How to Deter Juvenile Crime-Week 7-Mar 7th, 2011

This week’s readings and film viewings greatly opened my eyes to the role the media plays in public policy. In the film, Student Threats of Violence, many facts presented demonstrate acts of violence by juveniles have rapidly declined during the 1990s. I believe that we need to study these trends and truly understand the reason that these positive trends emerge. Student Threats of Violence states “economic opportunity and stability led to more jobs being created for juveniles” (2008). I believe that jobs help deter juveniles from engaging in criminal activity. Boredom can lead to mischief, and when youths are employed this boredom is cut down tremendously. I also believe that jobs can instill a sense of pride within youths which will serves as deterrence to crime. Too much focus is put on combating crime, instead of focusing on creating positive social/economic situations. This negative approach is also the reason that prisons are more focused on containment rather than rehabilitation.


I believe that we need to monitor and regulate the media more. I highly support freedom of speech but the majority of Americans use media outlets for the attainment of information. The news outlets must worry about ratings and this is the reason that scare tactics are so prevalent throughout newscasts. The news outlets of the 1990’s painted juveniles as evil, malice human beings. These repeated reports forced the older generation to fear the younger generation. This was done in order to increase the amount of people that watch the news. While these scare tactics are good for business, they will often negatively affect public policy. Increased anti-juvenile legislation can emerge as a result of scare tactics and this can lead to the youth resenting the older generation. This resentment can destroy social capital and crumble communities.


Works Cited

1.Films for the Humanities and Sciences."As American as Public School: 1900-1950" 2000. Online video clip. Arizona Universities Library Consortium. FMG Video On Demand. Accessed on 28 February 2011.http://digital.films.com/play/ P7J4SF

2.Research Channel (Producer) (2008, February 21). Student Threats of Violence. [Youtube video].Retrieved February 28, 2011 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cXiK0A43Xk4

3.Wright, & Fitzpatrick (2006). Social capital and adolescent violent behavior: Correlates of fighting and weapon use among secondary school students. Social Forces, 84(3), 1435-1453.