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Many politicians argue that the best solution to the problem of teen violence is to crack down on violent teenage criminals. They also want to build more prisons to arrest the teens for a longer time period. With that they want to protect society from the violent youths.
But the answer to the juvenile violence problem is not to wait for such violence to occur and then lock up the kids and throw the key away. The solution is to prevent such violence from taking place.
Neglect and abused children have an increased risk of commiting violence. Therefore there is a home visitation program. Because of that program people visit children who are at risk of abuse or neglect and they control the parents. The OJJDP (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention) want to interrupt the cycle of violence in America.
But the kids who show us the first signs of trouble should also be controlled, because it is better to do something early than to wait until serious problems have occured.
Such signals are: running away, skipping school, or showing signs of abuse or neglect.
An example for prevention:
Rita Jacksen founded the Northeast Performing Arts (NEPA) in one of the poorest regions of the New York. It is a public house to which a lot of teens can come and where drama and dance classes are held. This was a good idea because more than 1200 youths attended that program and most of them attended college after that embarhed on a and some of them had got a successful arts career.
Now many other organizations have got a similar function and this organization bring teens away from violence and toward success.
The real challenge for America is not to how many jails we can build, but how many kids we can save!!
Books:
1.) Teen Violence: This book is by Scott Barbour and it is about teen violence in America. The book informs the reade about the causes teen violence and how teen violence can be reduced. The book gives answers to a lot of other questionsof this topic.
2.) The Outsiders: This book is by S.E. Hinton. It is about two gangs who fight against each other. The one gang is called Greasers and the gang members are poor. The other gang is called socs. They are rich and they are bored. Because of that they drive into the area of the Greasers to look for people who they can beat down. Once Pony and Johny want to go home. But then the Socs appear and they want to beat Pony and Johny up. But Johny takes his knife and kills one of the Socs. Then they have to go away and they have got a lot of troubles.
3.) Among the thugs: This book is by Bill Buford, who is a journalist. He is an American and has lived in England since 1977. He is the editor of the literary magazine Granata.One day he decides to serach for the reasons of violence. He writes down his experiences in his book \"Among The Thugs\". This book is separated in 3 parts. Part one of the book deals with football hooliganism, part two tackles the promblem of nationalism, and part three deals again with football hooliganism.
4.) The Chocolate War: The author of this book is Rober Cormier. The book is about a boy who is called Renault and who attends a new school. In that school he is a freshmen and there he hast got several problems. One problem is a teacher who is called Brother Leon and who likes to bully his pupils. His second big problem are The Vigils. The Vigils is a secret club in that school and they force a lot of pupils to do certain things. And afterwards the pupils have got a lot of problems. Once The Vigils say that he isn't allowed to sell some chocolate boxes, which everybody has to do. In the end because of the Vigils he has got a fight with a stronger and more powerful boy. The main characters of the book are Renault, Brother Leon and Archie.
Articles:
1.) Murderer at 11: This article is about a 13 years old boy who is called Nathaniel Abraham. Two years ago he went out with a rifle and shot an innocent stranger. At the trail his lawyer said that he lacked the mental capacity to be held resonsibile for his actions. But he was convicted. Now he is the youngest American who is convicted as an adult.
The New York Times
Published: 18.11.1999
2.) What can we do?: This article is about the high school shootings and how the teachers can reduce the violent actions in schools. Therefore there is violence-prevention program founded which is called Second Step. And this program really works and because of the Second Step there have been less violent incidents in schools.
Life
Published: June 1999
3.) The Columbine Tape: This article is about Harris and Klebold, who planed a real massacre in ther school. They knew the other high school shottings in Oregon and Kentucky. But they wanted to do more than that. They wanted to kill at least 250 people. Harris and Klebold built three bombs and they bought some rifles. But the bombs didn't explode and therefore they "only" klilled 15 people.
Harris and Klebold had taken their plan of the massacre up on some video tapes and they did the shooting, beause they were full of rage and they wanted to become famous. They wanted that everyone remembers that day which they called their Judgment Day.
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