Juvenile Delinquency Pt.1

How does juvenile behavior become delinquent? When? What happens as a result?

• Statistics show that broken homes, the order of birth, and family size are huge contributors to who may become a juvenile delinquent. In 1950, 40.5 million children were living in families with both a father and a mother while 4.1 million children were living within broken families. In 1970, there were about 7.6 million minors growing up with only one parent or with neither. In 1966, every three marriages ended in divorce and the number of children in broken homes significantly increased. Because of this, children are spending more time alone, thus leaving them with emotional voids that they try to fill by acting out.
• The result of this has increased the number of runaways, teenage suicides, teenage parenthood, etc.
• Most girls are arrested for running away, being involved in a gang, and/or sex offenses.
• Most boys are arrested for vandalism, theft, assault, rape, drugs, and some major offenses.

Discipline in the home relating to delinquent behavior:

• When family realtions are disturbed, it is more likely that children will become delinquents. There are three main contributing factors:
• careless or inadequate supervision by the mother;
• erratic or overly strict discipline;
• lack of cohesiveness of the family unit.
• Types of discipline:
• Sound - consistant and firm control but not strict enough to cause fear;
• Fair - control which is indefinate: sometimes strict, somtimes relaxed;
• Unsound - extremely relaxed OR extremely strict which either gives unrestrained acts of freedome or restricts to the point of rebellion.

info from http://www.yale.edu/

I Was An Innocent Bystander..

Does being a bystander make you innocent? In my opinion, the phrase "innocent bystander" is an oxymoron. It's nearly impossible to have a bystander that is innocent. When you witness a crime, whether it's a stabbing, a burglary, or simple bullying, what would you do? Would you go for help? Would you get in the middle and attempt to stop it? Would you pretend you saw nothing and keep your head down? Though many of us would like to exclaim, "Oh, of course I'd help them," often times, that's not what would actually happen. We, as humans, don't know what to do. We'll take a look with the murder of Kitty Genovese..


Kitty Genovese was a young woman who was stabbed to death near her home in Brooklyn, New York. The public reaction was probably the most compelling aspect of this case - the most intriguing. However, because of the way the public reacted, the bystander effect was developed. Thirty-eight people watched and listened to her as her perpetrator knifed her to death though not one of them did anything about it. BUT WHY?? Following are the reasons why people do nothing when someone else is in need. (This is more likely to happen, interestingly enough, if there are more people around).

1. Because there are so many other people around, there is a diffusion of responsibility. Everyone believes that someone else will take care of the problem.
2. People need to behave in socially acceptable ways. When other people fail to react, they take that as a sign that they should also fail to react.

Don't be a bystander. They're not innocent. Be a hero. Beat the wretched bystander effect.

Lucifer Effect Pt.2 (Stanford Prison Study)

The Standford Prison Experiment was conducted by Phillip Zimbardo and designed to test the Lucifer Effect which states that every person has to make a decision at some point between good and evil. In order to go through with this experiment, Zimbardo turned the basement of the Standford psychology department into a prison. Students volunteered to do the experiment and he informed them that if they quit at any time, the experiment would be ruined. All students, eager to participate, signed up and met for instruction.

Zimbardo randomly decided who would serve time as a prisioner and who would be "employed" as the guards. One split up, the guards were given a list of directions that they had to follow or the experiment would be terminated. These were the directions given to them:

1. Maintain law & order
2. Avoid physical violence
3. Prevent prisoner escapes

This was all they were given. How were they to maintain law and order and avoid physical violence at the same time when the prisoners get out of hand? How would YOU keep order? I suppose at first I would try talking to them. When that fails, I would probably threaten them, keeping it secret that I would not be allowed to use physical violence. After that, I suppose I would act as all the rest of the guards did - falling victim to the Lucifer Effect. Just like th majority of guards, once put in that place, I would end up believing that's who I am though it's not true.

The outcome of the Standford Prison Study? Well, as most psychology studies do, the experiment created more questions than it provided answers to. However, the study did show the "degeneration and breakdown of established rules and morals dictating exactly how people should behave towards others." It showed that, with the right conditions, people with abandon their values and morals, deindividualize others, and act out in pure cruelty.

This study is now becoming more popular due to the Abu Ghraib scandal and techniques used at Guantanamo Bay.

As a wise teacher of mine once said, "Psychology is interesting. Unfortunately, we only study the worst in human behavior."

Characteristics Of A Killer

What does it take to be a killer? Do you share some of the same characteristics? I know I do! Maybe we all do? According to Dr. Phil, here are some facts and statistics defining the qualities of killers.

• Over 90% are male. 
• Their IQ's tend to be in the "bright normal" range. Most of them are fairly intelligent. 
• They tend to struggle through school and have trouble holding down jobs.
• More often than not, the jobs they acquire are as unskilled laborers. 
• They tend to come from markedly unstable families. 
• As children, many of their fathers abandon them and the mothers raising them are overly controlling. 
• Often times, their families have criminal, psychiatric, and/or alcoholic histories. 
• Most times they hate their fathers and mothers.
• Commonly, they are abused as children - psychologically, physically, and/or sexually. Usually, the abuser is a member of the family.
• Many have early records of psychiatric problems and spend time in institutions as children.
• Often, they have a high rate of suicide attempts.
• From an early age, most of them are fascinated by voyeurism, fetishism, and sado-masochistic pornography.
• More than 60% of killers wet their beds until past the age of 12.
• Many of them are intensely interested in fire, if not arsonists.
• Also, they are involved with sadistic activity and/or torturing small animals.    

How many of these characteristics do you have? I have eight of the fifteen qualities. How many does it take to be create a killer? Are these rock solid? Find out more at www.drphil.com.

Lucifer Effect Pt. 1

If you're like me, you think about all the different aspects of a given situation. Take an arguement, for example. I'd analyze each person's story and the evidence backing each story up before making a decision deciding for or against someone. Law is the same; there are so many different angles and aspects to view. In this post, I'm going to take a look at what is known as the Lucifer Effect.

The Lucifer Effect is a psychology concept stating that every ordinary person faces a point where they must make a choice that pushes the guidelines of normal and falls into good or evil. The choice they make turns them into either a hero or a villian. Each person is ordinary until this choice is made, however, there are influential factors that can cause a person to be more susceptible to choose either good or evil. Conformity is one of the biggest social influences. We can either conform to the good taking place or the evil. For example, Jim Jones convinced his followers to conform to one another when drinking the Kool-Aid that they knew would end their lives. Also, Charles Manson persuaded his Family to kill innocent victims by using conformity.

Phllip Zimbardo, the expert on the Lucifer Effect, has put together a ten-step program to make sure that you are not falling into the trap of choosing evil over good.

1. You have to be able to admit and accept the mistakes you make.
2. Be mindful. Do not let yourself proceed through life on autopilot. This is how smart people end up doing dumb things.
3. Be responsible.
4. Do not allow others to intimidate or deindividualize you. Be yourself - the best you can be!
5. "I respect Just Authority, but rebel against Unjust Authority."
6. Value your independance. Group acceptance is something all will yearn for, but remember how important independance is as well.
7. Do not let the way things are framed scare you into any situation.
8. Remember there is always a future. Think about consequences.
9. Don't sacrifice your personal freedoms for a false sense of security.
10. Be strong enough to oppose unjust systems.

Follow these ten steps and you'll be a hero in no time!

info courtesy of lucifereffect.com; picture courtesy of google images