As parents what can be done to ensure that your child is not brought to court and trial as an adult? "There is a widespread belief that race is a major explanatory cause of crime. This belief is anchored in the large disparity in crime rates between whites and blacks. However, a closer look at the data shows that the real variable is not race but family structure and all that it implies in commitment and love between adults." (Congressional Digest p.205 1) .
Patrick Fagan, a Senior Policy Analyst, believes that there are five steps to make a juvenile violent. He states that if a child is born in a single parent home that the child will grow up to become troubled. He argues that how stable a home is will determine how a child will do in life. Fagan believes that if a child grows up in a home that is harsh and deprived of affection aggression will appear. In the second step the author suggests that the gang becomes a place to belong. He writes that at age five or six he hits his mother. In first grade his aggressive behavior causes problems for others. And he becomes more difficult for the school to handle. Fagan states that he searches for and finds acceptance among similarly aggressive and hostile children. The author says that the Juvenile and his friends are slower at school. They fail at verbal tasks which demand abstract thinking, such as reading, and with social and moral concepts. Fagan suggests that if juveniles are down this road that they have low educational and life expectations of themselves. And sometimes reinforced by teachers and parents that they will never amount to anything. Why do some people believe that if we tell someone that they are nothing that will help society? Children need support reinsurance so that they can be successful. The next step is three. Fagan believes that by age fifteen the child will engage in criminal behavior. And that the earlier he commits his first delinquent act, the longer he will lead a life of crime.