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Crime

The law is often seen in negative terms, as something which prevents us from doing what we want to, or which is complex, expensive and sometimes ineffective. But in spite of this image, the law also helps to define our rights and helps to set out our responsibilities as citizens.

Large complex societies need written laws. In this way everyone knows what the rules of living in society are. When we step outside the boundaries by breaking the law, there is a system of trial and punishment to remind us that we have done something wrong. This is the basis of what is known as criminal law.

But sometimes problems arise between people which are not of a criminal nature. A couple may wish to divorce for example and need help sorting out disputes over the ownership of property or the rights to see the children. This is the basis of civil law.

There is a popular image of the UK as a nation taken over by violent crime. And yet in spite of the image we are still a relatively peaceful society. Of course there are places where violent crime has increased and young people are often seen as the source of the problem. Again, in spite of the popular image, most young people are not involved in crime, and those that do many grow out of it. Young people are in fact, more likely to be the victims of crime.

Public opinion about crime is also shaped by politicians. Law and order is a political 'hot potato'. Being seen to be tough on crime is known as a vote winner so it is not surprising that law and order is high up on every party's election agenda.

Whether tougher sentences work or whether alternative approaches such as community sentences are more successful, is a keenly debated subject.

There was a general agreement about this in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The police began to caution young offenders much more than before and the courts began issuing probation orders rather than sending you people to jail (see section Sentences and penalties for details of probation orders).

But in more recent years there has been a call for tougher sentencing again. New secure training units are one outcome of this approach. The 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act is another.

Statistics on crime usually come from one of two main sources. They either show the number of crimes reported to the police or they indicate the public's own experience of crime. The second of these is generally considered to be the most accurate indication of crime.

Below are some facts and figures on crime. They show young people's involvement in crime as part of a bigger, national picture of crime and are taken from Social Trends 1996 (one of the main sources of government statistics).

▪ In 1994 over 520,000 people in England and Wales were found guilty or cautioned for indictable offences (i.e. offences serious enough to have a jury). A large proportion of these offences were for handling stolen goods.

▪ Sixty percent of young offenders aged 10-13 were found guilty or cautioned for theft or for handling stolen goods.

▪ Almost 75 per cent of young offenders (under 21 years old) were reconvicted within two years. Twelve and a half percent were reconvicted within 3 months.

▪ In 1993 one in eight young men between 16 and 29 years old were the victims of violence outside of the home (including incidents in streets, pubs and clubs).

▪ Police figures show that in 1988 there were 4,383 racial incidents recorded nation-wide. Five years later in 1993, 7,793 incidents were reported, almost half of them in London.

▪ In 1993 Afro-Caribbeans were around twice as likely to be the victim of a burglary as a white person. The risk of a burglary in an inner city area is also twice the national average.

▪ Young people made up nearly 20 per cent of all people in custody in 1994.

▪ The prison population in Great Britain increased by 8 per cent from 1993 to 1994. This is partly because of new regulations in the 1993 Criminal Justice Act as well as new guidelines on sentencing given to magistrates' courts.

▪ While young people are often identified with crime (particularly Black and working class young men) government statistics tell a different story. Youth convictions have been steadily dropping since the early 1990s. For example Criminal Statistics, England and Wales show 132,800 young adults found guilty of or cautioned for indictable offences in 1981. In 1993 this figure had dropped to 90,500.

tags: crime, psychology, conviction



The Childhood Psychopath: Bad Seed or Bad Parents?

By Katherine Ramsland

Bad Seed: The Fledgling Psychopath

[pic]In 1979, sixteen-year-old Brenda Spencer received a rifle for her birthday. She used it to shoot kids at an elementary school near her San Diego home, wounding nine and killing two. A reporter asked her later why she had done it. Her answer: "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."

In 1993, two bodies were found on a country road in Ellis County, Texas. One was male, one female. The boy, 14, had been shot, but the 13-year-old girl had been stripped, raped, and dismembered. Her head and hands were missing. The killer turned out to be Jason Massey, who had decided he was going to become the worst serial killer that Texas had ever seen. He tortured animals, stalked another young woman, and revered killers like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, and Henry Lee Lucas. He was nine years old when he killed his first cat. He added dozens more over the years, along with dogs and even six cows. He had a long list of potential victims and his diaries were filled with fantasies of rape, torture, and cannibalism of female victims. He was a loner who believed he served a "master" who gave him knowledge and power. He was obsessed with bringing girls under his control and having their dead bodies in his possession.

Nine-year-old Jeffrey Bailey, Jr. pushed a three-year-old friend into the deep part of a motel pool in Florida in 1986. He wanted to see someone drown. As the boy sank to the bottom, Jeffrey pulled up a chair to watch. When it was finished, he went home. When he was questioned, he was more engaged in being the center of attention than in any kind of remorse for what he had done. About the murder he was nonchalant.

On April 13, 2000, three first-graders in north-western Indiana were apprehended in the act of plotting to kill a classmate. They had formed a "hate" club and were trying to recruit other girls to join them in the planned slaughter. They were not yet sure whether they would shoot their target victim, stab her with a butcher knife or hang her. Their plan was interrupted, but another victim in similar circumstances was not so lucky.

Jessica Holtmeyer, 16, hanged a learning-disabled girl in Pennsylvania and then bashed in her face with a rock. Afterward, a witness reported Holtmeyer to say that she wanted to cut the girl up and keep one of her fingers as a souvenir.

These children have a character disturbance. They devalue others and lack a sense of morality. Such incidents as those described above have made it increasingly clear that psychopathy is not exclusively an adult manifestation. In fact, some child development experts believe that childhood psychopathy is increasing at an alarming rate. In the research, these children are regarded as "fledgling psychopaths" who will become increasingly more dangerous as they get older. They might not become killers but they will learn how to manipulate, deceive and exploit others for their own gain. It is generally believed that they have failed to develop affectional bonds that allow them to empathize with another's pain. What they have developed are traits of arrogance, dishonesty, narcissism, shamelessness, and callousness.

Through the years, the diagnosis of psychopathy in adults has gone through a confusing conceptual evolution. Psychopaths have been called sociopaths, but they've also been distinguished as a separate and distinct group. Another complicating factor is the development of the diagnosis of Antisocial Personality Disorder, which overlaps with many traits of a psychopath but also has key differences. It is not surprising, then, that juvenile psychopathy, too, has been poorly defined, often confused with the various youthful conduct disorders.

Given society's interest in diminishing the crime rate among the most chronically recidivating offenders — psychopaths — it is important to determine if childhood psychopathy is a clearly measurable manifestation. The salient question is whether we can single out such children and treat them before they become truly dangerous.

tags: juvenile, childhood, influence, psychopath, parents



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