Teen crime has always been and always will be an issue.  That isn’t a debate, that is a fact.  However, in recent years, crime among America’s youth has shot through the roof.  It has people wondering: Who is to blame?   Adolescents often complain about “teenagers these days” or question what has gone so wrong among the newest generation of teens, however they seem to forget that they are the one’s who raised them.  A few people believe that all this crime has come about through bad parenting, while the majority of people would call it flat out teenage rebellion -- this needs to be set straight -- however, regardless of why, the matter at hand is getting more and more out of control and measures are in desperate need of being taken to reduce this problem.  While adults have the right to be angered about this rise in crime, they need to remember something important -- whether parent’s of this generation have raised their children as criminals, or raised children who turned out to be rebels -- they still raised them.  Yes, the illegal acts have to stop, and blame can justly be set on the teenager’s of these actions, however instead of simply condemning these young adolescents, actions should be taken to better these kids, as well as to better the parenting these young adults are growing up with.   

This increasing crime among teens has led to a crime spike throughout the nation.  Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has pledged to help put an end to this unnecessary crime and violence.  Gonzales has long been searching for evidence on why our nation’s crime rose by 3.7% over one year, and is looking to do all but decrease in upcoming years, his findings were unfortunately slim.  He finally ordered a study which included 18 cities as well as suburban regions to find an answer as to why this unfortunate surge is occurring.  His findings, in a nutshell, were an increasing number of younger offenders, as well as the often ignored, failure of parental oversight.  In the conclusion of Gonzales: “A growing number of offenders appear to be younger, and their crimes more violent, and laws in some states provide few, if any, tough penalties on juvenile offenders” (1).  Hidden in his findings is another huge reason as to why teenagers are more apt to commit crimes over adults -- they can get away with it.  Although murder is easily punishable with life in jail regardless of age, there are many other crimes of violence, drugs, or theft, that are unfortunately often disregarded, or punished lightly, leading teens to do things they otherwise wouldn’t if disciplined stricter.  We can also thank adults in the media for what they are doing: “Many youths... are too easily influenced by gang membership and glamorized violence in popular culture” (Gonzales).  If criminals weren’t praised throughout media, many teens wouldn’t find crime so appealing and devote their lives to gang affiliation.  There is no way to completely end criminal activity among teenagers, but evidence has proved there are many ways to step in and do something about this -- starting with cutting off the glorification of the media, harsher punishments, and of course, stronger parental guidance among youth. 

