drugs/alcohol,

being abused, and running away from home. These are key elements that can be wrong exposure

to children who are very young due to the fact that they can fall under peer pressure or

desperately feeling alone.

In the past, society has exposed an increase of drugs/alcohol being distributed. It is still

currently happening but the only solution to this is to diminish the problem and be proactive

about the situation. According to Terrence T. Allen, in his article ​he demonstrates to the audience

how juveniles likely choose to commit crimes due to child abuse and being exposed to
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drugs/alcohol at a young age. Terrance T. Allen was the coordinator of the juvenile justice

concentration at North Carolina Central University and on the faculty at Wayne State University

in Detroit Michigan. He earned his Ph.D of Philosophy in social work for the University of

Alabama. ​He​ and his colleagues conducted a statewide survey to looked at the possibilities of a

young innocent child in regards to the age and what or who has been influenced in their daily

lives. The results led to children at a younger age have a higher percentage of consuming alcohol

but it was actually children who were abused came out higher. In his article he is arguing how

crimes are being committed at a very young age due to being influenced with drugs/alcohol. For

instance, we cannot compare a thirteen year old child with a sixteen year old child. Both of these

children probably have gone through rough times or one has and the other one has not.

Crimes rates have risen by young children. According to the book, ​Why do some

maltreated youth become juvenile offenders?: A call for further investigation and adaptation of

youth services​, Bender strongly demonstrates to the audience in her book that there are

approximately 3 million cases of child abuse/neglect that are reported annually (U.S Department

of Health and Human Services). Kimberly Bender ​serves as co-PI on a six-state multi-site

research project with youth experiencing homelessness through shelter, drop-in and transitional

housing services to better understand risk and protective factors in this population. She also

received her Ph.D at the University of Texas, Austin. ​She mentions 38% of these young children

are likely to commit violent crimes than those who have not been influenced. She also explains

to us that research on homeless youth confirms elevated rates of physical abuse, sexual abuse,

and neglect with as many as 80% of homeless youth having had a caretaker throw something at

them and 43% reporting being beaten up by a loved one. This leads to children running away
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from home which results in being vulnerable to participate in delinquent behaviors. According to

Bender violent crimes are also more common among street youth with 25% of homeless youth

reporting having attacked someone with a knife and 22% reporting having shot someone.

This demonstrates to the audience that there are consistent repeated mistakes made by those who

are around their children. Children must feel loved and be recognized by their loved ones

because it gives them a sort of support that they can lean on. This leads to crime constantly being

committed because of recent background history among children or the things that they are

involved in.

Committing crimes at a very young age will lead to disparity. Juveniles will grasp and

feel a sense of helplessness at a young age and will be worse throughout their future. In the

article, "Juveniles Who Have Committed Sexual Offenses: A Special Group”, both authors did a

experiment, where juveniles who have committed sexual offenses are being questioned of their

past, most likely their childhood. Amanda Fanniff received her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from

the University of Arizona, with a subspecialization in psychology, policy, and law. Her research

primarily focuses on developmental considerations in the assessment and treatment of juvenile

offenders. Eva Kimonis received her Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in

Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of New Orleans. Her research was

based on child clinical psychology; externalising and conduct problems; aggression and

antisocial behaviour; violent offending; development/assessment. The experiment was based on

227 juveniles and they were questioned about their childhood, whether they were loved,

neglected, abused, etc. One hundred eight juveniles who committed sexual offenses were

physically neglected, emotional, and sexually abused. Researchers saw this as a result for them
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committing the crimes they have committed. Some were petty crimes but these factors still led to

their judgements. This demonstrates the reality of why children commit crimes at a very early

age. They are surrounded and influenced by social pressures.

