It’s a life sentence for little criminals |
Those who deal with juvenile crime believe the roots of anti-social behaviour lie with
parents who don't know how to be parents, and pass nothing on to the next generation,
write Jason Burke and Penny Wark |
| It was one of those incidents | | how a three-year-old who | | Not every sad child turns into a |
| that shocked yet somehow | | reacted to any local difficulty by | | monster and quite what |
| failed to surprise. “Lucky to | | swearing and screaming had a | | distinguishes those who do from |
| be alive - man [id:8276] by a | | mother with similar habits. | | those who do not has yet to be |
| boy of 12”, the headline read last | | These stories [id:8281] two | | pinned down. All that can be said |
| week after Bob Williams, a | | widely accepted theories: that sad | | [id:8285] is that the cycle of |
| retired bricklayer, tried to catch | | children can grow into bad | | neglect must be broken in as |
| two boys in his garden. The | | children and that all too often | | many places as possible. |
| younger, just 4ft 10in tall, hit | | there is a horrifying gap between | | Professor David |
| Williams’s head with an iron bar. | | a child’s needs and its parents’ | | Farrington, of Cambridge Uni- |
| He lost two pints of blood and | | ability to provide. Too many | | versity ’s Institute of |
| needed 10 stitches. “It is silly and | | parents do not know how to | | Criminology, advocates home |
| pointless,” he commented sadly. | | parent, says the developmental | | visiting for mothers during |
| Williams is not [id:8277] | | psychologist Professor Elizabeth | | pregnancy and during the first |
| pondering the futility of the | | Newson. | | two years of their child’s life, |
| violence he encountered. Every | | What is showing up is not | | education in parenting and in- |
| adult confronted with children | | just the kind of neglect that | | tensive work with delinquent |
| who show no regard for au- | | comes from parents who lack | | children. |
| thority is asking the same ques- | | time for their children because | | The other main stage at |
| tion: what has gone wrong? | | they are single parents or | | which the cycle can be is [id:8286] |
| Teachers blame parents for | | because they are a two-parent | | nursery education. An American |
| failing to discipline their child- | | family and both work. [id:8282], | | research project, Operation |
| ren. Parents blame society, and | | there is evidence of a cycle of | | Headstart, followed several |
| society blames anything it can | | neglect: parents do not know | | thousand children from nursery |
| think of. | | how to parent because their | | age to adulthood and found that |
| [id:8278] what everyone | | parents did not teach them to | | deprived children who received |
| agrees on is that children do not | | mix positively with other people. | | formal nursery education - in- |
| suddenly become difficult when | | As teachers have long protested, | | cluding basic literacy teaching, |
| they are old enough to show up | | children are growing up without | | training on concentration and the |
| on crime statistics. It is no | | discipline, without any checks on | | sense of structure missing in their |
| coincidence that teachers at their | | their behaviour, without any | | homes - were far less likely to |
| conference last week spoke of | | experience of stopping and | | shoot heroin or policemen when |
| expelling uncontrollable three- | | listening to adults, without any | | they were older. They were also |
| year-olds from nursery classes. | | recognition that other people | | more likely to stay at school for |
| There are those who dispute the | | matter. And now that [id:8283] is | | longer and less likely to be |
| remedy [id:8279] but nobody the | | being passed on to a second | | unemployed. |
| problem. | | generation of small children. | | The Headstart project |
| One nursery head teacher of | | Ask psychologists and | | [id:8287]. One analysis suggested |
| more than 20 years’ experience | | criminologists how discipline can | | that for every investment of less |
| spoke of how the most [id:8280] | | be restored and how the juvenile | | than $2,000 in a small child, |
| four-year-old she had ever | | crime rate can be cut and there is | | $20,000 was saved. |
| encountered burnt down the | | talk of the [id:8284] more research, |
| school at 16. She also recalled | | more resources and more money. |
| ‘The Sunday Times’, April 4, 1996 |
