"Outline how our environment plays a role in causing children to kill?"

Street gangs often involve deaths and committing murder. They are usually made up by race or ethnicity and are “a group of people who form an allegiance for a common purpose and engage in violent, unlawful, or criminal activity.” These gangs think that violence is fun and that they must enjoy it so that they can get and keep respect and status. Those who are part of a gang, (some children even as young as ten), have put their families lives also in danger because if the member does something wrong or doesn’t do something that the gang tells them to do, then the gang will physically harm the member and his/her family. Gang members who are not killed end up taking drugs and alcohol and getting long police records. Killing comes into play when gangs go looking for trouble and have a showdown with rival gangs in the form of a drive-by shooting, which results in the death of some gang members but also some innocent victims who were in the wrong place at the wrong time, or simply individual attacks. This gang warfare often influences young children to start gangs and has in numerous cases ended up with child on child killing, and child gangs just killing people such as the elderly for money or fun.

After studying thoroughly, I found what was to me the most interesting yet sickening case of children killing the elderly, it was murder committed by fifteen year old Cindy Collier and fourteen year old Shirley Wolf. On June 14th 1983, when the two had just become best friends, they went around knocking on doors of homes so that someone would let them in as they had been swimming, and I assume they were cold and wet. Eventually an eighty five year old grandmother named Anna Brackett let them in because she thought they looked like innocent little girls, but only if they called their parents. Anna then went to get them some water and they all had a chat, but at the same time the two girls were plotting how to steal her car. When Anna went to answer a phone call, the girls decided it was time; Shirley grabbed the old woman by the neck choking her whilst Cindy found a butcher’s knife and tossed it to her. Shirley then got the old woman on the floor and started to stab and slash her body, because she was so rough, she broke the knife, so Cindy passed her a much bigger one. After the woman was dead and had been stabbed twenty eight times, the two young girls ran off laughing back to Cindy’s house. When they were found out and arrested by the police, they confessed to the police that the murder gave them a ‘kick’ and they’d definitely like to do another one because they thought it was fun. A diary entry from Shirley stated that: “Today Cindy and I ran away and killed an old lady. It was lots of fun.” This I what I would call an act of insanity, however, when thinking what I read about their background, I wouldn’t blame them for their mental state. As a child, Cindy had been molested by her stepbrother, neglected and used by both of her parents, and in and out of juvenile halls, foster care, and community service jobs. On the other hand Shirley Wolf was an innocent victim of incest, had been neglected and frequently abused, from things such as being forced into oral sex at three years old, full intercourse at nine years old then being put on birth control at twelve, and being photographed for child pornography magazines. To me I think that the mental state of these girls and the immoral acts that they committed, are due to the immoral way of life that they had been subjected to. I believe that the only reasonable explanation for this occurrence and lapse of sanity is that they are so confused with right and wrong which is why they are so disturbed to the extent that they can enjoy killing innocent people.

One of the most proposed theories as to why, is media. This is because media constantly surrounds and mauls our environment, leading us to be influenced by it, however, because children are still developing their personal identity and finding their way in life, they are more susceptible to being affected by it. Every day children are attacked with information, messages, images etc, from the media which are subjecting them to be told how to behave and what life choices to make and basically how and what to think. This then leads to them copying what they have seen on television, the internet, or in video games, because their young fragile minds have not yet discovered how to judge or process these influences for themselves. “An example of a child emulating what he has seen in a film is from the film 'Natural Born Killers'. A young boy was obsessed with and watched this film many times, a couple with friends and many more by himself, he then made the choice to kill his mother and sister, then went on the run like the killers in the film that he looked up to did. Another example is of two young girls who attacked and murdered a nun, and then claimed that they were told to do it in the lyrics of the songs by Marilyn Manson.”   Why are these children so easily able to access such violent films and lyrics? One answer is that parents are finding more and more need to work and less time to spend with their children therefore the children are open to watching television, playing video games, and accessing the internet; all of which introduce them to violence as aforementioned. By letting children view all of these bad images and influences “We are, in short, teaching them that killing is natural.”

