Another youngster down...
If you saw the front page of the Post this week, you know that Hopewell Township Police arrested an 18-year-old Pennington man for the theft of two cars and breaking in to and burglarizing a third car.
This is the third young person to grace the front page of my paper in the last few weeks for being arrested.
What is going on here? Has everyone got cabin fever, or the winter blues? What's the deal with the spike in teenager crime?
None of the crimes have been violent, yet! No one has been hurt, so far, but can an escalation to violence be too far off?
I know some of you may be thinking that I am reading too much in to a few coincidentally close together crimes, but I have seen this pattern before.
When I graduated high school in the 90s, we had kids getting in fights, being busted for small amounts of drugs (usually marijuana) and other relatively small offenses. Then, on my graduation day, a student was found to be in the possession of a gun, with the intent to shot a teacher who had failed him.
Today, things are much worse in my old high school. I am not saying that things will get that bad here in Pennington, but it is something to watch out for.
Know your kids, know their friends and know what they are getting in to when you are not around.
I am sure that these 18-year-old boys did not suddenly start to act out after they turned 18; chances are that they built up to this.
This is the third young person to grace the front page of my paper in the last few weeks for being arrested.
What is going on here? Has everyone got cabin fever, or the winter blues? What's the deal with the spike in teenager crime?
None of the crimes have been violent, yet! No one has been hurt, so far, but can an escalation to violence be too far off?
I know some of you may be thinking that I am reading too much in to a few coincidentally close together crimes, but I have seen this pattern before.
When I graduated high school in the 90s, we had kids getting in fights, being busted for small amounts of drugs (usually marijuana) and other relatively small offenses. Then, on my graduation day, a student was found to be in the possession of a gun, with the intent to shot a teacher who had failed him.
Today, things are much worse in my old high school. I am not saying that things will get that bad here in Pennington, but it is something to watch out for.
Know your kids, know their friends and know what they are getting in to when you are not around.
I am sure that these 18-year-old boys did not suddenly start to act out after they turned 18; chances are that they built up to this.
posted by Janine Logue, Pennington Post Editor at
10:16 AM
1 Comments:
Janine, how right you are, except that not quite all there is to this story. The incidents in crime that your town is beginning to experience is just the tip of the iceberg. Many of the quiet little towns surrounding the Trenton, Lawrence and Princeton area are beginning to experience this kind of activity, after acquiring a long standing sleepy town reputation. However, now it's real. There are very few sleepy towns left unfortunately. The level of violence, previously experienced or supposedly only occurring in the larger metropolitan areas has chosen to rear it's ugly head in even the so-called better areas of the state. Now we're all beginning to realize, this concept is a fallacy.
However, let's be fair and say that there are many contributors to this type of behavior, and not all of the contributors occurr in urban cities. Behavior is behavior, its a choice. People often times copy what they see, just by nature of thinking it would be fun, they won't get caught, or to try to send a message of self confidence and the ability to take care of one's self. With these types of psychological issues, its very hard to control alot of what is occurring in our towns. Many of our youth experience influences beyond what a parent can see or be aware of. Pressures such as school, other friends, youth in general, drugs, and the media have a great deal of influence on what goes on in society. No, I don't think that Rap is the blame for much of the violence that goes on, but I do think it plays a very realistic,(not large) part. Many of the factors you mentioned about the parents involvement in their childs life are true and important.
Yet, it goes deeper than that. A child is not influenced by what a parent says. A child is influenced by what a parent does. Many parents do not agree to this montra. Many parents refuse to admit that some of the actions and reactions expressed by their children have anything to do with their excellent parenting skill. In many cases this is true, yet, what could the problems be. Janine, the problems are systemic. They stem from factors out of our control. The problems are a combination of government, social issues, radial likes and dislikes, drugs, as well as unearned priviledges. Any children that attends any school, has a perfect opportunity to experience drugs on a regular basis. This is a known fact. And yet, some studnets refuse to engage in this or any other type of activity that would threaten their relationship with their families or their freedom. I guess what I'm trying to relay to you is that a parent can do all they can to try and raise a decent, polite, productive, respectable, child and still fail. Why, you may ask, because in these frightening times, there are many other elements that affect a parents raising of their child. And, unfortunately most of them are negative. Once, a parent realizes this prospective, the entire sceanario must change and hopefully the parent can regroup, adjust and arm themselves with the necessary knowledge, support and maternal wisdom to protect and hold on to their child. It's vital in all of our communities.
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