Media and Criminal Prevention for Teenagers

1Running head: MEDIA & CRIMINAL PREVENTIONS FOR

TEENAGERS

Media and Criminal Prevention for Teenagers. A Brief

Reflection about those Topics.

Ignacio L. Prieto

Universidad Metropolitana

ENG 116

Professor: Veronica Cruz


TEENAGERSMy personal history is very similar to any other Hispanic

people, who have had poor origins. That was why I decided to

be enrolled in a project against the issue, which more

affects to young people: the crime. We feel invaded by a lot

of news that youth is almost lost, because many young people

and teenagers are involved in criminality. For many people

the answer could be more punishments for any crime.

Nevertheless, I propose avoid that young people become in

criminal. I propose a really concrete policy of crime

prevention. But, to reach that goal, we need the support of

media. In this case, the behavior of those boys and girls

are being manipulated by the media and we can find a lot of

examples in United States only. The entertaining media is

seeking for to destroy the traditional values, as the

family. Also, they are introducing us reality shows, where

young people are fighting. Is this a really kind of

entertaining tv shows? Likewise, this issue is not only

affecting America. It has extended for many countries, and

one of them is Mexico, where the violence among young people


TEENAGERShas reached deplorable results. However, we have the case of

Germany, which has demonstrated the necessity of a media in

crime prevention. I state that always the prevention of any

crime will be the best option.


TEENAGERSI was born and raised in one of the most violent

neighborhood in Havana City. I remember the several times that I

was a non voluntary witness of some criminal offense. However,

and thanks to God, crime did not influence in my life, as it did

in others boys and girls of my neighborhood. The topic about the

crime became a passion for me, and that is why I decided to

enroll in the cause against that. Nevertheless, I have

comprehended that the enforcement to crime is more effective when

Government and authorities face it, before crime happens. I mean,

prevent it.

Normally, criminals start their wrong vocation when they are

very young. As a matter of fact, when they are barely teenagers.

Recently, the situation of young people involved in offenses is

really alarming. In the United States only, one third of young

people, less than twenty three years old have been arrested at

least once in their lives in 2011 (Duell, 2011). Another example

is that homicides are the third cause of deaths in people between

ten and twenty four years old, and about 4800 people are killed

every year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). I


TEENAGERScould mention more tragic data, but I would not like to bother my

readers any longer.

Unfortunately, the violence and criminality among young

people is not an isolated case in America. This issue is

affecting many others countries in the world. We always have a

why, as a question, but the answer is not so simple. It is right

that poverty and the lack of experience in this period of life

are relevant causes (Duell, 2011), but not the only ones. In

fact, we are living in a truly different era to any other before.

It is real and correct to say that we enjoy a lot of inventions

and technology, as the internet. Nevertheless, the Internet era

is not totally easy and good. It is a big challenge, because we

have to deal with the influence of the media and many people are

not prepared for that.

My personal perception about this issue is what role is

playing the media, in the criminal prevention? Is it affecting or

not? In the case it were, this affectation, is positive or

negative? Could it change? Of course, those are many questions,

and probably those are not going to be absolutely covered.


TEENAGERSHowever, I can assure my readers that I am going to fill their

expectations. The solution of criminality is in our hands, and it

is not when a behavior is deviance, and individuals are adult. We

can prevent it, when they are just dreamy adolescents, and even

when they are still not criminals.


TEENAGERSI would like to explain about some concepts, which are going

to be very useful for my research. For example, what is crime? I

am absolutely convinced that people know what it is, but at the

same time ignore a technical definition. The Merriam-Webster

Dictionary defines it, as “an illegal act for which someone can

be punished by the government” (Merriam-Webster, Inc, 2014). This

simple definition stands out some important aspects inside the

concept of crime. Firstly, the act must be against the law, and

it does not matter if it is due to the will of the author or not.

The précised act is only enough.

Another issue is that this act is possibly punishable. Of

course, the punish, in our civilized society should not be

extremely harmful for the reo. This reo will have to have the

legal capacity to be punished. Finally, only the Government has

the authority to implement punishments to criminals. The private

action in this sense is considered as another crime. Back to the

legal capacity of reo, we notice that in this issue, there is a

relation with the age of the authors. Unbelievably, to my

surprise, I found out that in twenty three states there is not a


TEENAGERSminimum age to be presented as an adult in the criminal court,

and Florida is one of them (WGBH Educational Foundation, 2014).

It means that a teenager can be punished according to the

applicable laws for older people.

Must a teenager go to prison? My opinion is no. Once, he/she

is behind bars, society cannot do too much to recover him/her.

