Juvenile Delinquency Begun
Before the twentieth century there were no juvenile delinquents, only criminals. The invention of juvenile delinquency is a part of our creation of adolescence. Teenagers who were working and married were considered adults and legally held responsible for their actions for thousands of years. However, at the end of the nineteenth century, western culture concluded that these “children” should not be held responsible for their actions, at least not to the same extent as older adults.
Bible Times
Joseph is also good example of a teenage TCK held responsible for his “criminal” acts when his boss’s wife framed him. One day when they were alone in the house, she wanted sex with him. She grabbed his coat asked him to go to bed with her. However, he ran out of the house, leaving her holding his coat. When she realized she had been scorned and still had his coat, she called other employees who were outside and told a story that would certainly be believed by anyone who had seen Joseph running from the house. She said that he had tried to rape her, but she screamed. When he heard her scream for help, he was in such a hurry to get out of the house that he left his coat beside her (Genesis 39).
When her husband came home, she told him the same concocted story. “That Hebrew who works for us came and tried to rape me, but when I screamed for help, he ran out so fast that he left his coat.” Of course, the other employees confirmed her story. Her husband was furious and had Joseph put in prison. Since boys became men when they became teenagers, Joseph was fully responsible under the criminal law of his host country.
Another example is Jehoiachin who became a TCK because of his being taken prisoner. Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became King of Judah. Just three months into his reign as king, the King of Babylon invaded Judah and took Jehoiachin and many others in his family to Babylon as political prisoners. Again it made no difference that he was a teenager—he was treated as an adult, as were all other teenagers of the day.
USA Years Ago
Laws have distinguished between children and adults for thousands of years based on the “age of responsibility.” Under English common law 800 years ago, children under seven could not commit crimes and those under 14 could not be punished for crimes unless someone could show that those 13 and below could distinguish right from wrong, intended to do wrong, and understood the consequences of what they did. People 14 and older were treated as adults.
Of course much American law was based on English common law, so the laws in the USA were much the same. However, it did not seem logical to hold the “children” (adolescents) legally responsible for their behavior if they were not treated as adults in other areas. Someone came up with the idea of treating adolescents in a system separate from other adults, a system that emphasized treatment (or reformation) rather than punishment. The logic was that if this was done when people were teenagers, then crime would soon be stamped out.
Juvenile delinquency was officially invented with the passage of the Juvenile Court Act by the Illinois legislature in 1899. In that act a “delinquent child” was defined as “any child under the age of 16 years who violates the law of this State or any City or Village ordinance.” Of course, at that time (1899) 16 was about the age at which boys passed through puberty. This law created separate proceedings for children and adults. Unfortunately, as with other aspects of adolescence, as the age of puberty decreased, the maximum age for juvenile delinquency increased.
USA Today
Other states soon followed, and people saw the juvenile justice system as great progress. Juvenile courts were to reform, not punish; to uplift, not degrade; to develop, not crush; and to make worthy citizens, not criminals. Here are some of the developments during the last century.
Toward the end of the twentieth century many people were beginning to agree with Senator Alexander Wiley who testified before the Subcommittee to Investigate Juvenile Delinquency in 1955. He said, “To me when I see the youth of this country in idleness, walking the streets of the cities, [I feel] we are meeting a challenge to our common sense because we know idleness breeds not only crime but everything else.” Though they did not (could not) abolish adolescence, many states began to pass laws that allowed juveniles to be tried as adults for some crimes.
Other western nations with adolescence experienced much the same thing. By November 1994 in Elland, England, a 14-year-old young man had been arrested 88 times and convicted of 130 crimes, all within a mile and a half of his home. British law prohibited locking up anyone under 15 years old. Since his fifteenth birthday was very close, he promised to stop. However, in 1995 the law was changed to permit locking up repeat offenders as young as 12.
Gangs
Not working, little responsibility, “nothing to do,” looking for identity, and seeking acceptance, many adolescents join gangs. Most large cities have literally hundreds of gangs including thousands of teenagers, and these gangs meet the needs mentioned above. These gangs often become involved in criminal activity, sometimes even as part of the initiation into the gang. They may be involved in everything from selling drugs, to robbery, to organized crime.
Gangs and their crime used to be considered a large city phenomenon, but they have spread out into many smaller cities and even rural areas. Gang members often hurt not only each other but also innocent people who just happen to be in the area. To give you some idea of the seriousness of the problem, as I am writing this the U. S. House of Representatives just passed a bill making gang attacks federal crimes. Approved 279-144, the bill authorizes the prosecution of 16-17-year-old gang members in federal courts as adults and extends the statute of limitations from 5 to 15 years for all violent crimes.
What can adolescent TCKs do?
You are probably wondering why this chapter is even in this book. If you have read this far in the book, you are not likely to have murdered your parents or committed any other crime. I do realize that you are probably not juvenile delinquents, but I believe that it is necessary to make sure you realize that Christians must do much more than refrain from breaking the law. As we saw in Chapter 5, by the time you reach adolescence, you are capable of doing more than making your moral decisions only on the basis of keeping the law.
As TCKs you have seen that cultures vary widely in many ways. They vary in terms of what is legal and illegal. For example, prostitution is legal in some countries, usually as long as the prostitutes take periodic screening tests and are free of STDs. In other countries prostitution is a crime, so prostitutes are arrested and spend time in jail. Even if something is legal, cultures vary in terms of what is socially acceptable and unacceptable. For example, in some countries smoking tobacco may be legal and smokers accepted everywhere. In other countries smoking is legal but not socially acceptable so that smokers are relegated to particular rooms or not allowed to smoke in certain buildings. Even if something is legal and socially acceptable, cultures vary in what is considered right and wrong, sinful or not.
Just as the legality and acceptability of activities vary from culture to culture, they also vary from time to time in the same culture. In 1973 psychiatrist Karl Menninger looked at this in his book, Whatever Became of Sin? Dr. Menninger noted that the word “sin” had almost disappeared from the the vocabulary of many people in the USA. He proposed that sins (dealt with by church), often became crimes (dealt with by the legal system), or illnesses (dealt with by the health care system), and then became simply alternate lifestyles.
We can see these changes occurring in the last couple centuries. Homosexual behavior was first considered a sin, and those involved were prayed for. Then some people said there ought to be a law against it, so it became a crime, and people were punished for it. Then it was diagnosed as a mental illness, and people were treated for it. Then in 1973 the American Psychiatric Association said it was not an illness, just a different way of living. Consumption of too much alcohol was first a sin (drunkenness), then a crime (public intoxication), then an illness (alcoholism) and then a common way of life for many teens in our culture.
Remember that God holds people responsible (including teens) for their actions even if those actions are not illegal or socially unacceptable. Killing Jews (6,000,000 of them) was legal and socially acceptable in Nazi Germany, but that did not make it morally correct. Buying and selling Africans and African-Americans as slaves was legal and socially acceptable in the USA 200 years ago, but that did not make it morally correct.
God holds people, including teenagers (adolescents), responsible for their actions even if their culture does not. You are responsible to keep his commandments, so it is wise to look into the Bible to see what God considers to be right and wrong. Even if you are not held legally responsible by your culture, you are by your God.
Finally, part of the invention of juvenile delinquency was the creation of crimes that can be committed only by adolescents. Nearly a quarter of a million people are arrested each year in the USA for breaking curfew, loitering violations, and running away from home—all of the people arrested for these offenses are under 18 years of age. Although these are illegal (and you should obey the law), they are not sinful. There is nothing immoral about being outside after midnight (or whatever time is specified in the law), so you do not have to ask God’s forgiveness.