BrownMenacing Media Verses Raging Teens
...epresentatives have shifted blame to not only the children but also their parents and guardians. Those same representatives label the children as unable to be rehabilitated criminals and the parents as unfit. These labels not only lead to criminal problems but inhabitable living environments for the charged and or convicted. The worst punishment or lesson is public embarrassment that stays with the individual longer than the trial or punishment itself. Ninety percent of all situations that stipulate violence from youth offenders are attributed to violent programming and music, better censorship would correct the problem. A more analytical person might deduce that many crimes committed are copycat crimes reported in the news and various media. Programming such as reality television, court TV, and the news may be a more definitive cause for the increase in imitation crimes. Due to the nature of these programs, anything that is deviant by society’s standards will be publicized and used to boost ratings and popularity. Compare the 1985postal massacre to the Colorado, Mississippi (), and Oregon () school shootings. Prior to the incidents, all the offenders are considered normal healthy individuals who were not dangerous. However, they still committed the horrendous acts of murder and violent assault. These acts were not acts that where described on video games, movies, or in music; however, they were sensationalized in local and national news. This media is the same faction that has declared other television programs as a contributory factor of the deviant behaviors of others to divert responsibility. Lawmakers have, concluded that it is the parent and guardian’s fault that juveniles commit crimes. It is assumed that if there are strict financial and criminal penalties, parents will strive to prevent their children from committing crimes. Would not it be safe to determine that if youth of our past did not commit crimes at such high rates or of the magnitudes as youths of today, then it should be a social problem as much as it is a parenting problem? When something happens that is socially deviant, the issue gets national and international press. By doing this society has sought to glamorize deviance along with crime and ostracize positive issues by making them so sublime that they appear invisible behind scandals. Positive things are put aside to boost television ratings. Newspapers have no regard for the things they print and will rashly print a story without complete coverage but will discreetly print a retraction in such a way that it’s hardly noticed. Education personnel feel as though it is not their job to care about what society has labeled a delinquent or menacing child, instead they place them in remedial classes and/or place them on prescription drugs. Police code society, make stops, and arrest based on prejudice which is causing a lack of communication and developing a stigma with the younger population, especially minorities. If society contends that parents need to go on trial then you must also place the other social contributors on trial. It is often stated as a defense for poor policy that you have to start somewhere, but this start should not be considered a means to an end. Like the tobacco industry, many other industries need to be held financially liable for their individual contribution to child delinquency. There should be criminal charges for neglect of duty, instead of sovereign immunity and excusable neglect ...