YOUTH CRIMES by the Teenager or is it the Poverty that kills?

YOUTH CRIMES

By Parichita Baasak

Teenagers are known the world over for their under-developed sense of right and wrong, their impulsive decision-making, their overly emotional responses, and their unavoidably reckless behavior. Psychological and sociological studies have examined the impact of all types of stimuli on teenagers’ criminal behavior — like peer-pressure, dropping out school, drinking, drugs, etc. But as important as it is to keep the teenage brain in mind when we as a society decide how poor decisions should be punished, maybe it’s not the most important factor in how those decisions get made in the first place.

As one would expect, teenagers perpetrated more of the homicides than other age groups — but only when he did not control for poverty. When he did control for poverty, teenagers committed more crimes than other age groups only in high-poverty areas. In the areas where teenagers had as much money as other middle-aged people, they tended to commit fewer violent crimes. And in the areas where middle-aged people had as little money as other teenagers, those middle-aged people tended to commit just as many violent crimes.

In other words, financially secure teens act as responsibly as stereotypical middle-aged people; and poor middle-aged people act as recklessly as stereotypical teens. The financial situations of the would-be perpetrators had a lot bigger impact than what age they were at the time. And that impact was huge: The homicide rate among the poorest teenagers Males looked at was 18 times higher than it was among the wealthiest.  

"In every case we have investigated of supposedly signature ‘”adolescent risks” — fatal traffic crashes, firearms mortality, felony crime, violent crime, and, in the present study, homicide and firearms homicide — we find they are severely mitigated or disappear altogether once the economic playing field is leveled."

So how to level that playing field? Addressing youth unemployment could provide some hope. Teens’ unemployment, and under-employment, have always been a given: Young people typically don’t yet have the experience or education to get well-paying jobs. And in tough economic times like these, teenagers are also often competing for entry-level jobs with more experienced people who would otherwise be higher up the professional ladder.

So, is it the Teenager Brain or Poverty that kills?