A Teenage Drama Story

A familiar scene those trapped in the spiral.

A very grey area for those brave enough to touch it.  New Zealand teenage crime is simply put 'hot and cold' in terms of its analysis towards the actual crime and the result.  A lot of remorse every month is shown in news articles around the globe.  Although one could spend annually a passionate amount of time deeply looking into an issue that desperately cries attention,  I will summarize and squeeze in some food for the brain over five points that as you could imagine, boil my blood however, on the flip side provide at least some hope for a future that could be bleak for New Zealand residents.  Here's the line up folks let's have a look on what will be discussed.  First we will look at the evidence surrounding 'Respect or Simple Ignorance', progressing from there we will look to see if 'Punishment is Working' elaborating what was discussed previously.  We will then take a look to see if there is anything helping our situation through 'Technology Helps?' finishing off with the future with 'Grim and the silver lining'  As you could imagine although the negativity from those titles suggest I am aggressive, angry, upset etc I am not.  I have belief in humanity and hope for the better tomorrow.  However society and many other factors are pointing toward teenagers for the blame.  My burning question that continuously eats away inside is always:

Can we put blame on the kids or the process?


Let's dive in and have a look at what is going on in the world of teenage crime.

Respect or Simple Ignorance?

Does youth understand this consequence?

Beginning with, in many ways, the root of the problem. This is from what we can decipher from the articles and crimes shown publicy in many mediums.  Over the past few decades humanity conformed to a behaviour that in many ways people are complaining to bring back.  The behaviour in question is simply a high level of respect for the older age groups.  Although this has changed through many factors over time lets fast forward to today, in the article titled 'Teenage Girls Accused of Degrading Assault' we can see a clear example of unreasonable physical violence of girls as young as 13 years old.  Straight away we can also see that the stereotypical thought process is broken as most people truly believe that crimes are mostly committed by boys (a fact I will establish later).  Not convinced?  Maurangi Pere may convince you.  This teenager has not only proven an example reflecting lack of respect by 'bashing' 85 year old war veteran Eric Brady but has also committed many crimes totaling to 6 offenses!  One of them again holding a knife to 68 year old Queen Service Medal winner Limaono Kingi's stomach with a result of stealing the victims vehicle.  So what do we do next?  My question is how many examples do we need to bring to the table until this escalates from a problem to a nationwide embarrassment.  New Zealand in it's self has a lot of positives we can all agree.  For how long will depend on our nations future let look further into the issue at hand and find if our corrective punishment is working.

Punishment Is Working Right?

How can one punish a face like that?

One of the most difficult aspects when a teenager commits a crime it almost seems as though nothing is done.  Who takes responsibility?  More importantly where does the responsibility lay?  Although many efforts have been focused towards avoiding this cause, on a personal opinion, the crimes, as technology and ease of product access heightens, the harmful nature of the crimes increase.  However where is the line drawn?  As we can see it's not just New Zealand installing this belief in the next example.  Should a ten year old who kills his mother by accident be simply 'let go' in terms of his punishment.  It's very hard to determine the fabric of the case when a young life is involved.  It seems to be the most popular punishment set by the states from the articles investigated is simply almost a sort of 'long term' detention as you can see from my examples.  However is this fixing or just delaying the inevitable?  One the one side you have the victims caregivers crying justice and on the other side you have the assailant simply taking the ride without any sense of consciousness.  Although one would think the media portrays this so the reader generates a stereotypical response you can't help but think does the responsibility lay in the parents/caregivers?  Forgive me if this does come across where I almost want to bring back the 'chair' however something needs to be done.  I disagree with the death punishment with younger assailants however I feel the strictness of the punishment is too light.  More of our energy should focus towards the prevention of crimes.  Let's take a look and see how this is progressing.

So Technology Helps?

