Child Criminality and Suicide II

We have received some interest in this article (it appears next as this jounal is published latest first) and wanted to clarify in more direct terms.

Criminality is defined as behaviours which do not conform to the laws of co-existence with others. This is a fundamental, for example you do take things which do not belong to you, and your property may thus be protected.

During childhood the self is pretty much the sphere of awareness. Thus, abuse to children can not be rationalised as the "other side of the story" does not yet exist. A prisoner is not affected by the fashion trends on the high street. An abused child can not shake it off.

We tend to strive for things which we believe we can attain. The abused child turns to crime due to basic human needs. Hunger is such a need.

But our society judges individuals and they become outcasts from the path that is like a map towards wealth and security. The long slippery path down is very hard to climb back up. So the earlier a life of crime begins, the harder it is to end. Like any habit based in childhood.

But as the child grows older and their sins against society become punishable, these "norms" of behaviour become maladjusted behaviour. The child solution of "running away" fails to work.

As society starts to close doors in the juvenile criminal, the odds become increasingly stacked against the young person finding a rationale that society can approve of, and criminality becomes a way of surviving and a trap.

The way out of this trap may be harder and harder to find.