Many opportunities in life will be missed and the reparation of

the damages to themselves will cost a lot of years and sacrifices

to build, and even like this, it will not guarantee that it will

happen. Rather, I assume that the prevention of criminality,

specifically in young people, is the better option. For many

others authors and experts in criminal sciences field, government

should avoid a criminal process for teenagers, and they consider

to establish a federal minimum age more than seventeen years old

(Bowman, Hart, Lee, Montecalvo, & Wilcox, 2011).

However, what does crime prevention mean? In fact, it is a

recently release concept. An acceptable definition could be “the

anticipation, recognition and appraisal of a crime risk and the

initiation of some action to remove it” (The Catholic University


TEENAGERSof America, 2009). In other words, it is everything that people

and society can do to avoid the commission of a crime. Just

reflect about that. Whenever society avoids a crime, there will

be neither victims, nor criminals. That is why it is so relevant

the crime prevention, and the efforts of every social institution

to be driven to accomplish this goal.

Nevertheless, even when Governments and others social

institutions, like with religious structures, try to stop crimes,

statistics still show an increase in criminal acts. Many people

think that we are taking in violence as an intrinsic part of our

culture. Of course, this statement will just perpetuate the

violence. It is happening inside many homes, where justice cannot

reach, and many crimes and probable criminal tendencies are

hidden (Marshall University, n.d.). Unbelievable, but it looks

like, it is true.

The Media is trying all the time to capture the attention of

people in TV shows with a violent content. For example, we have

the reality shows, where it is very usual to find slaps, table

flips and fights between teenagers. One of them is “Teen Mom 2”,


TEENAGERSbroadcasted by the MTV. This show was the most watched on cable

television in just one night (Bonner, 2014). The most interesting

fact is that many people commented about the possible cancelation

of the TV show, because, some of its characters were involved in

criminal issues, specifically, related to violence. The most

famous issue was the case of Janelle Evans, just nineteen years

old, who was arrested, because she attacked another woman

(Canning & Stuart, 2014). Maybe, Reality Shows are becoming more

real. ABC News cites the comments of reality shows psychologist,

Stacey Kaiser, who stated being very concerned that “people’s

perception of reality is altered when they watch these shows”

(Canning & Stuart, 2014).

Apparently, this reached the top of the iceberg, but the

problem gets bigger. The “Teen Mom 2” is not the only TV Shows

that highlights the violence as a prize. The famous Brazilian

Christian family counselors Renato & Cristiane Cardoso (2013)

advise in their book, “Armored Marriage” the influence of Media

in the destruction of family and marriage. Personally, I could

summarize that, for those authors there is a complot against the


TEENAGERStraditional values, and the new culture in fact cannot deal with

that (Cardoso & Cardoso, 2013). Anyway, I personally recommend

the book.

Whether, we want it or not, the family as a social

institution is the first school for people, and if the family is

deplorable, of course the society will take the same route. About

those topics media recently has released a lot of TV shows. Those

are full of sarcastic critics against the family and, of a total

destruction of it. One example is the rated “Family Guy”.

Everything is reflected as the opposite that we would like our

families to be. Most likely, our teenagers are starting to assume

that idea by now, that their fathers are as insecure and

incompetent as Peter Griffith, but the dog has the most brilliant

mind in the house. Maybe, you perceive paranoia in my words, but

the message is very clear: traditional family should disappear.

The trouble is that; in absence of family, what are we going to

place?

This is the problem with the media; they do not have an

answer for my concerns. Rather, they prefer to entertain people


TEENAGERSwith a message of negation of actual values, but, instead of

those values, people can decide what to do. Maybe, it was the

reason, because two teenagers beat a eighty eight years old man,

who served in United States Army, during the World War II, last

year. This is the story of Delbert Belton, who could not escape

from a brutal attack of two young people (Howerton, 2013). If the

values, according to the media are under the criteria of people,

criminals are not going to be considered as that and their

attitudes must be accepted.

In addition, for teenagers it is truly normal the idolatry

of some people, of course famous people. According to Cherry,

criticizing the work of Erikson, teenagers need to develop a

sense of self (Cherry, n.d.), and many times, this identification

is going to be with other teenagers, even more, if they are

famous and wealthy. For media the deviant behavior of Miley Cyrus

is sensationalistic and it should be introduce to millions of

young people that probably are going to imitate her. Recently,

the case of Miley Cyrus is following the same and tragic destiny

of others fallen stars, just like Whitney Houston or Britney


TEENAGERSSpears. But, millions of girls are taking the same way of their

acclaimed idols.