Nothing is safe even in the comfort of home

Although this may require further research, the examples I came across showed very little is being done to help the cause.  The use of simple technological upgrades simply won't cut it when it comes to dealing with people.  One would think rather than investing in technology the money should go to enriching experience sharing  to younger students.  A 'coach' if you will.  Although teachers are able to provide some of these experiences of the real world I feel as though something is missing as teachers sadly have a lot on their plate and are lightly invested in terms of salary/wages.  It takes a lot of work to look after groups of youth especially when dealing with difficult issues such as drugs, sexual activity and of course life in general.  For a teenager, experience is everything hearing it just simply does not cut it.  I feel a combination of technology and a role model would allow greater absorption of what could happen through experiences one can share.  However the technology introduced needs to be controlled.  As we can see crimes need not to be physical instead through the use of information highways even the quietest of youth can cause havoc.  Many examples sadly are drawing a very negative conclusion however is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

Our Future Is Looking Grim With A Silver Lining

Our future is determined on what we choose to do with the present

We are drawing near to an age where humanity will almost be fighting to get it's security back and peace of mind with normal functional society.  Crimes like this on any scale regardless of age, but more specifically towards teenagers, causes one to watch over their back in an age where we should be enjoying the peace some of our ancestors and loved ones fought so hard to attain.  Looking at the black and white we can see easily that indeed the crime is increasing dramatically in more ways than one.  Some of the key figures I can see in the first example is once again the break of stereotypical scenarios.  One stereotype is the ethnicity of the crimes committed in New Zealand.  In my first example there is factual evidence stating that majority of youth based crime was Maori ethnicity and European ethnicity combined with no real winner in counting so to speak.  Although Maori does indeed have less youths in New Zealand it does not necessarily mean that the crimes were committed by Maori.  We also can see the factual evidence stating (from the first example) that majority of crimes result in the 'state' system style of punishment (youth aid, warning etc).  Are we setting the example that because they are young they do not understand their actions?  Therefore concluding that once is okay, second is bad, third time around you might be in trouble.  As mentioned in previous points we should be focusing our attention towards the source of what is causing all this and providing real experience with a positive influence.  To emphasize this, according to other statistics we can see that a large portion of youth are either addicted to drugs/alcohol as well as not being enrolled in any education program.

The Ball Is In Our Court

To conclude we sadly are in a bad spot according to the examples above.  However the silver lining here is simply we are making it aware.  The first step is to make the right people aware this is an issue and New Zealand seems as though they have been trying.  In my last example we can see a 'no tolerance' approach to what has occurred from looting during riots.  Maybe this is partly an approach we should take a hint from.  I am not suggesting that we should make it simply 'tougher' however a consequence portrayed to the assailant should be clear, have a physical/mental component but then be backed up with positive controlled feedback which INCLUDES the parents.  Rather than spend this money on technology at school we should instead be focusing on a process like above to prevent the youths heading down a path of what seems to be no return.  New Zealand has a chance, will it take it?

References

Alarming figures on teenage crime - Crime - NZ Herald News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/crime/news/article.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10508994

Computers in schools could prevent youth crime - think tank | NATIONAL News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/computers-in-schools-could-prevent-youth-crime-think-tank-4314433

Drink-drive killer avoids jail - National - NZ Herald News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10712004

Family support for devastated parents of slain teen - National - NZ Herald News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10742138

Police: 10-year-old boy in custody after mother is killed - CNN.com. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://edition.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/03/ohio.boy.shooting/index.html

Statistics tag the teenage offenders - National - NZ Herald News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10456222

Teen basher's crime spree - National - NZ Herald News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10610485

Teenage girls accused of degrading assault - National - NZ Herald News. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10745633

Teenage hacker linked to crime gang hired by New Zealand telecoms company - Telegraph. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5047287/Teenage-hacker-linked-to-crime-gang-hired-by-New-Zealand-telecoms-company.html

UK riots: Teenage 'looters' arrested in raids after spotted on CCTV | Mail Online. Retrieved August 24, 2011, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2025927/UK-riots-Teenage-looters-arrested-raids-spotted-CCTV.html