if most children and teens accused of rape, murder, school violence, and kidnapping have possible links with untreated mental orders

if most children and teens accused of rape, murder, school violence, and kidnapping have possible links with untreated mental orders

The rate of youth’s involvement in the crime in the US has been on the rise in the last decade. The juveniles are not only committing minor offenses, but they are also involved in severe crimes which face harsh sentence. The serious crimes that have been on the rise among the youth include murder, drug trafficking, school violence, rape, and kidnapping. For instance, in 2016, 25 percent of the rape cases were committed by juveniles. In 2018, 34 percent of the rape cases were reported to have been committed by minors. According to research, male youths have a higher percentage of committing crimes more than girls. Most juvenile crimes are committed by minors in their teenage, though there some cases which involve children under the age of 10 years. This has led several researchers to conduct studies to find the drivers towards the increasing juvenile delinquency in society. Most of the researches has linked juvenile delinquency to mental disorders, indicating that children with mental disorders are three times likely to commit a violent crime like sexual assaults and robbery. This paper researches if most children and teens accused of rape, murder, school violence, and kidnapping have possible links with untreated mental orders.

Several mental disorders have been greatly linked with violent delinquency. If the conditions are not treated, they may lead to children involved in crimes. As a result, parents, teachers, and guardians must be able to identify the disorders to facilitate treatment. This paper analyzes different mental disorders to establish the connection between mental disorders and juvenile delinquency in society

Depression

Depression is a mental disorder that involves the persistent feeling of loss of interest and sadness. This is a disorder that is common among teens, and it affects their behavior. Signs of depression include loneliness, challenging thinking, making decisions, and concentration. Children with severe depression often have recurrent suicidal thoughts and attempts. Depression in juveniles can result from bullying in schools and home, unsupportive parents, family conflicts, among others.

In the US, school shootings have been on the rise. Though the number of shootings differs from researchers, there is a clear connection between the killings and depression. Many psychologists argue that depressed students do most of the shootings. Teenagers are faced with many challenges, like balancing schooling and social life, leading to depression. As stated above, depression affects thinking and decision-making ability. Considering that many of them have suicidal thoughts, they may decide to do revenge or perish with many other people. This is why most of the high school shooters usually commit suicide immediately after engaging in the crime. For instance, in Great Mills High School, a 17-year student killed a female student whom they had a previous relationship with before shooting himself.

Likewise, in other crimes, depressed children feel that they have nothing to lose, because already their life is miserable. As a result, they do not believe that going to jails or committing suicide will have any impact on their life. At teenage, children are aware of the sentences associated with various crimes. For instance, murder would involve life sentence without an option of parole. Despite knowing all these, they proceed to commit the crimes, and once arrested, they confess they committed the crime.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe mental disorder that involves people interpreting reality abnormally. It is highly associated with hallucinations, disordered thinking, and delusions. The illusions and dilutions make Schizophrenia patients hear unknown voices, which are believed to persuade them towards behaving in a particular way. People with this condition have unpredictable behaviors, and they change moods quickly. At one point, they are interactive, and they turn violent in the next moment.

Most Schizophrenia students commit crimes to people they spent time with, and there is a low probability they would commit the crimes. For instance, there are many cases involving children who were murdered, raped, or injured by friends or siblings who previously had not shown any signs of committing crimes. It is rare for a healthy person whom you have spent more than ten years together just to wake up one day and rape you. In case such activity occurs, there is a high probability that the criminal was suffering schizophrenia. After most Schizophrenia victims commit the crimes, they tend to regret what they have done and what caused them to do it. This is because their minds were not working regularly. Because their behaviors are unpredictable, it is always advisable to respond quickly to their behavior changes.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a mental disorder of the neurodevelopmental type. This disorder is characterized by a lack of attention, excessive activity without thinking about the consequences of the actions. Children with these conditions usually show antisocial or violent behaviors as they grow up, which increases their probability of engaging in crimes. Minors with this condition tend to use more energy in committing crimes. Such crimes are sometimes confused to unintentional crimes. Research conducted by Mordre et al. concluded that untreated ADHD patients were prone to committing serious crimes like homicide and sexual assaults than children without mental illness.

From the above discussion of mental disorders related to crime, it is clear that they are linked to crime in one way or another. Mental disorders distract a person’s ability to make a decision, and thus they may react violently when they distracted. Healthy children have a higher capacity to think and analyze the consequences associated with crimes critically. A good example is observable when two children, one with mental disorder and the other without being bullied in the streets. In this case, the juvenile with mental disorder will respond violently and may use excess force, concluding leading to crime commitment. On the other hand, the child without a mental illness will be bullied but not react. Though the person may energetic to respond violently or protect himself but his ability to weigh the consequences associated with a violent response.

Conduct disorder, which I can categorize a broad representation of abnormal behaviors associated with other mental illness behaviors, has dramatically supported research linking mental disorders with juvenile crime. Many people who examined this disease claim that reactions associated with mental illnesses are persistent and they keep on repeating themselves. At childhood, some children react violent while others do not. In schools, there are children who despite of being punished many times, they continue to bully other students. In such a case, there must be something abnormal with the child because nobody enjoys punishment. A research by Heather et al. found that 90 percent of juvenile criminals showed symptoms relatable to conduct disorder.

