FREE ESSAY ON JUVENILE PSYCOPATHS

JUVENILE PSYCOPATHS

Juvenile Psychopaths
What is the super predator? He or she are young hypercriminals who are committing acts of
violence of unprecedentedcoldness and brutality. This newest phenomena in the world of
crime is perhaps the most dangerous challenge facing society and law enforcement ever.
While psychopaths are not new, this breed of super criminal exceeds the scope of
psychopathic behavior. They are younger, more brutal, and completely unafraid of the law.
While current research on the super predator is scarce, I will attempt to give an
indication as to the reasons a child could become just such a monster. Violent teenage
criminals are increasingly vicious. John DiIulio, Professor of Politics and Public
Affairs at Princeton University, says that The difference between the juvenile criminals
of the 1950s and those of the 1970s and early 1980s was the difference between the Sharks
and the Jets of West Side Story and the Bloods and the Crips. It is not inconceivable
that the demographic surge of the next ten years will bring with it young criminals who
make the Bloods and the Crips look tame. (10) They are what Professor DiIulio and others
call urban super predators; young people, often from broken homes or so-called
dysfunctional families, who commit murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and other violent
acts. These emotionally damagedyoung people, often are the products of sexual or physical
abuse. They live in an aimless and violent present; have no sense of the past and no hope
for the future; they commit unspeakably brutal crimes against other people, often to
gratify whatever urges or desires drive them at the moment and their utter lack of
remorse is shocking.(9) Studies reveal that the major cause of violent crime is not
poverty but family breakdown - specifically, the absence of a father in the household.
Today, right now, one-fourth of all the children in the United States are living in
fatherless homes - this adds up to 19 million children without fathers. Compared to
children in two parent family homes, these children will be twice as likely to drop out
of school, twice as likely to have children out of wedlock, and they stand more than
three times the chance of ending up in poverty, and almost ten times more likely to
commit violent crime and ending up in jail. (1) The Heritage Foundation - a Conservative
think tank - reported that the rise in violent crime over the past 30 years runs
directlyparallel to the rise in fatherless families. In every state in our country,
according to the Heritage foundation, the rate for juvenilecrime is closely linked to the
percentage of children raised in single-parent families. And while it has long been
thought that poverty is the primary cause of crime, the facts simply do not support this
view. Teenage criminal behavior has its roots in habitual deprivation of parental love
and affection going back to early infancy, according to the Heritage Foundation. A
father's attention to his son has enormous positive effects on a boy's emotional and
social development. But a boy abandoned by his father in deprived of a deep sense of
personal security, In a well-functioning family, he continued, the very presence of the
father embodies authority and this paternal authority is critical to the prevention of
psychopathology and delinquency. (2) On top of the problem of single parent homes, is the
problem of the children whose behavioral problems are linked to their mothers' crack use
during pregnancy. These children are reaching their teenage years and this is a
potentially very aggressive population, according to Sheldon Greenberg, director of Johns
Hopkins University's Police Executive Leadership Program. What's more, drug use has more
than doubled among 12- to 17-year-olds since 1991. The overwhelming common factor that
can be isolated in determining whether young people will be criminal in their behavior is
moral poverty, Greenberg says. (3) According to the recently published Body Count: Moral
Poverty . . . and How to Win America' s War Against Crime and Drugs, a new generation of
super-predators,  untouched by any moral inclinations, will hit America's streets in the
next decade. John DiIulio, the Brookings Institute fellow who co-wrote the book with
William Bennett and John Walters, calls it a multi variate phenomenon,  meaning that
child abuse, the high number of available high-tech guns, alcoholism and many other
factors feed the problem. University of Pennsylvania professor Mavin Wolfgang says, 6
percent to 7 percent of the boys in an age group will be chronic offenders, meaning they
are arrested five or more times before the age of 18. If that holds true, because there
will be 500,000 more boys ages 14 to 17 in the year 2000 than there were in 1995, there
will be at least 30,000 more youth criminals on the streets. Between 1990 and 2010, there
will be 4.5 million more boys, yielding 270,000 young criminals. The big destruction
happens early, Heritage Foundation fellow Pat Fagan says. By the age of 4 or 5, the kid
is really warped. Psychologists can predict by the age of 6 who'll be the
super-predators. According to Fagan: Child abuse and alcohol ruin these children. But the
groundwork was laid three decades ago with the widespread adoption of birth control,
which made the sexual revolution possible. It altered people's dedication to their
children and altered a fundamental orientation of society. Sexual morality got unanchored