Children have a high tendency to run away from home due to problematic issues going

on at home. A certain aspect that will lead to a situation like this is abuse, either sexual or

physical abuse. In the book, “Homelessness and Violence” by Claire Renzetti, she demonstrates

how mental problems causes people committing crimes. Renzetti holds a Ph.D. in Sociology

from the University of Delaware. She currently serves as the Judi Conway Patton Endowed

Chair in the Center for research on violence against women. Her research also consist of

criminology and the sociology of law. Her main focus is on women committing crimes but due

to recent background such as prostitution. Renzetti suggests to the audience that many parents

who end up being homeless with children no matter the situation, it affects the children mentally

and physically. The things that children see on the streets such as foul language, abusive,

stealing, etc may affect them to keep on surviving. It is a world the individuals must fight to

survive. Everyone's on their own and sometimes they need to do anything in order for them to

gain money or survive, even if it leads to prostitution. According to Renzetti homelessness leads

to committing crimes due to not being able to uphold their necessities and their children. If we

connect this by children running away, but instead of financial problems, let’s mentioned abuse,

when children are frequently abused they are broken into pieces. People being homeless does

indeed affect someone mentally and physically which will make them lead to making crimes.

Especially, if they begin young, such as children. Even if if they are petty crimes, they are still

crimes and affects the person’s personal as well. These situations demonstrate the reality of how
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the world is if children are not being able successfully be taken care of financially and

personally. If children do not have someone that will support them meaning giving them a house

to live in and putting on the table, children will end up fighting for themselves and will do

anything for themselves to make sure they are doing well. Children are sometimes forced to

commit crimes because of the situation they are placed in.

Children who are repeatedly targeted as victims tend to make unnecessary actions. In the

article, “Why Are Communities Important in Understanding Crime?" Albert J Reiss Jr

demonstrates to the audience that many children and adults are committing crimes due to

victimization. This means that the more frequent situations happening to the person in regards to

abuse or neglect, the more it changes the person to become something they are not. Albert J

Reiss Jr earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1949, and eventually joined the

sociology department at Yale University. He was a past president of the Society for the Study of

Social Problems and the American Society of Criminology. In his article he mentions many of

these individuals have been categorized as people who have gone through, psychological, social,

economic, or cultural situations in their daily lives or childhood (p. 5). People who suffer at a

young age and continue to suffer can change their perspective about life and continue to make

crimes in their daily lives. Children are at a higher risk because they are the ones that can be

locked up for a period of time depending the crime they have committed.

Overall, crimes are being done at a very young age due to problematic issues such as

drugs/alcohol, being abused, and running away from home. Children may tend to commit such

crimes due to exposure of these physical and mental elements. If they are frequently abused, they

are most likely to experience trauma throughout their life despite if they receive treatment, they
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will still remember the events they are trying to run away from. Due to various aspects that were

portrayed, we tend to see how children’s actions can be influenced by social constructs they are

placed in.
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Bibliography

Bender, Kimberly. ​"Why do some maltreated youth become juvenile offenders?: A call
for further investigation and adaptation of youth services."​ ​Children and Youth Services Review
32.3 (2010): 466-473.

Fanniff, Amanda, and Eva Kimonis. "Juveniles Who Have Committed Sexual Offenses:
A Special Group?" ​Behavioral Sciences & the Law​32.2 (2014): 240-257. Web.

Lang, Ra, and R. Langevin. "​PARENT CHILD RELATIONS IN OFFENDERS WHO

COMMIT VIOLENT SEXUAL CRIMES AGAINST CHILDREN."​ Behavioral Sciences & The
Law 9.1 (1991): 61-71. Web.

Reiss Jr, Albert J. "Why Are Communities Important in Understanding Crime?." Crime
and justice 8 (1986): 1-33.

Renzetti, Claire. "Homelessness and Violence." (2008): 331-32. Web.

Terrence T., Allen, Trzcinski, Eileen, and Kubiak. ​"Public Attitudes toward Juveniles
Who Commit Crimes: The Relationship between Assessments of Adolescent Development and
Attitudes toward Severity of Punishment." ​Crime & Delinquency 58.1 (2012): 78-102. Web.

Kanazawa, Satoshi, and Mary C. Still. "Why men commit crimes (and why they desist)."
Sociological Theory​ 18.3 (2000): 434-447.