"Juvenile delinquency begins with participation in the drug trade. Children as young as 9 or 10 are paid as much as $100 a day to serve as lookouts while drug deals are taking place. Next, they become runners and may eventually graduate to being dealers. The neglected children of crack-addicted parents are especially likely to be pulled into the drug culture themselves."
http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/gep_01/gep_01_00361.html
How can a child at such a young age be lured into doing criminal activities? Where are their parents who are not on drugs? A child this young should be involved in after school programs, extra curricular activities, or making money doing chores around the house or neighbor's houses. A child should be supervised by an adult instead of running the streets freely, especially in neighborhoods where drug dealing is high.
Making $100 a day is an offer that is hard to refuse, especially if the child depends on this money to survive because his or her parents are not providing. With parents on drugs, no positive influences, the child may look at the drug dealer as a role model for being helpful enough to offer a money making opportunity. In actuality, the drug dealer is not looking out for the child’s best interest. It is only a temporary job which unfortunately will lead the child towards a delinquent lifestyle associated with selling drugs. "Drug dealing is all I know", is a popular answer when asked why drug dealers don't have a legal job.
With the help of community programs, educating kids about the consequences of delinquency may help deter the kids from being involved in drug activities. Community and local Law Enforcement Officers should familiarize themselves with children and parents within their community. Law Enforcement should see that these drug abusing parents get rehabilited if they don’t want to lose their children to foster families who CAN and WILL take care of their child.
May times neighbors do not want to involve themselves with other family's personal issues, but this issue affect the entire community. If the community wants to seek positive changes and protect their own kids from getting caught in these activities, neighbors need to get involved. Neighbors need to be look outs for children who are engaging in delinquent behaviors, and inform local law enforcement agents of any drug infested homes where children may live.
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3 comments:
"A child this young should be involved in after school programs, extra curricular activities, or making money doing chores around the house or neighbor's houses. A child should be supervised by an adult instead of running the streets freely, especially in neighborhoods where drug dealing is high." Referring to this statement, I know there are many who know nothing about after school programs, ectra curricular activities, and so on. How do you engage a community in something they do not know about? In regards to your comment about childrent being supervised by an adult, many are supervised by "adults." The problem is, many parents who are seen as "adults" by society, due to their age and parent status, are the problem. Many have parents but not good role models. They many have both parents but they are really just a big version of the child. Often, they aren't any more mature or worldly than their children.
If the child is going to be enrolled in school which im sure most of them will start somewhere, schools and the communtiy work together to inform parents of after school programs that are offered either at the school or in the neighborhood. There are many neighborhoods in Sacramento that have their own programs for the children living within their community.
Positive role models are very helpful in the child upbringing. Unfortunately there are not positive role models for every child. If the child does not engage in any after school activities or have a positive role model to hang out with, the child should be supervised by some adult instead of running the streets alone where drug dealers can prey on them to be their look outs for a large amount of money.
A lot of parents aren't positive role models themselves, some kids grow up selling drugs to their own parents. This is where the community as a whole needs to work together in notifying the proper agency to clean up such a mess in broken house holds. The community should be involved if they want their crime rates to decrease.
I do agree that children who are not given the opportunity in which they are being eduacated and cared for properly would usually engage in negative behavior. If they have good role models in their lives and are guided then they should engage in a more positive path. But if they continue to live in a negative environment then they are more likely to choose that path.
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