Countless amounts of research, evidence, and attempts to end violence can be made among adults, however, perspective matters.  If America can’t get a feel of the teenage perspective on crime amongst their peers, then how can this problem ever be solved?  It is time to target teens themselves, and find some answers -- fortunately several surveys were conducted for this exact reasoning.  From the article A Teenage Perspective on Teen Crime by Kyle McGovern, there were a variety of things that young adolescents suggested after being interviewed that were causing crime amongst their peers, including, “lack of summer jobs or programs, poor parenting, ineffective policing, bad-apple teens, the breakdown of family structures, racism and classism” (McGovern).  Many of these things are age old excuses, which begs the question: Why now? Why is it that this generation would spark a rise in crime and it lead back to all these things that have been problems for ages? The answer is simply, pressure.  There is no denying that it is not an easy thing to grow up as a teenager in today’s world -- school keeps getting harder, expectations have grown higher -- the little things hit teenagers harder than ever before.  It is because of this that many teens have leaned towards drugs, alcohol, and violence to cope with their feelings.  This rise in crime has gone hand in hand with a rise in depression amongst teenagers.  Any of the reasons provided by these teens have lately been capable of sparking stress, outrage, and acts of violence and crime among the younger generation -- a new coping mechanism needs to be utilized.  Too many children without a good home life have sought toward gangs to play the role of a family, getting them into terrible acts at such a young age.  When asked by McGovern what adults and figures of authority should do to cut down on teen crime, 17 year old, Elon Okechukwu responded with: “Just talking to a teen about violence probably won’t have a lasting effect on them, because, ultimately, we do what we want! I think adults should create more clubs and after-school programs that the average teenager would be interested in.”  Too many teens get into crime because they have nothing better to do, they are bored, they want something fun, a rush of adrenaline -- they need more exciting, yet healthy and productive alternative ways to spend time. 
After reading the book They Broke the Law, You Be the Judge: True Cases of Teen Crime, by Thomas Jacobs, I was given a new view on teenage crime -- the perspective of a judge.  The book contained many different situations involving teens in the court of law, and was written in the eyes of a judge, explaining reasoning, punishment, and also displaying written apologies as well as explanations as to why these crimes were committed by the teens.  The thing about teenage crime is that situations matter.  As explained by Jacobs, “Court’s responses to crimes have to fit their individual cases” (17).  For example, in the book, a girl named Samantha didn’t pay her cab fare and ran from the police  -- on the other hand, a girl Olivia stole a car.  The cases would seem similar until you look at them in the justice system -- Samantha wasn’t just running from the police, she was trying to escape from her abusive home, whereas Olivia’s situation was simply an act of rebellion.  Regardless of the reasoning for crime, it is still crime, and it is still on the rise -- however it is surely more justified if a teen had an unfortunate reason as a spark.  That is yet another thing that can be done to help end this surge of rebellion -- getting kids and teens the optimal living situation, and working even harder to find children of physical and emotional abuse, and get them out of their abusive homes.  It is sickening to hear that crime among the teenage generation has started with even younger kids.  There are 10 year olds that have been convicted of murdering siblings, 12 year old boys convicted of raping girls in the playland of McDonald’s -- this has all sprung about over the past several years, and more and more cases of such young crime continues to come about.  Candice Helfand from CBS noted in her article Troubled Generation, that there is “no single, driving factor,” which means that “there is no single solution to preventing future delinquency,” so the solution to this problem “lies in developing an individualized response for each youth.”  Basically, youth having problems equals youth needing a coping mechanism for these problems, which means that healthier alternatives need to be utilized.  While guardians of youth in rebellion can’t solve the problems, or cope for these kids -- the kids can’t do it all alone either.  What America is in need of is guidance, programs giving teens places to go to spend their free time productively, and out of harms way instead of spending it with gang members, drug dealers, people of violence, and committing these terrible crimes. 

As crime and corruption among teens is a growing problem, it doesn’t mean it is too late, it doesn’t give anyone, adults or teenagers, the right to give up on this.  What it all boils down to is stress levels, coping, and especially the glorification of crime and gangs through media and pop culture.  While it is depressing that this is what it has come down to, every child in America needs the support of their parents, teachers, guardians, and adolescents to help them put an end to this increasing problem.  The facts are all on the table.  Perspectives are all around.  After understanding the problem from the eyes of teenagers, judges, attorney generals, and discovering some interesting statistics, I can say with certainty that America as a whole is headed in the right direction; they have recognized a problem.  The opinions, the rants, the interviews, the studies -- they are constantly being posted, reviewed, discussed -- our government, believe it or not, has put tens of millions of dollars towards putting an end to crime and violence among teens in the past decade, and will continue to do so.  It’s time we see a decrease, it has to stop now, and we have the power to end this problem.  We might not always be able to take the gun out of a teenager’s hands, but we sure as hell can teach them what not to do with it. 

Works Cited

"Rising Crime Blamed on Youth Violence, Gangs." Msnbc.com. NBC News, 15 May 2007. Web.
01 Jan. 2015. .

Kyle, McGovern T. "A Teenage Perspective on Teen Crime." The Local. The New York Times,
11 Aug. 2011. Web. 01 Jan. 2015. .

Jacobs, Thomas A., and Al Desetta. They Broke the Law, You Be the Judge: True Cases of
Teen Crime. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Pub., 2003. Print

Helfand, Candice L. "Troubled Generation: The Perceived Prevalence Of Youth Crime
And Corruption." CBS DC. N.p., 14 Sept. 2012. Web. 02 Jan. 2015.