Well, sure I feel horrible about his upbringing and background. Extremely sad.
However, how do we identify him in the future (if/when he is released from juv/prison) so other innocent children do not fall victim to his sad story? It's great to be compassionate and have empathy, but that still means we will have a disturbed individual walking the streets with the ability to hurt other children/people.
The problem is, you cannot truly know. Furthermore, if we lock people up bc they might engage in violence, our prison systems would be over-flowing. And that's not to mention that there is no means, to date, that withstands the test of predictive validity.
With the above in mind, a little anecdotal tale (
I've told before, will tell again). We have a juvenile facility in sacramento that is supposed to be designed for children caught up in the legal system. A colleague was doing her internship there and actually quit after a week. When I asked her why, she said workers were often assaulted and the kids would regularly riot and/or start fires to distract workers while another set of kids would attack and rape the younger residents. She said the place was horrendous, that the people running the place didn't care and/or ignored staff complaints about what was occurring, and that it was a breeding ground for future serial killers. The youths at this place ranged from 8 to 17, and came from upper middle class to upper class families. This place was said to be their last hope.
I relate the above for a reason. What concerns me most about the child in this thread, is that many of our so-called youth treatment facilities (
and yes, I realize anecdote != data) seem to be nothing more than holding places that end up breeding violence as opposed to deterring it. And that this very thing, imnsho, presents the greatest risk for someone who has already exhibited the sort of violent behavior this child has.
That said, unfortunately, I do not know the answer to what I consider to be a growing problem. What I do know, or rather, strongly feel, is that we, as a society need to revisit how we're dealing with troubled children. Rather than waiting until the tragedy strikes, then locking them up and throwing away the key.