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Study on Juvenile Psychopaths
What is the "super predator"? He or she are young hypercriminals
who are committing acts of violence of unprecedented coldness and brutality.
This newest phenomena in the world of crime is perhaps the most dangerous
challenge facing society and law enforcement ever. While psychopaths are
not new, this breed of super criminal exceeds the scope of psychopathic
behavior. They are younger, more brutal, and completely unafraid of the
law. While current research on the super predator is scarce, I will
attempt to give an indication as to the reasons a child could become just
such a monster.
Violent teenage criminals are increasingly vicious. John DiIulio,
Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, says
that "The difference between the juvenile criminals of the 1950s and those
of the 1970s and early 1980s was the difference between the Sharks and the
Jets of West Side Story and the Bloods and the Crips. It is not
inconceivable that the demographic surge of the next ten years will bring
with it young criminals who make the Bloods and the Crips look tame." (10)
They are what Professor DiIulio and others call urban "super predators";
young people, often from broken homes or so-called dysfunctional families,
who commit murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping, and other violent acts.
These emotionally damaged young people, often are the products of sexual or
physical abuse. They live in an aimless and violent present; have no sense
of the past and no hope for the future; they commit unspeakably brutal
crimes against other people, often to gratify whatever urges or desires
drive them at the moment and their utter lack of remorse is shocking.(9)
Studies reveal that the major cause of violent crime is not
poverty but family breakdown - specifically, the absence of a father in
the household. Today, right now, one-fourth of all the children in the
United States are living in fatherless homes - this adds up to 19 million
children without fathers. Compared to children in two parent family homes,
these children will be twice as likely to drop out of school, twice as
likely to have children out of wedlock, and they stand more than three
times the chance of ending up in poverty, and almost ten times more likely
to commit violent crime and ending up in jail. (1)
The Heritage Foundation - a Conservative think tank - reported
that the rise in violent crime over the past 30 years runs directly
parallel to the rise in fatherless families. In every state in our country,
according to the Heritage foundation, the rate for juvenile crime "is
closely linked to the percentage of children raised in single-parent
families. And while it has long been thought that poverty is the primary
cause of crime, the facts simply do not support this view. Teenage
criminal behavior has its roots in habitual deprivation of parental love
and affection going back to early infancy, according to the Heritage
Foundation.
A father's attention to his son has enormous positive effects on a
boy's emotional and social development. But a boy abandoned by his father
in deprived of a deep sense of personal security, In a well-functioning
family," he continued, "the very presence of the father embodies
authority" and this paternal authority "is critical to the prevention of
psychopathology and delinquency." (2)
On top of the problem of single parent homes, is the problem of
the children whose behavioral problems are linked to their mothers' crack
use during pregnancy. These children are reaching their teenage years and
this is "a potentially very aggressive population," according to Sheldon
Greenberg, director of Johns Hopkins University's Police Executive
Leadership Program. What's more, drug use has more than doubled among 12-
to 17-year-olds since 1991. "The overwhelming common factor that can be
isolated in determining whether young people will be criminal in their
behavior is moral poverty," Greenberg says. (3)
According to the recently published "Body Count: Moral Poverty . .
. and How to Win America' s War Against Crime and Drugs," a new generation
of "super-predators, " untouched by any moral inclinations, will hit
America's streets in the next decade. John DiIulio, the Brookings
Institute fellow who co-wrote the book with William Bennett and John
Walters, calls it a "multi variate phenomenon, " meaning that child abuse,
the high number of available high-tech guns, alcoholism and many other
factors feed the problem. University of Pennsylvania professor Mavin
Wolfgang says, "6 percent to 7 percent of the boys in an age group will be
chronic offenders, meaning they are arrested five or more times before the
age of 18." If that holds true, because there will be 500,000 more boys
ages 14 to 17 in the year 2000 than there were in 1995, there will be at
least 30,000 more youth criminals on the streets. Between 1990 and 2010,
there will be 4.5 million more boys, yielding 270,000 young criminals.
"The big destruction happens early," Heritage Foundation fellow
Pat Fagan says. "By the age of 4 or 5, the kid is really warped.