in the 1960s, followed by the legalization of abortion. Abortion is a very definite
rejection of the child. So is out-of- wedlock births, as well as divorce, he says. The
[predators]everyone' s afraid of were abused kids. There's sexual abuse and alcohol, and
just the general decline in the cultural knowledge of what love is.  In 1950, for every
100 children born, he says, 12 had divorced parents or were born out of wedlock. In 1992,
that number had quadrupled to 60 children for every 100 born. Throw abortion into the
mix, and the number shoots up to 92 per 100. (4) John Dilulio asserts that each
generation of crime-prone boys has been about three times as dangerous as the one before
it. And, he argues, the downhill slide into utter moral bankruptcy is about to speed up
because each generation of youth criminals is growing up in more extreme conditions of
moral poverty than the one before it. Mr. Dilulio defines moral poverty as growing up
surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults in abusive, violence-ridden,
fatherless, Godless, and jobless settings. The super-predator, as told to a Washington
press gathering by DiIulio, is a breed of criminal so dangerous that even the older
inmates working their way through life sentences complain that their youthful
counterparts are out of control. He describes these teen criminals as radically
present-oriented. Because their time horizon may be as short as the next guard's shift,
they have no capacity to defer gratification for the sake of the future. When these
super- predators were asked by DiIulio or other inmates if they would commit their crimes
again, most answer, Why not? DiIulio also says, they are radically self-regarding
incapable of feeling joy or pain at the joy or pain of others. (7) According to Dilulio,
today's juvenile super-predators are driven by two profound developmental defects. They
are radicallypresent-oriented, perceiving no relationship between action and
reaction--reward or punishment--and they are radically self-regarding. Nothing is sacred
to them. They live only for what brings them pleasure and a sense of power, placing zero
value on the lives of their victims. Ultimately, concludes Mr. Dilulio, only a return to
religion will restore to youth the sense of personal responsibility that leads to moral
behavior. He cites a growing body of scientific evidence from a variety of academic
disciplines that indicates that churches ameliorate or cure many severe socioeconomic
ills. Let [the liberal elite] argue church-state issues...all the way to the next funeral
of an innocent kid caught in the crossfire, he says. Our guiding principle should be,
`Build churches, not jails'--or we will reap the whirlwind of our own moral bankruptcy.
(5) DiIulio's super predators are born of abject moral poverty, which he defines as: The
poverty of being without loving,capable, responsible adults who teach you right from
wrong. It is the poverty of being without parents, guardians, relatives, friends,
teachers, coaches, clergy and others who habituate you to feel joy at others' joy, pain
at others' pain, happiness when you do right, remorse when you do wrong. It is the
poverty of growing up in the virtual absence of people who teach these lessons by their
own everyday example, and who insist that you follow suit and behave accordingly. In the
extreme, it is the poverty of growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal
adults in chaotic, dysfunctional, fatherless, Godless, and jobless settings where drug
abuse and child abuse are twins, and self-respecting young men literally aspire to get
away with murder. Scholars who study drugs and crime are only now beginning to realize
the social consequences of raising so many children in abject moral poverty. The need to
rebuild and resurrect the civil society (families, churches, community groups) of
high-crime, drug-plagued urban neighborhoods is not an intellectual or research
hypothesis that requires testing. It's a moral and social imperative that requires doing
- and doing now. (9) It can be assumed -quite logically- by the lay person that the super
predator is actually a young psychopath or psychotic. While these terms have become
largely interchangeable, thanks in large part to Hollywood, there are distinct
differences between the psychopath, the psychotic, and the Super Predator. British
Columbia Psychologist Robert Hare, has done some ground breaking research into the study
of psychopaths and has found that psychopaths tend to underutilize regions of the brain
that integrate memories and emotions. These findings helped support long held theories
that the destructive nature of psychopaths were neurobiological in nature. But, aside
from the neurobiological aspects of psychopathic behavior: The psychopath knows right
from wrong; they are quite often charming, glib and impulsive individuals. They often
brag about grandiose life ambitions, but often lack the skills or the discipline to
achieve their goals. Psychopaths are easily bored and crave immediate gratification. It
has been found that psychopaths, quite often, have very high intelligence quotients. When
caught in a lie, the psychopath will shift blame, or switch topics with no apparent
embarrassment. They do not form deep or meaningful relationships, and often end up
hurting people who get close to them. While they are intellectually aware of societies
rules, they feel no guilt when they break them. (8) While many of the aspects described
above fit the profile of the Super Predator, there are some important differences.
