Adult Opposition Theory

The New York State Division of Youth Deputy Director, Charles H. King, researches the potential causes of homicidal tendencies youth, hoping to find a more reliable method of rehabilitation treatment, in his essay, “The Ego and the Integration of Violence in Homicidal You,” published in 1975. During the early 1970s, America was seeing a rapid increase of youth that were displaying intense acts of violence, and even homicide. In an attempt to understand the potential causal factors that lead to violence in youths, and intern develop a treatment method for the afflicted children, The New York State Department of Youth was tasked in preforming a study to define these two parameters. For the study nine random children who had displayed extreme acts of homicidal violence were selected to represent the dependent variables. The average age of the group was about fourteen, with three of the children being African American, two of the children being Puerto Rican, and the final four children being Caucasian. Each child had bean randomly assigned to the research study purely on the bases that they had committed acts of homicide at a young age. The first stages of the study were based around an exploratory design, as the researchers that that point only intended to discover the potential causes for the violent behavior, with the hypotheses being that the act of homicide serving the same psychological purpose for all the children, regardless of age, gender, or ethnicity. To begin the study each of the nine children received a background check, psychiatric evaluation, and subsequently an IQ test. Expectedly each of the children had come from home that displayed a heavy drinking atmosphere, an abusive relationship with one or both of the parents, and parents guilty of neglect. But the results of to the psychiatric evaluation were not what the researchers had expected. During the evaluation portion of the study each of the children were test for psychosis. Only one of the nine children however, met the criteria required to be diagnosed as psychotic. But each child did show a belief that their parents, and others around them were afraid of them, and were out to get

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.

While murderers come in all shapes and sizes, it still comes as a great shock to see a child as the culprit rather than the victim. In the case of Eric Smith, a thirteen-year-old who brutally killed four-year-old Derrick Robie and was tried as an adult and was sentenced to nine years to life in prison. Growing up, Smith was a loner, he didn’t have any friends and was made fun of and was often bullied at school because of his physical appearance. Smith had red hair, freckles, wore thick glasses, and had elongated ears that were protruding. It was also said that Eric Smith suffered physical abuse at home.

What if someone wasn’t getting paid to do your job? What if someone were invited to a workplace to dedicate at least one year of pushing every physical limit thought possible. But what if someone did all that for free? Would they still do it? Opt out for a better situation? It seems that many Future NCAA athletes are asking this question to themselves more and more these days. And the question being begged her has a complex yet clear answer to it. If anyone who plays any sport at a college level chances are other than possibly a scholarship You’re not receiving much of anything else. So this sparks a huge debate. Why are NCAA athletes not getting paid? The NCAA makes slightly more than 1 BIllion dollars of revenue every year, and yet not one cent goes to college

The psychic of the young person is shaped by social interactions as well as the parental training. Often the young murderers were brought in pathological environments, they did not experience the parental love and acceptance, and they forced themselves to drown particular emotions so as not to appear weak. All these factors results in social dysfunctions that triggers violence and violence becomes the perfect self-defense mechanism, because it brings attention. According to the FBI’s list of traits that describe young murderers the most common syndromes are the feeling of isolation, the narcissist disorder, and depression6. A perfect example to support the above argument will be a background check of Jeff Weise, a young sixteen-year-old boy who killed 9 people and committed suicide in the Red Lake Senior High School in Minnesota in 2005. Weise’s family was the kind of pathological one, his parents were separated, his mother had a habit of drinking too much being an abusive alcoholic, what is more Weise himself was often bullied at school7.

This paper will examine a juvenile school shooter that killed a teacher, the principal, and two students in their school. The school shooter has been tried in adult court and sentenced as an adult, due to the number of people killed the school shooter may be sentenced to capital punishment. This paper will provide an analysis of New York State laws regarding capital punishment of juveniles as well as risk factors including development risk factors that might have contributed to the actions of the school shooter. Further, recommended forensic risk assessment tools appropriate for this situation will be discussed as well as any ethical concerns that might impact this case based on personal biases leading to weaknesses with regard to effectively communicating result of the forensic assessments with the offender being sentenced to death. This paper will provide details on other states and their death penalty laws regarding juvenile offenders, the reason for this added information is that states laws pertaining to capital punishment vary. Lastly, this paper will provide preventative information for juveniles who intend to commit crimes such as this one and how to effectively assist a juvenile with feelings that relate to that of the school shooter.

Researchers have found that adolescent murders tend to be not only violent, but extremely violent. One teen murderer stabbed his victim forty-six times (Kreiner 41). Josh McDowell, in his book Right from Wrong says, “Today’s youth are not playing loud music and wearing radical hairstyles; they have graduated, it seems, to a level of adolescent aggression, promiscuity, cynicism, and violence that bristles the hair on parents’ necks” (McDowell 6). The most significant change in the youth has been in their attitudes. The new generation is more inclined to resort to violence over trivial issues or for no apparent reason. Violent juvenile crime is now a national epidemic and is predicted to get worse. The group most associated with juvenile violence in America is males aged fifteen to nineteen. Statistics show that this segment of the male population will increase by 30 percent by the year 2020 (Grapes

