NCJ Number
180170
Date Published
1999
Length
201 pages
Annotation
The author indicates that 20 percent of adults in the United States know a child who was shot by another child; 3 of every 20 murders, rapes, and aggravated assaults are committed by young people between 10 and 17 years of age; juvenile arrests for weapon violations have increased and 100,000 youths carry guns; and the number of children under 18 years of age arrested for murder has increased by 55 percent over the past decade.
Abstract
Drawing on 20 years of experience with "budding" criminal children and juvenile offenders as a psychologist, the author identifies the signs of risk behavior in children between 2 and 17 years of age. He describes methods for eliminating violent and destructive acts toward others and shows how teaching empathy and responsibility will help criminal children become socially responsible. The first four chapters of the book demonstrate to parents that criminality can be prevented if the problem is properly detected in young people. Subsequent chapters include case examples of juvenile offenders and ways of changing defiant youth that focus on control, excuses, understanding, realization, empathy, guilt, and moral action. Appendixes contain a Small Criminal Attitude Inventory Questionnaire for children between 3 and 5 years of age and a Middle Childhood Criminal Attitude Inventory Questionnaire for parents of children between 10 and 12 years of age. 54 references