The Future of America? A hungry boy stole food from a market, was caught, and his right hand was chopped off. The next week the same boy, stole fruit from an orchard, again was spotted, and his left hand was chopped off. A few weeks later, leaving the back door to a bakery open, his mouth full and eyes no less vibrant, the boy was caught once again. The men of the town were stumped, what was to be chopped off next? The men of the town did not know what to do, until someone offered giving the boy a job. The boy never stole again. As difficult as it may be to remain open-minded when addressing a situation, sometimes the alternative solutions are better than that of the extreme. Throughout American history, there is evidence of over-coming close mindedness. This evidence is seen in women's voting rights and African American's freedom. With the increasing youth violence present in America, we are once again given a task. This task, like that of Women's Suffrage and Civil Rights, is not going to have a simple solution. If the men in the story above had not come up with an alternative solution, what would be chopped off next? Arms? Feet? After reading about this topic and all its perspectives, I believe that severe punishment will always fail to deter youth crime. Rehabilitation and prevention, as difficult as they may be to accept, deserve attention. Arguments have resulted from examining the increase of convicted youth criminals and the severity of crimes committed. The youth crime rate has reached a twenty year high, says Patricia Cohen in her article entitled, "Punishment." Equally staggering she says, is the fact that "from 1988-1991 the youth murder-arrest rate climbed 80 percent(518)." Terrible crimes committed by youth are sometimes as serious as those of their adult counterparts. As a result, the term youth' is no longer synonymous with innocence. With this sudden "madness," as coined by Males and Docuyanan in "Crackdown on Kids: G...
