I have been doing alot of research on this lately and have wondered why Generation X people did alot of violent crime when they were juveniles. For example, I was watching Frontline: When Kids Get Life the other day and it profiled five Colorado inmates serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles. All of these men were born between 1977 and 1981. Also, 1993 was called the "summer of violence" as juvenile homicides were way up at that time. Is there any reason to explain why people born in the 70s did so many henious crimes as juveniles? The whole reason that laws making stiffer punishments for juveniles possible is because of these juveniles doing all this crime in the 90s.

5 people is way too small of a sample size to say that people of x year range commit more crime of y year range. Tho I can't cite the source, I seem to recall that violent crimes, when averaged across the nation (US), per 100,000 people, have been dropping steadily for the last 20 years.

Ant

5 people is way too small of a sample size to say that people of x year range commit more crime of y year range. Tho I can't cite the source, I seem to recall that violent crimes, when averaged across the nation (US), per 100,000 people, have been dropping steadily for the last 20 years.

Ant





I think the crime rate is similar... although I'd have to say a bit higher now, but the media coverage is heavier now, which is why I think you never see children riding their bikes or playing at the park without parents present.  It definitely seemed like a safer world back when I was growing up.

You may be right about the crime rate itself, but there was supposedly alot of fear of juvenile predators in the 90s, which is why they passed those laws.

I think the crime rate is similar... although I'd have to say a bit higher now, but the media coverage is heavier now, which is why I think you never see children riding their bikes or playing at the park without parents present.   It definitely seemed like a safer world back when I was growing up.


I would leave on my bike on Saturday morning, not a word about where I was going or when I might be back.  If I wasn't going to be back for supper and there was a phone available, I might call home to say not to wait for me at supper.  I could return at dusk.  Wash up for dinner.  The subject of what I did that day might come up.  It might not.  I was a child in a very safe small New England town.  Everybody knew where everybody else lived.  We had a built-in safety net.  At several points in the course of a day we would run into somebody who knew us and knew our parents.  If the boys went missing, the forensics were easy.  "Uh-yuh, last I heard they said they were heading up to Cemetery Hill.  Uh-yuh, I told 'em, 'You stay outta trouble now, y'hear?'"
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Anyway, it was never so safe for city kids.  Rich or poor (but poor far more than rich) parents worried when their kids left home.  It was a dangerous world out there.  The world outside the home wasn't scary to me, the world inside the home...that's another story!
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I have been doing alot of research on this lately and have wondered why Generation X people did alot of violent crime when they were juveniles. For example, I was watching Frontline: When Kids Get Life the other day and it profiled five Colorado inmates serving life without parole for crimes committed as juveniles. All of these men were born between 1977 and 1981. Also, 1993 was called the "summer of violence" as juvenile homicides were way up at that time. Is there any reason to explain why people born in the 70s did so many henious crimes as juveniles? The whole reason that laws making stiffer punishments for juveniles possible is because of these juveniles doing all this crime in the 90s.


I really can't tell you first hand, but my brother was a straight shooter and he was pretty much a teen in the early-mid 90s.  There was a lot of movies that came out though that try to sell that teenagers were nothing but thugs, such as Dangerous Minds, High School High, 187, etc...

A kid would shoot somebody at school maybe once every twenty years.  It happened about eight times in the 1990s culminating in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. 

When my generation was growing up divorce was rampant.  The "Leave It To Beaver" era was over.  We often lacked appropriate socialization, character, and know-how to make our way through life.  The difference between me and the Columbine kids is a never had a gun and a never wanted to hurt anybody. 

The chances of psychopathology increase when you raise a kid on video games, Schwarzeneggar movies, and pornography, well, they might choose more violent solutions.
:o

A kid would shoot somebody at school maybe once every twenty years.  It happened about eight times in the 1990s culminating in the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. 

When my generation was growing up divorce was rampant.  The "Leave It To Beaver" era was over.  We often lacked appropriate socialization, character, and know-how to make our way through life.  The difference between me and the Columbine kids is a never had a gun and a never wanted to hurt anybody. 

The chances of psychopathology increase when you raise a kid on video games, Schwarzeneggar movies, and pornography, well, they might choose more violent solutions.
:o


I dont think videogames have anything to do with it because games here in 2010 are much more violent than those from 1999, yet school shootings happen way less frequently than they did in the 90s.

I dont think videogames have anything to do with it because games here in 2010 are much more violent than those from 1999, yet school shootings happen way less frequently than they did in the 90s.


Maybe parents learned not to give the children a key to the gun cabinet!
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Maybe parents learned not to give the children a key to the gun cabinet!
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lol that could be one of the reasons