Psychologists can predict by the age of 6 who'll be the super-predators."
According to Fagan: Child abuse and alcohol ruin these children. But the
groundwork was laid three decades ago with the widespread adoption of
birth control, which made the sexual revolution possible. It altered
people's dedication to their children and altered a fundamental
orientation of society. Sexual morality got unanchored in the 1960s,
followed by the legalization of abortion.
"Abortion is a very definite rejection of the child. So is out-of-
wedlock births, as well as divorce," he says. "The [predators] everyone' s
afraid of were abused kids. There's sexual abuse and alcohol, and just the
general decline in the cultural knowledge of what love is. " In 1950, for
every 100 children born, he says, 12 had divorced parents or were born out
of wedlock. In 1992, that number had quadrupled to 60 children for every
100 born. Throw abortion into the mix, and the number shoots up to 92 per
100. (4)
John Dilulio asserts that "each generation of crime-prone boys has
been about three times as dangerous as the one before it." And, he argues,
the downhill slide into utter moral bankruptcy is about to speed up
because each generation of youth criminals is growing up in more extreme
conditions of "moral poverty" than the one before it. Mr. Dilulio defines
moral poverty as "growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and
criminal adults in abusive, violence-ridden, fatherless, Godless, and
jobless settings."
The "super-predator", as told to a Washington press gathering by
DiIulio, is a breed of criminal so dangerous that even the older inmates
working their way through life sentences complain that their youthful
counterparts are out of control. He describes these teen criminals as
"radically present-oriented". Because their time horizon may be as short
as the next guard's shift, they have no capacity to defer gratification
for the sake of the future. When these "super- predators" were asked by
DiIulio or other inmates if they would commit their crimes again, most
answer, "Why not?" DiIulio also says, they are "radically self-regarding
incapable of feeling joy or pain at the joy or pain of others." (7)
According to Dilulio, today's juvenile super-predators are driven
by two profound developmental defects. They are radically present-oriented,
perceiving no relationship between action and reaction--reward or
punishment--and they are radically self-regarding. Nothing is sacred to
them. They live only for what brings them pleasure and a sense of power,
placing "zero value on the lives of their victims."
Ultimately, concludes Mr. Dilulio, only a return to religion will
restore to youth the sense of personal responsibility that leads to moral
behavior. He cites a growing body of scientific evidence from a variety of
academic disciplines that indicates that churches ameliorate or cure many
severe socioeconomic ills. "Let [the liberal elite] argue church-state
issues...all the way to the next funeral of an innocent kid caught in the
crossfire," he says. "Our guiding principle should be, `Build churches,
not jails'--or we will reap the whirlwind of our own moral bankruptcy."
(5)
DiIulio's "super predators" are born of abject "moral poverty,"
which he defines as: The poverty of being without loving, capable,
responsible adults who teach you right from wrong. It is the poverty of
being without parents, guardians, relatives, friends, teachers, coaches,
clergy and others who habituate you to feel joy at others' joy, pain at
others' pain, happiness when you do right, remorse when you do wrong. It
is the poverty of growing up in the virtual absence of people who teach
these lessons by their own everyday example, and who insist that you
follow suit and behave accordingly. In the extreme, it is the poverty of
growing up surrounded by deviant, delinquent, and criminal adults in
chaotic, dysfunctional, fatherless, Godless, and jobless settings where
drug abuse and child abuse are twins, and self-respecting young men
literally aspire to get away with murder.
Scholars who study drugs and crime are only now beginning to
realize the social consequences of raising so many children in abject
moral poverty. The need to rebuild and resurrect the civil society
(families, churches, community groups) of high-crime, drug-plagued urban
neighborhoods is not an intellectual or research hypothesis that requires
testing. It's a moral and social imperative that requires doing - and
doing now. (9)
It can be assumed -quite logically- by the lay person that the
"super predator" is actually a young psychopath or psychotic. While these
terms have become largely interchangeable, thanks in large part to
Hollywood, there are distinct differences between the psychopath, the
psychotic, and the Super Predator.
