Sunday, November 2, 2014

Myth of Delinquency #2: All juvenile delinquents have a history of “bad” or criminal behavior.

To catch up on what this is all about, read “Clarifying Beliefs About Juvenile Delinquency” to understand where this is all coming from and why. This myth is one that is really in the grey area of what may or may not be true. The focus, therefore, is more about factors that contribute to undesirable behaviors and how those may be inappropriately blown out of proportion or may lead to worse behaviors because of the over-reaching consequence.



Myth 2 – All juvenile delinquents have a history of “bad” or criminal behavior.
Respondents shared views that bring light to the motivation behind strict policies in schools. “Most juvenile delinquents crave boundaries, someone to care about them.” “They start their behavior long before they are caught.” The truth of these belief statements depends wholly on the individual child involved. However, the rampant acceptance of this belief statement as absolute truth has had dire consequences. With the idea that offenses are constantly occurring and stricter boundaries will stop behaviors before they get out of hand, policing in schools became the initiative-de-jour.
Zero tolerance policies were widely supported as a means to “crack down” on the misbehaviors occurring in schools. In theory, extremely strict discipline practices would keep kids from trying to test the boundaries of a more forgiving system. Unfortunately, little flexibility and room for administrative judgment calls led to a proliferation of injustices.
The examples are numerous. Dontadrian Bruce was suspended from Olive Branch High School in Mississippi for suspected gang activity based on one photo of him holding up three fingers to display his football jersey number (Ferrer, 2014). A 13-year-old boy was arrested in New Mexico for burping in class; this after being previously accused of selling drugs and “forced to strip to his underwear in front of five adults” (Cantor, 2011, para. 1). Also in New Mexico, a 7-year-old with autism “was allegedly handcuffed to a chair after getting upset in class” and another young girl was arrested for not wanting to “sit by the stinky boy in class” (Cantor, 2011, para. 2). Twelve-year-old, Alexa Gonzalez, was arrested in New York for drawing on her desk (Chen, 2010). Fourteen-year-old Kyle Thompson was led out of his Michigan school in handcuffs and is now spending a year under house arrest, punished for resisting to hand a note over to his teacher (Scholl, 2013). Malcom Calvert was arrested and charged with misdemeanor battery for playfully hitting his friend in the head with a Tootsie Pop on the school bus in Florida (Gonzalez, 2013). While the charges against Mr. Calvert were dropped, an arrest for battery remains on his record.
The U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, stated in a report released in January 2014, “A routine school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office, not a police precinct” (Rich, 2014, para. 9). With the belief that youth are inherently or merely already bad, initiatives to scare them straight have instead led to more complications.