What Causes Teenagers To Rebel? --- Travis Case

An Average Day
In The Life of A Teenager:
In Just One Average Day:

2,795 teen-agers become pregnant.
1,106 pregnant teens have abortions.
1,027 babies are born drug or alcohol exposed in utero.
211 children are arrested for drug abuse.
437 children are arrested for drinking and drunk driving.
10 children die from gunshot wounds.
30 children are wounded by gunfire.
135,000 children bring a gun to school.
1,512 teen-agers drop out of school.
1,849 children are abused or neglected.
6 teen-agers commit suicide.
3,288 children run away from home.
1,629 children are in adult jails.

These statistics are from the Children's Defense Fund, 1988 data. The figures come from crime reporting. Cited in Chauvin, S. L. (1990, February), Startling statistics about children. American Bar Association Journal, 8.

Results from 1990 Youth Risk Behavior survey of 11,631 students in Grades 9-12. This was a federal survey conducted by the national Center For Disease Control. Students were questioned in every state, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

During the PRECEDING YEAR:

27.3% had Seriously Considered suicide. (1 in 4)

16.3% Made Specific Plans. (1 in 6)

08.3% Attempted suicide once or more. (1 in 12)

02.0% Suffered Injuries Serious enough to require Medical Attention after suicide attempts. (1 in 50)

34% Female students had Seriously Considered suicide. (1 in 3)

21% Male students had Seriously Considered suicide. (1 in 5)

10% Female students had Tried suicide at least once. (1 in 10)

06% Male students had Tried suicide at least once. (1 in 17)

According to CDC statistics, the Suicide Rate for this age group is just 11 per 100,000. (Many suicides are recorded as accidents) --- Dallas Morning News (Associated Press) 09/20/91

What Causes Teenagers To Rebel?

(( The "Mind-Set" of Juvenile Delinquents ))

Mark 7:21-23, "For from within, Out Of The Heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things Come From Within, and defile the man."

Proverbs 23:7, "For As He Thinketh In His Heart, So [Is] He: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart [is] not with thee."

Introduction:

A. Crime Is Destroying Our Quality of Life at a very frightening pace.

1. Our cities turn into Ghost Towns at night because we fear to go out --- even for a Nightly Walk.

a. Many Live With The Fear of physical injury --- property loss --- and/or victimization.

b. Our Homes and places of Business have been converted into Maximum Security Fortresses with locks, barred windows, alarm system, TV surveillance, and even guards.

2. We fear to Leave Our Young Children Alone in the car for a few minutes while we dash into a store.

3. We fear for our children because the public schools are beset with Disorder, Vandalism, Drugs, Thefts, and Violence.

4. Fear that our medicine or food has been Poisoned is no longer a paranoid's delusion --- Tylenol scare .....

B. Over the years we have used Many Theories and Practices that have Neither made the public safer Nor achieved lasting change in criminals.

1. The Liberals and the Conservatives have had their day --- still we remain engulfed by a crime wave.

2. How to deal with criminals has been guided less by sound information than by Emotion-Laden Attitudes And Rambling Speech.

3. Our current thinking about causes of crime is Dead Wrong --- our solutions have turned out to be No Solutions At All.

C. Psychiatric evaluations are a Charade in which the criminal --- Maneuvering to beat a charge --- practically Selects His Own Analysis.

1. The criminal provides one impression while concealing his true intentions and illicit activities.

2. Just as the psychiatrist thinks he is making headway, he discovers he's been "Had".

D. There are still those today who persists in believing that the Criminal Is Basically Like The Responsible Person except that he's turned to crime Because he has been:

Neglected --- Deprived --- Abused --- Excluded By Society.

E. Effective policies, decisions, and programs cannot be formulated by those who do Not Know How Criminals Think.

1. It is Impossible to help a person give up crime and live responsibly without helping him to change what is Most Basic --- "his thinking".

2. Proverbs 23:7, "As he thinketh in his heart, so [is] he:"

F. The truth of the matter is that Criminals Choose to commit crimes --- Delinquents Choose to be delinquent.

1. Delinquency residing within a person is "Caused" By The Way He Thinks --- not by his environment.

2. Focusing on forces Outside The Delinquent is Futile.

3. Delinquents are Not Victims --- but rather, they Are Victimizers --- who Freely Made Their Choice.

G. We Shall See That:

1. Criminals Cause Crime --- not bad neighborhoods, inadequate parents, television, schools, drugs, or unemployment.

2. Crime resides Within The Minds of human beings and is Not Caused By Social Conditions.

3. Rehabilitation begins with Holding The Criminal Completely Accountable for his offenses.

a. A person Is Responsible for having committed a crime, regardless of --- his social background --- or the adversities that have confronted him.

b. Crime Is Not Contagious like chicken pox.

H. Stanton E. Samenow, Ph.D. --- "We found the conventional Psychological and Sociological formulations about crime and its causes to be Erroneous and Counterproductive because They Provide Excuses."

1. However, as men Saw Themselves Realistically, they became fed up with their old ways and made efforts to change.

2. The Same thinking patterns underlie the delinquent behavior of Male and Female offenders alike.

A Search For The Truth

If You Are Not "Saved", Nothing Else Matters!
(Click On The Word "Saved" To Find God's Plan)

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