Why Children Choose to Murder

Nevertheless, while many would agree to these reasons, others might say otherwise. Jennifer Jenkins, in her article, “On Punishment and Teen Killers”, she refers to a time when her youngest sister and her husband were murdered by a juvenile criminal. In the article, she says that before her sister was killed, “She begged for the life of her unborn child as he shot her. Jennifer also says in the article that the murderer “...just wanted to see what it would feel like to shoot someone.” Of course, given this story, it can be argued that the murderer, “...was a serial killer in the making”, as Jennifer says. In addition to this, it can also be said that children with strong signs of conduct disorder, a juvenile form of A.S.P.D., or Anti-Social

The understanding of how a criminal develops in society has always been up to debate amongst criminologists. Their objective is to analyze and comprehend criminal behavior, however, the conclusion of whether or not a criminal is born or made has yet to be established. Society tends to pity the victims of a crime and dehumanize the criminals. Their identity becomes completely defined by their immoral actions and the human behind the crime is utterly forgotten. Many criminologists believe that the reasoning behind the motivation to do such crimes is deeply rooted in the criminal’s past and upbringing. Prior to committing a crime, the now ‘criminal’ was once also a naive and innocent child born into society. During these adolescent years, a child

Evidence that was gathered from books such as “Inside the Minds of Mass Murderers” and “Inside the Minds of Serial Killers,” both written by Kathertine Ramsland, provide information and evidence that killers are in fact made, not born. Some of the reasons that people believe that killers are made and not born are due to research by many psychiatrists on serial killers and mass murderers who are on death roe that have committed some of the most heinous crimes. One argument is that there is a set of factors that make people kill which are neurologic damage, abuse, and paranoid thinking (Pincus, Base Instincts). Another argument that follows the same guidelines was perceived from examining the many murders and serial killings in American

Larson in “Serial murderers: The Construction” states that socialization is said to begin after birth. The social learning theory is a theory that uses the childhood of serial offenders to identify the main reasons for causation. The social learning theory examines the offender’s past for clues in explaining aggressive behavior. The central idea of this theory is the relation of childhood victimization or observation of violent acts to future activities in criminal behavior. According to Hickey, stress caused by childhood traumatization may be a trigger to criminal behavior in adulthood. It

Through cases such as Roper v. Simmons we are able to acknowledge and see the motions that bring juveniles into committing crime. Not only through his case but through research it is noted that that maturity/ brain development, peer influence/pressure, communication with parents, social differences, and insufficient education has a high leverage on the existence of juvenile crime. Christopher Simmons at 17 murdered Shirley Crook and was initially sentenced to death.

The article “On Punishment and Teen Killers,” by Jennifer Jenkins, explains why teens should be punished as adults and how the media is influencing the youth to commit serious crimes. The author, Jennifer Jenkins, shares her case where her sister with her unborn child, were murdered by a teen with a gun. She explains that there are advocates who wish to minimize the offender's culpability simply because of their age. Jenkins add that in America, weapons are easily available to our youth, and that they grow in a violence-loving culture. She says that the Inuit people of northern Canada had no juvenile crime at all until 1980 with the introduction of television into their culture, which influenced the teens to commit crimes. Jenkins affirms that if brain development would be the cause of the teens to commit crimes, so then the whole world should have the same rate of juvenile crimes.

In this article, I was surprised that juveniles accounted for 16% of all violent crime. Also, of all juveniles murdered in 2008, 38% were younger than age 5. Furthermore, in 2008, 67% of all murder victims were killed with a firearm. Lastly, the most common method of murdering children younger than age 5 was by physical

Children as young as eleven are committing crimes, but they are very young and know nothing about the real world. In "Startling Finds on Teenage Brains", the verdict kon a fourteen year old who shot his middle school teacher was the following: "A child is not a man"(89). Although he was found guilty of second degree murder, they did not sentence him to life in prison. His verdict was right because he is not a man, he is only fourteen years old and has not even gone to high school. This article also talks about how teens act on impulse, especially since in their teen years the

