Northgate
Baptist Church
Northgate
Baptist ChurchThree Basic Myths
About Juvenile Delinquents:
((These Myths may be described as: "Theoretical Speculation and Political Rhetoric often espoused by people who have never even met a criminal.))
I. They Generally Have A Poor Self-Image. --- (Wrong)
A. The delinquent generally Regards Himself As A Good Person.
1. He Believes that he is basically a decent human being --- regardless of how many crimes he has committed.
2. When a criminal is confronted with tangible evidence that he has harmed someone, He Blames The Victim or Minimizes The Damage.
3. Even an individual who has engaged in acts of tremendous brutality believes that he is Inherently A Decent Human Being.
4. If An Counselor Challenges The Criminal's View of Himself as a decent person, the criminal is likely to react strongly in a negative manner for he will Regard His Entire Self-Worth As On The Line.
B. A Criminal May Acknowledge that he is, in fact, a "criminal" but this may be To Get Others Off His Back or To Feed People What He Thinks They Want To Hear.
1. A criminal's acknowledgement of criminality may only be a Reference To The Obvious Fact that he has broken a law.
2. He may admit that lately he has been "messing up" --- by "messing up" he means getting caught.
3. However, It is Not an element of his Appraisal of Himself as a human being.
C. Delinquents base their View of Themselves As Good People on a number of considerations, including:
1. Their charitable acts,
2. Their religious observance,
3. Their talents (artistic, mechanical,etc.),
4. What ever can be documented of their willingness to fulfill requirements of others, e.g., holding a job,
5. Their contempt and disgust of particular sorts of crimes,
6. Their acts of consideration to friends and strangers,
7. Their sentimentality toward animals, babies, elderly people, their own parents, a girlfriend, wife, or child.
8. He sincerely believes that any Sin he might have committed is More Than Compensated For By The Good That He Has Done.
D. Fundamental to the criminal's view of himself as a good person is that he Knows The Difference between "Right" and "Wrong".
1. However, the delinquent approaches this issue with a completely Different Mentality from the responsible person.
2. "I can make anything right wrong, and anything wrong right.
a. Right is what I want to do at the time."
b. The fact that he wants to do it makes it right.
E. When the delinquent is arrested, it is his view that He Is The Offended (Wronged) Party.
1. Even In Prison an inmate "is not likely to see himself as a 'Real' criminal."
2. Others have Interfered with what he wants to do.
F. The criminal Exploits Religion to serve his own purposes.
1. When he gets himself into a jam --- he implores God to bail him out.
2. He perceives no contradiction between prayer and crime --- both are right for him, depending on what he wants at a particular time.
3. He can merge from church brimming with righteousness and feeling virtuous just because he managed to get out of bed and sit through a service.
G. A Criminal Can break into an apartment, rape a woman, and then remain for 45 minutes to talk to her about religion.
(Georgetown in Washington, D.C. as reported in the "Washington Daily News," August 11, 1965, 5)
H. Also, criminals Isolate Unpleasant Emotions such as fear, guilt, and self-doubt so that they do not interfere with their objectives.
1. He can shut out whatever might be deterrents of right and wrong.
2. Criminals are almost always angry, even though they often conceal it.
II. He Is Sick, And Needs A Hospital, Not A Jail --- (Wrong)
A. Many juvenile delinquents have been Regarded As Sick rather than as delinquents.
1. The prevalent opinion is that Society Is More To Blame for crime than the criminal.
2. More and more, Psychiatrists and Psychologists are being ask to treat teenagers who are truants, thieves, and drug users.
3. These kids are In Conflict With Society --- Not suffering from Internal Psychological Conflicts.
B. We May be so Revolted By The Gruesomeness of a crime that We Conclude that Only A Sick Person Would Be Capable of Such An Act.
1. However, the criminal is Rational, Calculating, and Deliberate in his actions --- He Is Anything But Sick.
2. Criminals Learn To Fool the Psychiatrists and the Courts in order to serve "Easy Time".
3. Even un-sophisticated street criminals learn the Ploy of Insanity.
4. Criminals Know Right From Wrong --- In fact, Some Know The Laws Better Than Their Lawyers.
5. But, they believe that Whatever They Want To Do At Any Given Time Is Right For Them.
C. Some mental health professionals think that the criminal Cannot Help Doing What He Does because of Unconscious Motives that propel him into crime.