This leads me to another cause as to why children kill, which is abuse. There are three main types of abuse that can affect a child in later life; sexual, physical and mental. Many of the children I have studied about that kill have experienced either two or all of these forms of abuse. Usually this abuse is then forced upon a child by a family member or authority, but in most cases by a father, brother, or mother. In the case of children who kill and sexually abuse another person, they are just acting in this manner merely because they recreating the violence and abuse that was done unto them. These children possibly have been victims of abuse for a number of years before they decided that enough was enough and they finally lost it and became the person that was responsible for instead of the victim. This reaction is normal for a child who has not been taught any different because what they have been subjected to is what they believe is morally right, little do they know that it is the opposite of right, immoral. There have been cases where the children that have experienced abuse in their family went and killed the family that made them suffer, however the usual approach that these troubled children take is to take it out on innocent victims that have nothing to do with them whatsoever. For example, an American girl named Cheryl Pierson who was a very popular, \pretty, social cheerleader, paid someone to kill her abusive father. This someone was a 16-year-old classmate named Sean Pica, and when Cheryl questioned who would be daring enough to fulfil such a task he promptly offered his services, providing that he got paid well as his life would also be on the line. Cheryl’s father was a widow who tried his hardest to be a good dad and bring his children up well, however Cheryl claimed that he showed her too much affection, by not only showering her with love and gifts but also by sexually abusing her since the age of 11. The abuse began when Cheryl’s mother was slowly dying in and out of hospital, and when she eventually died, two days later Cheryl’s father forced her to have sex in her recently passed mother’s bed. She was then made to endure sex with her father twice daily and if she tried to stop it in any way she would be beaten brutally. This is proof of children snapping because of the violence and wrong done to them.

Another case of child abuse leading to the formation of a murderer is in the case of Mary Bell. However, they didn’t kill their family, they killed innocent victims. They both had a very tough upbringing, I will discuss them both separately because they are so lengthy, firstly that of Mary. Mary Bell had a childhood that involved continuous drug overdoses and abandonment. Her father played the role of uncle for an unknown reason and her mother was a disciplinarian. Her mother however, disciplined her in the wrong way; she was a dominatrix prostitute (she used whips and bondage on her clients) and felt that her daughter was a hindrance to her work, so she continuously tried to abandon her. As aforementioned, she experienced drug overdoses which were given by her mother. At 11-years-old, Mary is the youngest female killer in the UK, even 36 years after she was diagnosed to be “intelligent, manipulative, and dangerous” and found guilty of the murder of two children.

Another cause which makes these children tick is family. This instance is the engagement of irresponsible parenting and bad upbringing, similar to the abusive situations mentioned above. One of the biggest ever cases is in the case of James Bulger’s murder, many motives were arisen but the most frequently questioned one was whether or not the two young boys that murdered James had been watching a violent horror film from the collection of one of the boys’ father. However, this was not the only proposed cause, because the young boy’s, named Jon Enables and Robert Thompson, also had problems in their home with their family, which will later be discussed. Jon and Robert were troublesome boys that often did the wrong thing. On the day of the murder of Jamie Bulger, the two youngsters who were playing truant from school in a local shopping centre in which they often stole items such as batteries, enamel paint, stationary, sweets, make up and more. They rarely kept any of their stealing, just threw them away because to them it was just the fun and buzz that they got from it. It was evident that the boys were menaces when they were told to leave everywhere they went, and got chased out of McDonald’s for climbing all over the chairs. After, the murder when questioned in custody whose idea it was to coax Jamie away from his mother at the shopping centre that day, Robert claimed that Jon said “Lets get a kid, I haven’t hit one for ages.” However, Jon also claimed that Robert had said, “Let’s get him lost outside so when he goes into the road he’ll get knocked over.” It can not be determined if either one of the boys was right, but it can go without saying that they had brutal intentions for this toddler.