Thesuper predator are almost completely without ambition, they are often of below average
intelligence, and they do not recognize -intellectually or otherwise- any rules of
society. While psychopaths and the super-predator both share the inability to feel
emotion, the psychopath can feign it to achieve a result, the super predator seems
completely incapable of even that. More interestingly, the super predator is remarkably
candid. They will more often than not, admit not only to their crimes, but as to the why,
and as to the fact that they did nothing wrong and would do it again. Psychopathy does
not always -in fact quite the contrary- manifest itself in criminality. In fact, a
psychopath could be a highly functioning and highly successful individual in society. In
contrast, the super predator lacks the intelligence or the maskingcapabilities of the
psychopath to achieve success outside of the criminal world. (9) The super predator is
not psychotic. Psychotics are largely out of touch with reality. They suffer from
delusions, hallucinations,or other disordered states. They are often found not guilty of
crimes they commit by reason of insanity. (8) Today, especially in the inner cities,
children, in the age ranges of 5 to 9 yrs of age, are all to often left to their own
devices. They spend much of their time hanging out on the streets or soaking up violent
TV shows and violent rap music, they have easyaccess to guns and drugs, and can be
extremely dangerous. By the year 2005 they will be teenagers--a group that tends to be,
in the view of Northeastern University criminologist James Alan Fox, temporary
sociopaths.... impulsive and immature.'' There are currently 39 million children under 10
in the U.S., more than at any time since the 1950s. This is the calm before thecrime
storm, says Fox. So long as we fool ourselves in thinking that we're winning the war
against crime, we may be blind sided by this bloodbath of teenage violence that is
lurking in the future. Nearly all the factors that contribute to youth crime
-single-parent households, child abuse, deteriorating inner-city schools - are getting
worse. At the same time, government is becoming less, not more, interested in spending
money to help break the cycle of poverty and crime. (6)---Some Statistics On The Rise Of
Juvenile Crime. * The number of juvenile murderers tripled between 1984 and 1994.*
Youthful murderers using guns increased four-fold over the same period.* Juvenile gang
killings have nearly quadrupled between 1980 and 1992.* In 1994, eight in ten juvenile
murderers used a firearm, up from five in ten in 1983.* The number of juveniles murdered
increased 82 percent between 1984 and 1994. * The nationwide juvenile arrest rate for
violent crimes increased 50 percent between 1988 and 1994. [ Source: U.S. Dept. Justice,
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency More Statistics ]* Over the next ten years,
the population of 14 to 17 year olds will grow 23 percent, and the current generation of
juveniles has already brought us the worst juvenile crime rates in recorded history.*
Since 1965, the juvenile arrest rate has more than tripled, and over the last ten years
the homicide rate has more than doubled among 14 to 17 year olds.* During the 1980s, the
white juvenile crime rate grew twice as fast as the black juvenile crime rate, and from
1983 to 1992, the arrest rate for murder grew 166 percent among blacks, but also grew 94
percent among whites. The increasing juvenile murder rate coincides with an increase in
stranger murders, suggesting juvenile predators are less discriminating in their targets.
* While in the past most murders occurred between family members and friends, the FBI
recently reported that 53 percent of homicides are committed by strangers.* Stranger
murders are now four times as common as killings by family members.* Perpetrators of
stranger murders have a better than 80 percent chance of not being punished. Source:
Andrew Peyton Thomas (Assistant Attorney General for Arizona)--- Local police,
prosecutors, and inner-city preachers know that the kids doing the violent crimes are
more impulsively violent andremorseless than ever. For instance, Philadelphia District
Attorney Lynne Abraham who sits on the Council on Crime in America, speaks of the
frightening reality of elementary school kids who pack guns instead of lunches. Likewise,
Dan Coburn, a former Superior Court Justice and Public Defender in New Jersey, recently
wrote that This new wrote horde from hell kills, maims, and terrorizes merely to become
known, or for no reason at all. These teens have no fear of dying and no concept of
living. Even maximum-security prisoners agree. When asked by Diiulio what was triggering
the explosion of violence among today's young street criminals, a group of long- and
life-term New Jersey prisoners did not voice the conventional explanations such as
economic poverty or joblessness. Instead, these hardened men cited the absence of people
- family, adults, teachers, preachers, coaches- who would care enough about young males
to nurture and discipline them. In the vacuum, drug dealers and gansta rappers serve as
role models. I was a bad-ass street gladiator, one convicted murderer said, but these
kids are stone-cold predators. (10) Even more shocking than the sheer volume of violent
juvenile crime is the brutality of the crime committed for trivial motives: apair of
sneakers, a jacket, a real or imagined insult, a momentary cheap thrill. For example:
---* A 59-year-old man out on a morning stroll in Lake Tahoe was fatally shot four times
by teenagers looking for someone to scare. The police say the four teenagers - just 15
and 16 years old - were thrill shooting. * A 12-year-old and two other youths were
charged with kidnapping a 57-year-old man and taking a joy ride in his Toyota. As the man
pleaded for his life, the juveniles shot him to death. * A 14-year-old boy was murdered
while trying to reclaim a $2,500 stereo system he had received from his grandfather. Five
juveniles, ranging in age from 15 through 17 years, were charged with the crime.