British Columbia Psychologist Robert Hare, has done some ground
breaking research into the study of psychopaths and has found that
psychopaths tend to underutilize regions of the brain that integrate
memories and emotions. These findings helped support long held theories
that the destructive nature of psychopaths were neurobiological in nature.
But, aside from the neurobiological aspects of psychopathic behavior: The
psychopath knows right from wrong; they are quite often charming, glib and
impulsive individuals. They often brag about grandiose life ambitions, but
often lack the skills or the discipline to achieve their goals.
Psychopaths are easily bored and crave immediate gratification. It has
been found that psychopaths, quite often, have very high intelligence
quotients. When caught in a lie, the psychopath will shift blame, or
switch topics with no apparent embarrassment. They do not form deep or
meaningful relationships, and often end up hurting people who get close to
them. While they are intellectually aware of societies rules, they feel no
guilt when they break them. (8)
While many of the aspects described above fit the profile of the
"Super Predator", there are some important differences. The "super
predator" are almost completely without ambition, they are often of below
average intelligence, and they do not recognize -intellectually or
otherwise- any rules of society. While psychopaths and the "super-
predator" both share the inability to feel emotion, the psychopath can
feign it to achieve a result, the "super predator" seems completely
incapable of even that. More interestingly, the "super predator" is
remarkably candid. They will more often than not, admit not only to their
crimes, but as to the why, and as to the fact that they did nothing wrong
and would do it again.
Psychopathy does not always -in fact quite the contrary- manifest
itself in criminality. In fact, a psychopath could be a highly functioning
and highly successful individual in society. In contrast, the "super
predator" lacks the intelligence or the "masking capabilities" of the
psychopath to achieve success outside of the criminal world. (9)
The "super predator" is not psychotic. Psychotics are largely out
of touch with reality. They suffer from delusions, hallucinations, or other
disordered states. They are often found not guilty of crimes they commit
by reason of insanity. (8)
Today, especially in the inner cities, children, in the age ranges
of 5 to 9 yrs of age, are all to often left to their own devices. They
spend much of their time hanging out on the streets or soaking up violent
TV shows and violent rap music, they have easy access to guns and drugs,
and can be extremely dangerous. By the year 2005 they will be teenagers--a
group that tends to be, in the view of Northeastern University
criminologist James Alan Fox, "temporary sociopaths.... impulsive and
immature.''
There are currently 39 million children under 10 in the U.S., more
than at any time since the 1950s. "This is the calm before the crime
storm," says Fox. "So long as we fool ourselves in thinking that we're
winning the war against crime, we may be blind sided by this bloodbath of
teenage violence that is lurking in the future." Nearly all the factors
that contribute to youth crime -single-parent households, child abuse,
deteriorating inner-city schools - are getting worse. At the same time,
government is becoming less, not more, interested in spending money to
help break the cycle of poverty and crime. (6)
--- Some Statistics On The Rise Of Juvenile Crime.
* The number of juvenile murderers tripled between 1984 and 1994.
* Youthful murderers using guns increased four-fold over the same
period.
* Juvenile gang killings have nearly quadrupled between 1980 and 1992.
* In 1994, eight in ten juvenile murderers used a firearm, up from
five in ten in 1983.
* The number of juveniles murdered increased 82 percent between 1984
and 1994.
* The nationwide juvenile arrest rate for violent crimes increased 50
percent between 1988 and 1994.
[ Source: U.S. Dept. Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
More Statistics ]
* Over the next ten years, the population of 14 to 17 year olds will
grow 23 percent, and the current generation of juveniles has already
brought us the worst juvenile crime rates in recorded history.
* Since 1965, the juvenile arrest rate has more than tripled, and over
the last ten years the homicide rate has more than doubled among 14 to
17 year olds.
* During the 1980s, the white juvenile crime rate grew twice as fast
as the black juvenile crime rate, and from 1983 to 1992, the arrest
rate for murder grew 166 percent among blacks, but also grew 94
percent among whites. The increasing juvenile murder rate coincides
with an increase in "stranger murders," suggesting juvenile predators
are less discriminating in their targets.