After, getting the Jamie away from his mother they took him down to a nearby hang out of theirs, an isolated canal, where they dropped James on his head. Later on that evening when it had become dark, the boys were presented with a police station but they bypassed it and continued on to a railway where Jon and Robert proceeded to murder the toddler. At first, paint was thrown into James’s left eye, then he was hit by stones and bricks and possibly even sexually assaulted, and as if it wasn’t enough, the boys proceeded to beat him with an iron bar and then thinking he was dead, left his body on the railway track after putting bricks on his continuous bleeding head.

        The boys were obviously questioned and put on trial following the murder, and motives arose. They had had very difficult upbringings living in one of the most run down areas in the UK. Jon was a middle child, whose siblings both had developmental problems; his older brother was born with a cleft pallet meaning that he could not communicate well and was prone to frustration and had frequent temper tantrums which led to him attending a special school and led to his parent’s focusing most of their attention trying to control his brother’s outbreaks, but they found this difficult so they often put him in foster care. Jon’s younger sister also attended a special needs school taking even more attention from Jon. This lack of attention made him confused and resentful. He was also troubled by his parent’s having a turbulent marriage constantly splitting up and preventing any kind of security in the family. Both of the parent’s had been diagnosed with clinical depression, suicidal tendencies, and when their mother was stressed, she often beat them and shouted abusive language at them. Jon was always an antisocial child, especially with other children his age because they repeatedly made fun of and mocked him and his mentally challenged siblings. When Jon met Robert they then became the bullies instead of the bullied. With Robert now Jon’s friend, he felt tough rather than weak and became a well-known trouble maker.

When analysing the two boys, it was discovered that Jon had no severe mental illness and that he knew death was certain, claiming that it meant that people could not come back. He also had a vivid idea of heaven and hell as permanent places. However, he was said to be scared of television violence because when a bloody or gruesome scene was shown, he would have to turn away covering his eyes and ears. In the case of Robert, a psychiatrist concluded that he was above average intellectually and also had no mental illness, but at the time showed signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

        Robert on the other hand was the tough one of the two and appeared as the ringleader in the murder; however he was more likely to emit his anger for defence rather than inflicting unnecessary pain on someone else, because he was brought up in a violent household. His father was an aggressive alcoholic that repeatedly beat his wife and left the family when the children were young, and his mother was a beaten alcoholic wife that took out her aggression by hitting her sons with sticks and belts, and she also attempted suicide several times. From this, the children resulted to demonstrating violence on each other just because that is what they themselves had constantly been shown by their parents. Robert had six siblings all with problems; the oldest brother was placed in social care following abuse at the age of four, another brother became a thief, another was an arsonist and suspect of sexually abusing children (maybe even Robert), and one brother violently threatened his teachers on a regular bases and constantly attempted to commit suicide. This horrific family environment led Robert to become antisocial and to abuse his younger brother (maybe even sexually as he did not deny or confirm this when asked in questioning).

The case study used of James Bulger, was a huge case, and in researching this, I have discovered many things and found many answers. Like that of Cheryl Pierson, Mary Bell, Cindy Collier and Shirley Wolf, and now, these two young boys, family including security love and a good upbringing is a crucial part and need of a child’s development.  In conclusion I would like to integrate a quote by Walter C. Reckless, which is an extensive summary to my discussed theories and ideas.

“Unlike biological theories, the sociological study of crime emphasizes the role of the environment on criminal behaviour. Here, Walter reckless advocates that society contributes tom criminal conduct by showing that external factors can influence crime rates and patterns. Reckless argues that family discord, peer pressure, and community factors aid in the creation of juvenile delinquents and criminals alike. He emphasizes the roles of society in both the definition and socialization of criminal behaviours and advocates increased focus on these to predict and prevent criminality.”

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