(10)---Profiles In every community, roughly 2 percent of the juvenile offender population
is responsible for up to 60 percent of the violent juvenile crime. Only 25 to 35
juveniles in every 100,000 members of the population will engage in criminal activity
that matches the Serious Habitual Offender pattern. Based on criteria developed by the
Reagan team at the Department of Justice, this means that 0.03 percent to 0.04 percent of
all juveniles between 14 and 17 years old will be SHOs. A profile of a Serious Habitual
Offender was collected from data collected and analyzed by the Reagan Administration team
at the U.S. Department of Justice in the 1980s presents a graphic portrait of the serious
habitual offender: The typical SHO is male, 15 years and six months old. He has been
arrested 11 to 14 times, exclusive of status offenses, and five times for felonies. He
comes from a dysfunctional family; and in 46 percent of cases, at least one of his
parents also has an arrest history. He has received long-term and continuing social
services from as many as six different community service agencies, including family,
youth, mental health, social services, school, juvenile, or police authorities, and
continues to drain these resources for years before he is finally incarcerated as a
career criminal. The typical SHO's family history follows a classic pattern of social
pathologies: 53 percent of his siblings also have a history of arrest; and in 59 percent
of these cases, there is no father figure in the home. The absence of a father is
particularly destructive for boys; only 2 percent of SHOs are female. Furthermore, 68
percent of these offenders have committed crimes of violence, 15 percent have a history
of committing sex crimes, and 51 percent have a reported missing or runaway record. If a
broken family characterized by physical or sexual abuse is an early indicator of criminal
behavior, then virtually all of these serious habitual offenders fit this category. These
findings are consistent with the Heritage Foundation's widely reported analysis of the
true root causes of violent crime, particularly the crimogenic conditions associated with
broken or dysfunctional families. (10) ---* SHOs do not consider the crimes they have
committed to be all that bad.* Forty-five percent are gang members, 64 percent associate
with other serious habitual offenders, and 75 percent abuse drugs. --- Recent studies
show that illegal drug use among the young is on the rise and a significant majority of
all present day SHOs-Super Predators- use or sell illegal drugs and often become addicted
themselves. Illegal drug use and alcohol abuse tend to be regular features of their
criminal conduct. Drugs, in particular, are part of the criminal scene of these juvenile
offenders, and the use and sale of drugs contributes significantly to a SHO's other
criminal activity. The need to purchase illegal drugs, combined with the warped hedonism
of the addict, shapes and drives much of the criminal activity of this class of
criminals. Conclusion: Juvenile crime and violence is on the rise. Many criminologists
are calling it an epidemic, a ticking time bomb, the calm before the storm and a long
descent into night, you choose the cliche'. The reasons for this rise in teen crime seems
to have its roots not so much in poverty as it does to poverty of values. Experts like
John DiIulio and James Q.Wilson believe that the cure lies in a renaissance of personal
responsibility, and a reassertion of responsibility over rights and community over
egoism. There is definitely a need for more study on the new breed of teen criminal -the
Super Predator- But we don't need yet another library full of jargon-riddled criminology
studies to tell us what the Roman sages knew: what society does to children, children
will do to society. While most in the education as well as the psychological fields
blanch Whenever the terms values, church, responsibility, andfamily, are bandied about.
But the inescapable reality is that since the sixties, when these terms were castigated
and relegated to being quaint, we have witnessed an incredibly fast and pernicious rise
in the types of pathologies that have accompanied the decline of the family structure.
While I am by no means a religious zealot, it seems to me that government has been a poor
substitute for the family and the church in teaching basic core values. Government
certainly has a role to play financially, but the strictures and the applications of any
type of largess need to come from Community leaders or clergy members who have a real
stake in the community. While it is tragic that there seem to be a large number of lost
youths mired in a life of crime and violence, the safety of thecommunity, especially the
children in the community, should be the primary concern. While I agree with John
DiIulio, that we need more churches, I also feel that if more jails need to be built to
house young thugs, build them. If children as young as 7, 8, or 9 yrs of age need to be
incarcerated like adults, do it. While this may seem harsh, I believe that it is the only
way to prevent further decay. With harsher enforcement of laws towards violent minors
enforced, attention can be paid to addressing the ills that create the problem; family
decay. More attention needs to be paid to the people who actually live in the communities
affected. We must deal with this problem ofthe super predator teen thug swiftly and
harshly, before it's too late to save the children in danger of falling in with or
becoming victims of crime themselves
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