* While in the past most murders occurred between family members and
friends, the FBI recently reported that 53 percent of homicides are
committed by strangers.
* "Stranger murders" are now four times as common as killings by
family members.
* Perpetrators of stranger murders have a better than 80 percent
chance of not being punished.
Source: Andrew Peyton Thomas (Assistant Attorney General for Arizona)
---
Local police, prosecutors, and inner-city preachers know that the
kids doing the violent crimes are more impulsively violent and remorseless
than ever. For instance, Philadelphia District Attorney Lynne Abraham who
sits on the Council on Crime in America, speaks of the frightening reality
of elementary school kids who pack guns instead of lunches. Likewise, Dan
Coburn, a former Superior Court Justice and Public Defender in New Jersey,
recently wrote that "This new wrote horde from hell kills, maims, and
terrorizes merely to become known, or for no reason at all. These teens
have no fear of dying and no concept of living."
Even maximum-security prisoners agree. When asked by Diiulio what
was triggering the explosion of violence among today's young street
criminals, a group of long- and life-term New Jersey prisoners did not
voice the conventional explanations such as economic poverty or
joblessness. Instead, these hardened men cited the absence of people -
family, adults, teachers, preachers, coaches- who would care enough about
young males to nurture and discipline them. In the vacuum, drug dealers
and "gansta rappers" serve as role models. "I was a bad-ass street
gladiator," one convicted murderer said, "but these kids are stone-cold
predators." (10)
Even more shocking than the sheer volume of violent juvenile crime
is the brutality of the crime committed for trivial motives: a pair of
sneakers, a jacket, a real or imagined insult, a momentary cheap thrill.
For example:
---
* A 59-year-old man out on a morning stroll in Lake Tahoe was fatally
shot four times by teenagers "looking for someone to scare." The
police say the four teenagers - just 15 and 16 years old - were
"thrill shooting."
* A 12-year-old and two other youths were charged with kidnapping a
57-year-old man and taking a joy ride in his Toyota. As the man
pleaded for his life, the juveniles shot him to death.
* A 14-year-old boy was murdered while trying to reclaim a $2,500
stereo system he had received from his grandfather. Five juveniles,
ranging in age from 15 through 17 years, were charged with the crime.
(10) ---
Profiles
In every community, roughly 2 percent of the juvenile offender
population is responsible for up to 60 percent of the violent juvenile
crime. Only 25 to 35 juveniles in every 100,000 members of the population
will engage in criminal activity that matches the Serious Habitual
Offender pattern. Based on criteria developed by the Reagan team at the
Department of Justice, this means that 0.03 percent to 0.04 percent of all
juveniles between 14 and 17 years old will be SHOs.
A profile of a Serious Habitual Offender was collected from data
collected and analyzed by the Reagan Administration team at the U.S.
Department of Justice in the 1980s presents a graphic portrait of the
serious habitual offender: The typical SHO is male, 15 years and six
months old. He has been arrested 11 to 14 times, exclusive of status
offenses, and five times for felonies. He comes from a dysfunctional
family; and in 46 percent of cases, at least one of his parents also has
an arrest history. He has received long-term and continuing social
services from as many as six different community service agencies,
including family, youth, mental health, social services, school, juvenile,
or police authorities, and continues to drain these resources for years
before he is finally incarcerated as a career criminal.
The typical SHO's family history follows a classic pattern of
social pathologies: 53 percent of his siblings also have a history of
arrest; and in 59 percent of these cases, there is no father figure in the
home. The absence of a father is particularly destructive for boys; only 2
percent of SHOs are female. Furthermore, 68 percent of these offenders
have committed crimes of violence, 15 percent have a history of committing
sex crimes, and 51 percent have a reported missing or runaway record.
If a broken family characterized by physical or sexual abuse is an
early indicator of criminal behavior, then virtually all of these serious
habitual offenders fit this category. These findings are consistent with
the Heritage Foundation's widely reported analysis of the true root causes
of violent crime, particularly the crimogenic conditions associated with
broken or dysfunctional families. (10)
---
* SHOs do not consider the crimes they have committed to be all that
bad.
