Forensic Psychology For Dummies (147 page)
Read Forensic Psychology For Dummies Online
Authors: David Canter
Autobiography of an abused person
Gypsy Boy
is a remarkably candid and detailed account written by Mikey Walsh about the violence and sexual abuse he experienced as a child over many years. This abuse included regular beatings by his father and frequent sexual assaults by his uncle. When he tried to tell his father about the latter, he was just beaten again.A number of such autobiographies exist by people who survived such distressing childhoods. They illustrate the abuse of trust and unwillingness of anyone to listen to their cries for help. But what’s remarkable about all these books is that the authors invariably manage to survive their appalling childhood and seem to be able to lead healthy, well-balanced adult lives. This process is often a consequence of finding one or two caring people who believe their stories and support them, and eventually protect them enough for them to create a productive life for themselves. Publishing their stories undoubtedly helps their therapeutic process as well.
Evidence suggests that of those who participate in extensive treatment programmes, the majority, if not all, do improve their behaviour to a significant degree.
Sadly, such programmes aren’t widely available throughout the world. They tend to be found only in Western Europe, Australasia and North America. In some countries, the victim is the one punished, with the assumption that the child brought the abuse on herself. In Eastern Europe, for example, the authorities are more likely to put the child into an institution than to prosecute or treat the offender. This misguided approach leaves the offender at large to assault others and can expose the child to abuse in the institution, increasing the probability that the child in turn becomes an abuser.
Chapter 16
Working with Juvenile Offenders
In This Chapter
Identifying behaviours that lead youngsters into crime
Looking at school shootings
The truth is that young people commit a majority of crimes (as I note in Chapter 2) and youngsters who commit a series of crimes are likely to develop into adult offenders if they aren’t helped in some way. Understanding and dealing with young offenders is therefore a crucial basis for reducing crime now and in the future. In the great majority of cases, children and young adults become involved in crime because of their family circumstances, and so the most effective procedures aimed at reducing juvenile offending are the ones based on working with families.
The various treatment interventions that I review throughout this chapter have been shown time and again to be more effective than institutionalisation. But early intervention to reduce the chance of serious offending occurring is even better. Positive parenting programmes and targeted interventions of children at risk are more powerful and in the end much more cost-effective than prison. The earlier a child reveals serious problematic behaviour, the worse the risk is for future criminality unless interventions are carried out to help the child.
Most offending behaviour occurs in adolescence, when people’s identity begins to settle down as they explore what they can do and who they are. This crucial period is when minor legal infringements can be a passing phase or more seriously the start of a criminal career. What subsequently happens often depends on how the minor crimes are dealt with. Stopping adolescent misdemeanours from becoming a habit of offending is therefore a major focus of many interventions with children and their families.
In this chapter, I investigate the main elements that can cause youth crime as well as some protective factors that reduce the risk of youngsters becoming offenders. I also examine the central role of parenting and the family, and as an extreme case of youth crime, I take a look at school shootings, particularly in the US.
Understanding the Cycle of Youth Crime
Half or more of prisoners reveal that they committed antisocial behaviour as youngsters, typically in their mid-teens. Their early delinquency set in motion a pattern of behaviour that became a criminal lifestyle because it wasn’t stopped; how this process can happen is my subject in this section. Crucially, these antisocial activities tend to be learned, condoned or in some way influenced by the family or institution in which the youngster grows up.
Therefore, children who become habitual criminals are likely to have children who also become offenders and so the cycle continues (check out Figure 16-1). Anything that can be done to break this cycle is consequently not only of value for the individuals concerned, but also for future generations and their victims.
Despite all the evidence showing that youth offending is rooted in the domestic circumstances of the child, and considering the ways in which the school and community can help to reduce any debilitating impact that results from those circumstances, a surprisingly high number of youngsters in many countries are still incarcerated. Taking them away from criminal backgrounds may have some simple-minded appeal, but two-thirds of incarcerated young offenders re-offend within a year of their release. And they’re the ones who are caught! Surely many others, when separated from non-deviant friends and people who could care for them, find out how to avoid detection while in prison.
Committing antisocial behaviour can lead to adult criminality
A child who exhibits three or more of the following attributes is at risk of becoming seriously antisocial as an adult:
Breaking into buildings or cars.