Troubled Teens Resources

There is teen crisis intervention for drugs, alcohol, sexual offenses and robbery. But there really isn’t a program that specifically addresses how to make a teen comprehend the value of a life. It seems sort of self-evident to most of us and in times past, teens understood that killing another human being was a serious line to cross. Not so much anymore.

“Researcher John DiIulio Jr. from the University of Pennsylvania talked of juvenile facilities where “the buzz of impulsive violence, the vacant stares and smiles, and the remorseless eyes were at once too frightening and too depressing”.

These are observations made in the nineties when it was predicted that a new type of teen criminal was on the rise, the “superpredators.” Well, they are emerging, not when predicted, but now, in the new century, when you would have thought that crime associated with out-of-control and troubled teens would have diminished.

“Corzine divides juvenile offenders into three groups — those who can turn their lives around, those who most closely resemble DiIulio’s superpredators, and those on the bubble. The superpredators, or violent repeat offenders, comprise less than 10 percent of juvenile criminals.

We could all agree to lock them up. But a state study indicates that for other young offenders, adult prisons may only make them more prone to become violent once released.

Getting too tough can turn a salvageable kid into a hardened felon.

But not getting tough enough can turn loose a superpredator who will blow away a store clerk for $35.”
(source)

Troubled teen boarding schools can play a very vital role in society. The juvenile justice system currently struggles with teens whose crimes are so severe that juvenile justice can not adequately address them. How many priors does a violent teen rack up before he finally takes his place amongst adult murderers and rapists? If boot camps or schools for troubled teens are an option, can the burgeoning teen criminal be diverted from more serious offenses?

“By the time they were facing serious time, many juvenile criminals had racked up records that included a string of dismissed charges, cases that were diverted to other programs, and convictions that drew no substantial prison time.

A few were juveniles such as Charles Rodriguez. His rap sheet began by age 11. A week after he turned 17, he fired a gun into a crowd and wounded four people. This year, at 21, he shot and killed a man in a jealous rage.

And then there was Antonio Rogers. Seventeen when he was put on probation for breaking his girlfriend’s jaw in 2004, in 2005, he shot and killed her. Afterward, he took his own life.”

(source)

When the justice system is so overwhelmed that they simply can not lock up or rehabilitate delinquents early in the game, those delinquents will keep re-offending until they finally commit the crime that will qualify them for life in an adult prison. Or kill them.