* Forty-five percent are gang members, 64 percent associate with other
serious habitual offenders, and 75 percent abuse drugs. ---
Recent studies show that illegal drug use among the young is on
the rise and a significant majority of all present day SHOs -"Super
Predators"- use or sell illegal drugs and often become addicted themselves.
Illegal drug use and alcohol abuse tend to be regular features of their
criminal conduct. Drugs, in particular, are part of the criminal scene of
these juvenile offenders, and the use and sale of drugs contributes
significantly to a SHO's other criminal activity. The need to purchase
illegal drugs, combined with the warped hedonism of the addict, shapes and
drives much of the criminal activity of this class of criminals.
Conclusion:
Juvenile crime and violence is on the rise. Many criminologists
are calling it an epidemic, a ticking time bomb, the calm before the storm
and a long descent into night, you choose the cliche'. The reasons for
this rise in teen crime seems to have its roots not so much in poverty as
it does to poverty of values. Experts like John DiIulio and James Q.Wilson
believe that the cure lies in a renaissance of personal responsibility,
and a reassertion of responsibility over rights and community over egoism.
There is definitely a need for more study on the new breed of teen
criminal -"the Super Predator"- But we don't need yet another library full
of jargon-riddled criminology studies to tell us what the Roman sages
knew: what society does to children, children will do to society.
While most in the education as well as the psychological fields
blanch Whenever the terms values, church, responsibility, and family, are
bandied about. But the inescapable reality is that since the sixties, when
these terms were castigated and relegated to "being quaint", we have
witnessed an incredibly fast and pernicious rise in the types of
pathologies that have accompanied the decline of the family structure.
While I am by no means a religious zealot, it seems to me that government
has been a poor substitute for the family and the church in teaching basic
core values. Government certainly has a role to play financially, but the
strictures and the applications of any type of largess need to come from
Community leaders or clergy members who have a real stake in the community.
While it is tragic that there seem to be a large number of "lost
youths" mired in a life of crime and violence, the safety of the community,
especially the children in the community, should be the primary concern.
While I agree with John DiIulio, that we need more churches, I also feel
that if more jails need to be built to house young thugs, build them. If
children as young as 7, 8, or 9 yrs of age need to be incarcerated like
adults, do it. While this may seem harsh, I believe that it is the only
way to prevent further decay. With harsher enforcement of laws towards
violent minors enforced, attention can be paid to addressing the ills that
create the problem; family decay.
More attention needs to be paid to the people who actually live in
the communities affected. We must deal with this problem of the "super
predator" teen thug swiftly and harshly, before it's too late to save the
children in danger of falling in with or becoming victims of crime
themselves.
---
Bibliography
1- Ethnic NewsWatch © SoftLine Information, Inc., Stamford, CT
2- F.R. Duplantier, The Importance Of Fathers 08-16-1995, HERITAGE
FOUNDATION HOME PAGE
3-Worsham, James-Blakely, Stephen-al, et, Crime and drugs.., Vol. 85,
Nation's Business, 02-01-1997, pp 24.
4-Julia Duin, Alarm over crime puts focus on nation's `moral crisis'.,
The Washington Times, 11-17-1996, pp 31.
5-Parker, Shafer, Violence with a youthful face.., Vol. 23, Alberta
Report /Western Report, 06-17-1996, pp 27.
6- Richard Zoglin Reported By Sam Allis/Boston And Ratu Kamlani/NEW
YORK,CRIME: NOW FOR THE BAD NEWS: A TEENAGE TIME BOMB., TIME,
01-15-1996, pp 52+.
7-NINA J. EASTON, The Crime Doctor Is In; But Not Everyone Likes Prof.
JohnDiIulio's Message: There Is No Big Fix; Home Edition., Los Angeles
Times, 05-02-1995, pp E-1.
8-Paul Kaihla, NO CONSCIENCE, NO REMORSE. MACLEAN's 1/22/96
9- William J. Bennett, John J. DiIulio, Jr., and John P. Walters BODY
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