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A Murderer at Age Ten, a Model Citizen at Age 20 In 1995 Brandon Roses, a ten-year-old, became Oregon’s youngest murder defendant when he shot and killed his sister Charlotte with his father’s hunting rifle. Two reporters followed Brandon and his family for a year to tell their story of the past ten years. ++++++++++ Seven-year-old Boy Beat His Infant Sister to Death In Tampa, Florida a seven-year-old-boy who beat, kicked and punched his 7-month-old half sister and hit her in the face with a 2 by 4 has not been charged with murder. Prosecutors say he couldn’t form the intent to commit crimes. He has been placed in foster care. In a New York Times article, a Boston college professor is quoted as saying that since 1976, on average; about six children under the age of 10 have committed murder or nonnegligent homicide each year in the United States. ++++++++++ Violent Kindergarteners This article from TIME Magazine online deals with a new and growing trend, the violence of very young children in the classroom. Neither teachers, administrators or school systems are prepared to deal with five and six year olds like the 6-year-old girl who screamed, knocked over her desk, then crawled under the teacher’s desk, kicking it and dumping out the contents of the drawers. Next she stood up and began hurling books at her terrified classmates who were ushered from the room to safety. Neither she nor the other kids described in this article are considered emotionally disturbed. Many experts believe they are witnessing the result of a number of social trends all coming together: - parents working long hours,
- kids spending more time in day care,
- rising academic pressure in the early grades,
- exposure to violence in the media, and
- everyone in the family too tired to have the kind of relationships that build social skills.
++++++++++The Link The Link is a publication of CWLA (Child Welfare League of America ) that links juvenile justice and child welfare. It is an electronic quarterly publication and is available online. Click on the link above to go to the Link and its past issues as well as to sign up to be notified when new issues are published. The latest issue (Fall/Winter 2004) profiles the ACE (All Children Excel) program in St. Paul, Minn., a multi-system intervention for young delinquents – youthful offenders age 10 and under. ACE uses volunteer attorneys and judges who tutor and present positive adult role examples for ACE children. It uses private sector budget practices that combine the resources of multiple county departments and shift the emphasis from input to outcomes. ++++++++++ Child Delinquency: Early Intervention and Prevention Another in a continuing series of bulletins from OJJDP on very young delinquents, those kids who are referred to court before the age of 13. Defines the very young offender. Identifies effective and promising prevention and intervention programs that help reduce the incidence of delinquency while offering significant cost savings to society. Some key findings from the report: - The number of child delinquents (juveniles between the ages of 7 and 12) handled in the nation’s juvenile courts has increased 33 percent over the last decade.
- Child delinquents are two to three times more likely to become serious, violent, and chronic offenders than adolescents whose delinquent before begins in their teens.
19 page pdf file. ++++++++++ The Incredible Years Training Series – Juvenile Justice Bulletin describes a training series designed to prevent, reduce, and treat conduct problems among children ages 2 to 10 to increase their social competence. From the Bulletin, “A growing number of children are experiencing conduct problems – aggression, non compliance and defiance – and at earlier ages. Because these problems may be predictive of delinquency, violence, and other antisocial behavior, escalating aggression in preschool and elementary school children is a particular cause for concern. The series has been the subject of a quality evaluation and attained overall high ratings. This Bulletin presents an overview of the series. 23 pages. Downloadable. ++++++++++ Delinquency in the Very Young OJJDP’s Study Group on Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders, in research conducted in the 1990s, concluded that youth referred to juvenile court for their first delinquent offense before age 13 are far more likely to become chronic offenders than youth first referred to court at a later age. OJJDP convened a Study Group on Very Young Offenders in 1998. It found evidence that some young children engage in very serious antisocial behavior and identified several important risk factors that may be related to the onset of early offending. A new series of bulletins, The Child Delinquency Bulletin Series, is drawn from the Study Group’s final report (published by Sage Publications as Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention and Service Needs in December 2000). - Treatment, Services, and Intervention Programs for Child Delinquents, the first of the series, presents information about and programs for delinquents under the age of 13. 15 page pdf file.
- Some of the earliest work on young delinquents was done in Hennepin County ( Minneapolis ), Minnesota . Click on this link to read about the Delinquents Under 10 Targeted Early Intervention Program and its evaluation. Scroll midway down the page to click on “Delinquents Under 10…” and the bullet below it for the evaluation report.
++++++++++ Prevalence and Development of Child Delinquency OJJDP has released this, the second of a series of bulletins on Child Delinquency. The series provides the reader information about very young offenders between the ages of seven and twelve who present a unique challenge to the juvenile justice system. These kids are at greater risk of becoming serious offenders and they are more likely than older delinquents to continue their delinquency over extended periods of time. 8 pages. downloadable. 8 ++++++++++ OJJDP’s Third Child Delinquency Bulletin This new bulletin addresses Risk and Protective Factors of Child Delinquency. This bulletin focuses on four types of risk and protective factors: Individual, Family, Peer, and School and Community. 16 pages. Downloadable pdf. All of the Bulletins in this series are derived from the final report of the Child Delinquency Study Group, Child Delinquents: Development, Intervention, and Service Needs.
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