Causes of antisocial behaviors in juveniles

Family conflicts

In their initial stages of development, children imitate most of activities from their parents. If their parents are always in conflict and violent encounters, the children develop a mentality that they violence is a survival means and thus if they are invoked, they respond through violence. According to research, many children from violent families act also violent in schools than children from cool families. Likewise children who observe forced sexual encounters between their parents are likely to engage in rape cases at a teenage.

Movies and video games

The kind of movies and play games that children watch and play in teenage can determine their behaviors. Huesmann argued that high percentage of children who watch violent movies are more violent in reality and they are likely to engage in crime. As children’s mind is growing, they are likely to believe that is how people are supposed to live, and they must protect themselves through violence. Likewise children who play violent video games in most instances want to transform what is in the pictures into reality.

Substance abuse

Substance use has been greatly linked to violence and antisocial behaviors. Juveniles who start abusing drugs at early years tend to be more violent than children who do not use drugs. Continuous use affects the cognitive activities and as a result, drug users and addicts tend to make inappropriate decisions.

Untreated mental disorder, substance abuse and juvenile delinquency

Over the years, there have been increased researches on the relationship between substance abuse and mental disorders. The researches have had controversial conclusions on answering whether it is substance abuse that leads to mental disorder or mental disorder that leads to substance use. Numerous studies have established that children diagnosed with mental disorders at young age and not treated are likely to develop substance use disorder at early ages. Mariani and Francis established that children with independent ADHD disorder are at a high risk of engaging into drugs and this leads to drug abuse. This leads to combination of two disorders known as co-occurring disorders. This is occurrence of a mental illness and substance use disorder. Though drug use and addiction can occur at any point of life, it is commonly among teens when they start facing different challenges in their life. At this point, they have to deal with sexual desires, education and social life like peer pressure. Also, at teenage, this is where mental disorders symptoms like violence begin to show. This can explain why it is in high schooling where much bullying occurs. Many youths turn to substance use and abuse to help solve their mental disorders like depression. Borden and Fergusson argued established that many people with depression tend to abuse alcohol as a way of coping with depression.

Substance use has been known for its impact on the brain. It impairs judgement and making decision leading them towards committing crime. Some studies show that substance use only can stimulate crime commission. This is supported by researches which indicate that co-occurring disorders have individual impacts on individual behaviors. Though mental illness is linked to violent behaviors, its combination with substance use increases the chances of a juvenile engaging in crime. For instance, most people who commit homicide and rape are under the influence of substances despite having existing mental disorder.

Mental disorder diagnosis in juveniles

Weird and violent behaviors are mainly used to establish that children have mental disorders. The symptoms can be observed at early age while most of them are observed at teenage about ten to seventeen years. However, parents, guardians, teachers instead of seeking treatment immediately, they assume and use other ineffective methods to handle children with the disorders. In young age, when a child exposes violent behaviors, they are punished instead of a parent seeking psychology treatment. For instance, juveniles who are repeat similar violent behaviors even after punishment each time should aid to establish that a child has a mental disorder. Normal children would not repeat a specific behavior which they are certain they will be punished. Some mental disorders like depression may not literally be accompanied by violent behavior at their initial stages, however, in their severe stages, violence becomes a key feature.

Mental Disorder and Violent behavior interventions in children

As stated above, sign most symptoms of mental disorders are observable at teenage. The actors (parents, teachers and guardians) must outline various violent behaviors associated with mental disorders that can result to crime in the society. For instance, suicidal thoughts and attempts should be taken with seriousness, because that is an indicator that the child makes impaired decisions and in future he may decide to commit a crime like homicide.

Though mental illnesses go on untreated and because children to commit serious crimes in their late teenage, if treated earlier, it may help a child to evade crime in future. There are several methods that have effectively that effectively can help to solve this serious societal problem of violent behavior in children. The first strategy is counselling. Instead of punishing a child when he or she wrongs, it is good to organize counselling for such children. In counselling, the children learn to cope with angers as they progress with the sections; they learn the importance of forgiveness and reasoning before reacting. Counselling also helps children with strange behaviors to develop responsible behaviors. Psychopharmacotherapy has been useful in helping children with even those with severe mental disorders including schizophrenia. The therapies can be conducted either in schools, families or in public places like hospitals.

Second, the public established programs by the juvenile criminal justice system have also been helpful to children with mental disorders involved in crime. Several states and districts have established programs to help juvenile delinquents improve their mental skills. Early Offender Program (EOP) was a program established in Michigan by Michigan probate court in 1985. Children aged 13 years and below who are recorded by the police for violent behaviors benefit from the program. The interventions include individual treatment plans, therapy groups and short-term detention. The program has proved to be successful the high percentage of children does not engage in crimes after the interventions. A similar program in Hennepin County in Minnesota named Minnesota Delinquents Under 10 Program has also been successful in helping children quit violent behaviors.

Conclusion

According to research, there is much linkage between mental disorders and juvenile delinquency in the society. Children with existing mental conditions like depression, Schizophrenia, ADHD and Conduct Disorder have high probability of showing violent behaviors and engaging in serious crimes when compared to children with normal cognitive functioning. There are various factors which promote to children’s violent behaviors. They include substance use and addiction, family conflicts and watching violent movies and playing violent games. Also, this study established that there is great connection between co-occurring disorders and juvenile delinquency. Lastly, the two most used methods to treat children with mental disorders and those with violent behaviors are community established programs and counselling sections in a family and schools.