News Limited, Australia
11-24-07
Americans face up to criminal young
By: Stefanie Balogh IN NEW YORK
THREE American boys, aged nine and eight, face court in shackles and blue
prison jumpsuits accused of rape and kidnap.
An 11-year-old boy, as a part of a gang, allegedly savagely bashes an off-duty
policeman and his girlfriend on the Gold Coast.
Is violence by the very young on the rise? And do child criminals who commit
heinous acts understand right from wrong?
Debate has raged for years about when a child can be held legally responsible
for breaking the law.
The world was in disbelief 14 years ago when British toddler James Bulger was
shown on chilling security footage being led hand-in-hand to his death by 10year-olds Jon Venables and Robert Thompson.
This week in the small US town of Acworth, just outside Atlanta in Georgia, three
boys who could barely see over the courtroom table fronted the Cobb County
Juvenile Court in restraints, accused of kidnapping and raping an 11-year-old girl.
The boys, two aged nine and one aged eight, are being held in the Marietta
Regional Youth Detention Centre in Acworth while the court decides how to
proceed.
Acworth Police Chief Michael Wilkie believes there is a credible case against the
boys for sexual assault. But because of their ages they cannot be charged with
felony offences. Cobb County District-Attorney Pat Head says that, instead, they
may be tried for delinquent acts and face up to five years in a juvenile detention
centre if the allegations are proved.
Lawyers in the Acworth case have been gagged from discussing it, but it comes
at a time when Australia is facing soaring crime rates among the very young.
In Queensland, the latest police annual statistical review this week revealed a
disturbing snapshot of violent young thugs.
Children aged between 10 and 14 were responsible for 1106 counts of assault,
297 charges of sexual assault, 149 counts of robbery, 164 weapons offences and
34 charges of kidnapping/abduction in the past financial year.
These juveniles were also behind 11,630 property offences and a further 556
crimes involving drugs.
As the case of the 11-year-old was before a Gold Coast court this week, the US
was dealing with the question of how two nine-year-olds and an eight-year-old
allegedly could rape a playmate in the woods behind a working-class apartment
complex in Acworth.
Leading US juvenile criminal justice expert Matt DeLisi, an associate professor
of sociology at the Iowa State University, says he does not believe the
Acworth case has sent shockwaves through America because crime by the
young is prevalent.
``This kind of stuff happens,'' he says.
``While it's not really very common, it happens with enough frequency that
Americans are somewhat desensitised to it. Unfortunately, just about every week
we are able to find a new event of some horrible violent act a young defendant
has committed.''
Professor DeLisi is the director of the Iowa State University's criminal justice
program and has written several books on juvenile delinquency. He agrees the
ages of the accused young rapists ``is kind of exceptional'' and ``usually it is 10
to 14''.
But he says such crimes are ``still common enough'' that it leads people to ask
what is wrong with society and what is being done to address the problems.
The Acworth allegations, he says, are likely to revive the debate about whether
the young are innocent or if they really are young criminals, and how the justice
system should deal with them.
In most states in the US, the criminal age of responsibility is 14.
He says the issue goes to what to do with younger children.
``The justice system is in kind of a difficult position in terms of the statute. They
might not be able to file the charges that maybe they deserve.''
Professor DeLisi is in no doubt that the young do understand when they do
wrong but says they may not comprehend the long-term consequences.
Compelling research exists, he says, to show that children as young as seven
can exhibit measurable and identifiable personality traits of psychopathic
behaviour.
``They also have more than a little bit of an idea of what they were doing.
``In the short term, at least, they know what they were doing was wrong and they
had a desire commit an offence against a person.
``Now whether they appreciated the long-term effects of that, that's debatable. In
the short term these kids knew what they were doing, I'd say absolutely,'' he
says.
DeLisi says there is a need for an integrated look at the reasons why the young
offend, including social and environmental factors such as the breakdown in
family and communities, in tandem with psychological and personality traits.
He cites the ``Super-Predator'' research in 1995 by US criminologist Professor
John J. Dilulio Jr which suggested the breakdown of families in impoverished
areas contributed to juvenile criminal behaviour.
``The idea got a lot of attention but was vilified by academics who felt he was
playing on racial issues because super-predator kids were going to be
disproportionately black and Hispanic,'' DeLisi says.
``As it kind of turns out, 13 years later there's something to it.''