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

A juvenile is still in the learning process and seems to take things a little more personal than adults. Although, adults are placed under a lot of stress, and they seem to have a better handle on how to control a pressure filled environment. Some would say that adults tend to turn away and diffuse the situation by walking away. Juveniles, on the other hand, may turn away, but will hold the tension internally and will wait to strike their revenge. This internal stress pressure can turn being the victim of a bully situation, into becoming the prime suspect in a tragic event. “Child murderers are impulsive, aggressive, and unable to deal with their emotions, suggests that when children kill, they are treating their victim as a target, as an outlet for violence” (Muller, 2015). Sometimes, the juvenile will let a stressful encounter increase in severity and even become more violent then intended. The child’s emotions are running rampant and compared to adults, they just don’t know how to handle the internal

The same psychiatrist, Johnathan H. Pincus examined 14 other death row inmates who had murdered when they were under the age of 18 and realized that they all had the same factors of neurologic damage, abuse, and paranoid thinking (Pincus, 29). A study done by Lisa Marshall and David Cooke shows the differences between the childhoods of psychopath criminals and non-psychopath criminals. They used the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised and the Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse to show how much the environment your surrounded with as a child can affect your adult life. Not only did they study the results of familial childhood factors such as neglect, physical abuse, and psychological abuse but they also looked into societal factors such as negative school experience and negative school performance. Results showed that “Inadequate or incompetent parenting leads to insecure attachment bonding that forecasts low levels of empathy, compliance, cooperation and self control.” (Lykken,199). The most obvious differences in the childhoods of psychopath criminals and non-psychopath criminals were in parental discipline, parental neglect, and negative school performance. (Marshall and Cooke, The Childhood experiences of psychopaths). Another environmental factor that should

Providing effective rehabilitation programs and the right help could achieve that and more. Typically, juveniles who commit murder are raised in negative and hurtful atmospheres. The environments in which they grow up could be unhealthy and unstable. Fourteen year-old Alfonso Davis grew up in an fatherless environment where his mother was an addict and his grandmother could hardly take care of the both of them. The lack of parental attention led Davis to commit an irreversible mistake. “He found family in a gang, and one night, two much older gang members brought him along on what he believed was going to be a robbery, two men were killed, though Davis never fired his gun… sentenced to life with the possibility of parole” (NewsOne Staff). The lack of family attention for Davis led him to believe that a gang could fit that position and fill the hole in his heart. However, it led him to a life in a cell with no hope in being free again. Since Davis was sent to prison, he turned his life around without the help of anyone surrounding him. He received the chance to have an education and now he writes poetry and helps others in prison quit gangs. Davis is not eligible for parole but after two decades in prison, he is hoping to prove that he has been rehabilitated and deserves his freedom. Change did not come to Davis; he wanted to become a better person and changed his life around. Davis found hope behind bars.

Nature cannot force someone to have the need to kill without nurture sanding beside it to light the fuse, and vice versa. In the case of few time murderers(specifically those who killed in war), “[They] shoot a fellow down / [They’d] treat, if met where any bar is, / Or help to half a crown.”(Hardy 18-20), they understand that their taking of another person’s life was pointless and unwarranted, as they very well could have been friends had they not met on the battlefield. This empathy presented by this poet is a prime example to contrast the lack of empathy presented by serial killers. Whether this lack of empathy originated from their DNA or from childhood neglect varies from killer to killer. With the extremely high percentages of some type of childhood abuse present in serial killers when compared to the average person, it can be inferred that the lack of positive reinforcement from their guardians is very much a determining factor in the emergence of homicidal tendencies. Further, the Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research “found that parental antisociality places the child at increased risk for developing a range of externalizing and internalizing disorders.” This connection to parental mental disorders teamed with how the parent

In the article “Physiology, Sociology and Murder: A Scientist Looks at Violence in America," on the World Socialist Web Site, they state a studied made by Dr. Lewis and Dr. Pincus supporting this idea. Dr. Lewis, who studies the childhood brain development, and Dr. Pincus studied all murderers and even the notorious serial killers, and said they are the product of child abuse mixed with neurological damage and psychiatric illness, but how? We all assume if adults were abused as children they would grow out of it and seek help, well this is a false thought. Through investigations Dr. Lewis and Dr. Pincus go on deeply interviewing the murders families, then the murderers themselves. Most of the murders refused to even talk about their abuses from childhood and some even forgot about the abuses as a child, this shows that abuse as a kid impacts the brain as a whole. In the next excerpt, Galen talks about how a developing mind of a baby plays a role in it, running test of babies who were abused and not abused next to a crying child. Those who were not abused gave the child comfort and those who were abused paid no mind to the child and some even struck it the crying child of anger. In my point of view, a childhood affects an individual's growth, mentally, even emotionally. As a child you first learn from your parents before even learning at school, your parents are your primary teachers; abuse and even

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

Children are granted no voice, no bodily integrity, and no inherent world by the adults who are their caretakers. If they are lucky like Claudia and Frieda Mac Teer, they learn resistance strategies. If they are unlucky like Pecola Breedlove they learn various kinds of disempowered responses. They internalize their oppression than identify with their oppressors and they begin to believe that their oppression is just and proper.