1. He is destined to persist in anti-social behavior, no matter how severely he is punished.
2. Karl Menninger conclude that in addition to Punishment being Futile, it is itself A Crime. --- (What A Joke!)
D. Some believe that criminals suffer from a Physiological Dysfunction that may be hereditary or result from trauma.
1. The "Bad Seed" hypothesis.
They don't understand the Bible teaching concerning the "Adamic Nature."
2. What about the Psychopath (sociopath or anti-social personality)?
3. The psychopath is characterized as:
a. Lacking a sense of responsibility,
b. Lacking the capacity to profit from experience,
c. Lacking a conscience;
d. He is impulsive, emotionally immature, grandiose and self-centered,
e. He is unable to experience guilt or form meaningful human relationships.
4. However, to say that a Psychopath or criminal is unable to profit from experience is misleading because There Is No Such Incapacity.
He does learn from the past, but he learns What Interest Him, not what society wants him to learn.
5. To call him Impulsive is to assert that he Lacks Self-Control,
Whereas he actually has a Rational, Calculating Mind that is Very Much In Control.
6. To say that the psychopath or criminal is Self-Centered is to state the Obvious.
a. However, this feature does not stem from some inherent incapacity to put himself in the place of another person and form friendships.
b. He is a master at putting himself in others' shoes when he plans a crime.
c. But true friendship imposes obligation and putting others first in ways that are incompatible with his sense of his own importance.
E. They are Inherently Less Intelligent than the general population --- because of an organically based learning disability. --- (( Wrong ))
1. They do Not Seem To Learn From Past Experiences the way most people do.
a. They may not learn what the parents want them to learn but They Do Utilize The Past As A Guide when it matters to them.
b. They learn how to become More Successful Criminals.
2. Therefore, many criminals who Appear learning disabled are highly capable of learning but simply Chose Not To --- because School Was Incompatible With What They Wanted To Do.
F. Are some crimes the results of "Compulsive" --- "Kleptomaniac".
1. No --- he is simply a Habitual Thief, good at what he does.
2. A Habit Is Not A Compulsion --- on any occasion, the thief can refrain from stealing --- if he is in danger of getting caught.
G. Generally, these kids Stubbornly Cling To Their Disordered Ways of Thinking And Acting.
H. If criminals are not mentally ill, aren't they nevertheless Victims of Poverty, Broken Homes, Racism, and a Society That Denies Them Opportunities?
1. Are criminals Casualties of A Society that has Robbed Them of Hope and virtually Forced Them Into Crime just so they can survive.
2. Is Crime the Normal and Adaptive Response to growing up in the soul-searing conditions of places like Watts and the South Bronx.
III. It Is Not The Child's Fault, He Is A Victim. (Wrong)
A. Many, today, still believe that criminal behavior is a Symptom of Buried Conflicts that have resulted from early traumas and deprivation.
1. They see crime as being almost a Normal, If Not Excusable, reaction to the grinding poverty, instability, and despair that these kids live in.
2. They are Casualties of A Society that has robbed them of hope and virtually forced them into crime just so they can survive.
B. People who turn to crime are Victims of A Psychological Disorder, an Oppressive Social Environment, or both.
1. The Pressures of the Environment Drove him to commit such a desperate act.
2. On the other hand, kids from more advantaged backgrounds have been scarred by Bad Parenting and Led Astray By Peer Pressure.
a. Intense pressures to compete,
b. Materialism,
c. Parents who neglect them,
d. Pushed to grow up too fast,
e. Parents who are overly protective.
C. In the 1957 musical West Side Story --- the Theme Song Implies:
1. Delinquents were Punks because their fathers were drunks.
2. They were Misunderstood rather than no good.
3. They were suffering from a "Social Disease," and Society "had played (them) a Terrible Trick."
4. They needed an analyst, not a judge, because it was "Just (Their) Neurosis" Acting Up.
5. In short, their criminal behavior was regarded as Symptomatic of A Deep-Seated Psychological or Sociological Problem.
D. By taking the position that the criminal is a victim, Society Has Provided Him With Excuses for crime and thereby supported his contention that he is not to blame.
1. He turned anti-social because he has been Blocked By Others in fulfilling his aspirations.
2. He is perceived as a Victim of Forces And Circumstances Beyond His Control.
E. Society Has Offered Him Countless Opportunities to "rehabilitate" himself and enter the mainstream.
1. Surprise has given way to Despair as the criminal Rejects the very opportunities that he Rejected Before --- (Work --- School --- Counseling).
2. Attempts to Improve The Environment, no matter how worthwhile, have Not Altered The Criminal's Personality.
A Search For The Truth