In United States exists the perception that multiculturalism

is the cause of violence among teenagers. However, in others

socially homogenous countries the phenomenon is not so different,

but worse. This is the case of Mexico, sadly one of the most

violent countries in the world. The ferocity of Mexican cartels

of drugs is demonstrated when they recruit children as soldiers.

Many of them barely get to their twenty birthdays. According to

some researchers, in 2012, about 30 thousands of Mexican children

and teenagers served as assassins for the Mexican drug-dealers

mafia (Montalvo, 2012). A notorious case was about a fourteen

years old teenager, named “El Ponchis”, who was found guilty of

torturing and beheading of four persons (Montalvo, 2012).

Many other cases demonstrate that, those teenagers are

motivated to belong to criminal organizations, because they can

see the apparently wonderful lifestyle of those capos. Of course,

in soap operas capos are normally good men that defend the poor

people. The new season of “The Lord of the Heavens”, (El Señor de


TEENAGERSlos Cielos) and “The Capo”, both were produced by Mundo Fox, by

trying to empathized the good faces of those men. They have been

only the logic result of a corrupt system, and the criminality

was their only exit. In fact, they are not delinquent, but

heroes. Their lives are also inspiring a new musical genre in

Mexico: the “narcorridos” (Tostado, 2014).

Mexico’s’ example exposes that the multiculturalism is not

the cause of violence. Moreover, other multicultural societies

have accomplished to fight effectively against the criminality

and violence. One of those countries is Germany, in Central

Europe. According to US Department of State, this nation has been

assessed to have a “Low-Medium” rating of criminality within the

most important cities (United States Department of State, 2013).

The most common crimes are shoplifting; bicycles theft, and theft

of parts of vehicles (United States Department of State, 2013).

Violent crimes in the country has fallen to -2% and only an

estimated of 0.24% of population have been victims of those types

of crime (United States Department of State, 2013).


TEENAGERSThe Ministry of Interior in Germany has been confirming for

years that the rate of criminality among young people has

decreased by 6.9% in 2011 (Deutsche Welle, 2014). The branch

Minister has stated that this reduction of criminality in

Germany, including the youth criminality is an “excellent record

for police officers” (Deutsche Welle, 2014). The answer to this

situation, very contrary to United States and Mexico, could be

the role of Government to eliminate the social inequality and the

integration of immigrants to German society. The Government has

been concerned with those issues and with that, many programs of

prevention have been created. Teenagers and young adults between

the ages of 12 to 27 are encouraged to participate in those

programs, to try to reduce the violence inside the family;

increase equal opportunities and involve the parents in those

social projects (Federal Office for Migration and Refugees,

2014).

But of course, in United States and probably in Mexico,

people enjoy similar social programs, and the criminality,

specifically among young people is still alarming. For example,


TEENAGERSin United States, we have the Children and Family Department, and

locally, a lot of programs and social agencies. Just in Tampa Bay

area, and in relation to immigrant integration, there are

Lutherans Services Florida; Catholic Charities; Hispanic Council

Services, and more. All of them work, from the social perspective

to reduce the poverty and to motivate the young people to study

and be socially inserted. But Germany, perhaps, has advanced to a

higher stage. Government has encouraged media to prevent crime

and to avoid some types of violent sports to be broadcasted on

television (Mick, 2010). Of course, that prohibition may be seen

as a violation of human rights, freedom speech, and other civil

rights. But if the media does not go on to prevent criminality,

at least, it should not encourage others, and specifically young

people, to commit crimes.


TEENAGERSConclusions

Youth is a very critical period in the life of any man or

woman, but it is also beautiful. Personally, I am going to leave

it behind, soon. So, I will remember nostalgically many nice

moments, that I lived when I was a simple teenager, with the head

full of dreams and illusions. However, life is going to lead me

to another level, and it is my purpose to help others to help

guide their dreams and go further. In this moment, the situation

of criminality, and specifically, the violence among young

people, is growing more in our country, and maybe we have not

reflected enough about it.

Many people opine that the solution to this issue is to

build more prisons and to create more sever laws. Many people are

looking for a draconian state, where the punishments and torments

will stop the crime. The fear never conducts to any other thing,

more than a violent reaction. Fear is going to be the cause of

more violence. That is why I propose the prevention, as the most

effective, but the only, solution to this problem.


TEENAGERSApostle Paul wrote: “Love does not delight in evil but

rejoice with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always

hopes, always perseveres” (1st Corinthians 13:6-7, New

International Version). Prevention of crime is more than an

administrative or judicial act; it is more than a law. It is an

act of love. We care, if we love. In conclusion, we ought

preserve this world for the new generation; thus, let us give

them, better people.


TEENAGERS

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Media and Criminal Prevention for Teenagers

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