While all types of child homicide have devastating effects and consequences, there are still distinctions in the crime, based on when it is committed. Bartol & Bartol (2014) discuss these two

Clay. This article was titled “Listening to Killers”, and it discusses killers and what may have caused them to commit their crime, as well as some other ideas about killers and the justice system. She writes that the killers she talked with “had developed a hypersensitivity to threat. That comes from being traumatized.” “When you're threatened, you're morally entitled and psychologically required to defend yourself.” She also described that some killers thought process went something like this: “get them before they get you.” This is , as she describes it, “a war zone mentality.” This means that these teen killers feel threatened by whom can usually be described as their parents. When they feel threatened by them, they feel that it’s necessary to fight back, and in these cases, kill them. This is just a normal response in an abnormal situation. These kids aren't evil. Together, these three examples make it clear to see that these juvenile murderers are just in a horrible situation, and they feel that the only way out, the only way to survive, is by killing their parents. If these kids aren’t just mad or evil, why are we throwing them

Correlating to the tenth chapter we are studying in the field of criminology, this article can best relate to the Developmental Perspective theory (Walsh and Hemmens 2014). This theory makes the argument that most criminal involvement occurs or begins in adolescence (Walsh and Hemmens 2014). Developmental Perspective theory makes the case that an individual’s criminal propensity develops and forms at a young stage in life (Walsh and Hemmens 2014). This theory explores the acceleration and declaration of offending and criminal acts (Walsh and Hemmens 2014). The Developmental Perspective theory tries to corroborate with the idea that age causes a decrease in negative emotionality, as well as an increase in conscientiousness (Walsh and Hemmens 2014). Rebecca is one of the over nine thousand American prisoners who are now

Davis interview many abuse experts in the field of juvenile psychology, psychiatry, and law enforcement. According to Davis, it has been argued by many psychiatrists, including Harvard Professor James Gilligan, " all acts of violence are performed in an effort to achieve a justice or to remove injustice- therefore it can be viewed as a method of undoing a sense of victimization". In many cases, this feeling of injustice has originated from how a child has been treated by both family, peers, and members of the community at an early age". (p131-155). Davis goes on to say, the experts believe the nurture and environment which, a child is raised in plays a key role in stimulating terminal activity later on in life, although the genes play a small role in criminal activity, it has been proven "the key criminogenic factors lie with how the child is brought up.

This article is about teens as murderers and how she experienced a teen murder in her family. The Author seems to be bias about teens being punished as adults because her sister was murdered by a teenager so i’m pretty sure she’s still upset about the idea. Basically the article is about her thinking that teens should be punished as adults because they chose to act like one if they wanted to kill someone. She gives us many cases about teens and she gives us her honest opinion about the topic. She doesn’t really think about what the teen might have been going through. In paragraph 8 she says “ There are no words adequate to describe what kind of traumatic loss does to a victim’s family. “ Maybe that’s the reason she is so sure that all kids

A person may experience internal conflict in trying to decide which set of values, attitudes, and codes of behavior to accept and internalize. For example, to a kid living in a neighborhood that has many criminal types, these people may be symbols of economic and social success because they have money, expensive clothes, fancy cars, and other material possessions that inspire respect and jealousy. The kids may draw to the criminal life-style of these people because they want the same symbols of success for themselves. At the same time, several youths in the neighborhood may have good relationships with parents or other adults who are noncriminal in their life-styles and who try to instill non-delinquent values in them. A young person exposed to both types of influences must balance out their merits and decide whether to accept the values of one set of associates or those of the other. Between 1990 and 2002 there were 13,504 males and 3,168 females who died as a result of homicide. This showed that males, ages 12 through 17, were four times more likely than females to be murdered. Arrests of adolescents for violent crimes are reported by police headquarters

Parricide are so rare in the US that few studies have been done to help unlock the mystery into the minds of these children. “Each crime is shocking, brutal and heartbreaking, but what is unimaginable is what each parent went through, knowing who was responsible for their death” (Montaldo, n.d.).