Charles Mansons First Crime - Essay Example

Charles Manson Introduction Charles Manson was born to a sixteen year old alcoholic mother in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 12, 1943. Manson’s first crime happened when he was only 13 years old when he robbed a grocery store. He was committed to the Gibault School for Boys a juvenile institution when he was 14 from which he escaped soon after. He committed a variety of crimes and by the time he was 16 he had been committed to maximum security institution. Manson lived the next five years of his life in reform school until his release. He left reform school only to be arrested and incarcerated at Terminal Island again for pimping until 1967. From the time he was released from prison in 1967, Mason engages in a series of criminal activities from murder, torture and rape to the leading of a criminal sect referred to as “The Family”. Charles Manson was arrested in 1969 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1972. Many sociologists and psychologists have argued that the reasons for Manson’s criminal activity are linked to his juvenile delinquency and his upbringing (Koopmans 1-3). Discussion a) There are several theories postulated by researchers on the reasons for juvenile delinquency. Juvenile delinquency can be attributed to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory which postulates that human learning is a function of cognitive, behavioral and environmental factors. Merton proposed that society usually makes people aspire to better their lives. When there is a blockage of avenues to attain the upward mobility, people resort to crime. Agnew’s general strain theory is the best in explaining juvenile delinquency. According to Agnew, juveniles resort to delinquency as a result of the experience of horrible events or circumstances such as violence especially in the home. Agnew postulates that juveniles turn into delinquents as a result of negative emotional reactions arising from aversive situations from which they find it difficult to escape. The inability of escape leads to frustration and may be exhibited through anger based delinquency. The action of Charles Manson who was born in an environment in which he faced rejection from his mother was therefore a fertile ground for the development of aversive behavior (Koopmans 34-40). The general strain theory, the hostility, emotional atmosphere both in the home and at school, and the inadequacies in the parent child relationships result to more harm to the child than physical injury. In order to prevent delinquency, there needs to be increased efforts at enhancing the quality and concord within the family unit. Programs of prevention that base on the general strain theory are usually designed to make family relations stronger through the improvement of communal conditions which play an essential role in enhancing healthy family living (Koopmans 88-93). Charles Manson’s world was such that he had no father and hence his family system was incomplete. Charles Manson was rejected by his mother who neglected him and thus this aversive behavior at home forced him to react in anger through criminal acts. b) While the placement of children in an institution is not desirable in some instances this has to happen. Children are placed in juvenile reform homes when their behavior is considered to have overreached the norms of society. Children are also placed in juvenile reform homes when they lack a family unit that is deemed capable of reforming them so that they can fit in society. For a child to be placed in a juvenile delinquent home there has to be proof of non reformation after punishment is meted out. A good scenario is the case of Charles Manson whose mother is an alcoholic and he has no father. Charles Manson starts to engage in crime art a very early age and it is clear that his mother has no control over him or she does not care. Manson gets punished for criminal activity several times which results into his commitment to a juvenile reform home. He is committed to a juvenile reform home since it is clear that he is unable to be reformed ion the outside given the aversive family conditions that he is exposed to. Delinquent children are usually exposed to a lot of criminal activity even while in juvenile reform homes. Juvenile reform homes are usually composed of a variety of delinquent children who usually impart and transfer criminal behavior into each other. A child who runs away from the juvenile reform home is thus likely to engage in criminal activity. Delinquents who have run away from reform homes would require money to survive and as such would be engaged in criminal activity such as theft, mugging, robbery, sale and abuse of drugs, pimping and general gang related crime. Charles Manson was engaged in nearly all of this violence after escaping from the Gibault School for Boys (Koopmans 67-71). c) According to Koopmans, psychological development of a child is influenced by factors which happen in his immediate environment or to him. Since the major element in the General Strain theory is the influence of aversive conditions on the development of children, it is inevitable that physical and sexual abuse of a child plays a role in their psychological development resulting to criminal activity (221-9). Physical and sexual abuse at home usually leads to frustration and blockage in the child. A child who experiences blockage of emotions will not undergo normal psychological development. Physical and sexual abuse usually leads to a person who cannot empathize with their victims since their conscience is dead. Since children are most of the time unable to escape from abusive situations they develop criminal tendencies to express their anger art society for not coming to their rescue. Physical and sexual abuse usually leads to long term psychological effects on the lifelong development of a child. While parental warmth and love has been found to lead to a an increase in the likelihood of the child developing criminal activity in future, physically and sexually abused children showed a likelihood of developing aggressive and criminal behavior. Research has found that sexual and physical abuse usually lead to increase in the levels of adrenaline. This increase in adrenaline is the same as that resulting from fear, anger and excitement. After physical or sexual abuse, this adrenaline levels usually recede back to basal levels. Prolonged exposure to sexual and physical abuse makes it hard for these levels to recede to their previous levels (Koopmans 191-7). A high level of adrenaline in the body has the psychological effect of inducing negative aggressive behaviors which result into criminal activity. d) The sentencing of juvenile delinquents to reform schools is one of the most controversial issues especially concerning its effectiveness and effect. Juvenile reform schools are supposed to incarcerate young people who cannot serve their terms in the adult institutions. While the technocrats in criminal reform programs argue that reform schools help modify delinquent behavior, according to research, teen delinquents who attend reform school have a very high recidivism rate. The impact of the reform schools has been linked to its nature of modifying behavior. Reform schools usually base their reform programs on the basis of instilling fear into the delinquents as opposed to the fostering of understanding of the self and societal relationships. The method of instilling fear has been proved time and again to be ineffective since it is only a short term remedy. Instilling fear also has the undesired effect of making the adolescent develop the notion that control is achieved through aggression and thus they are more likely to develop aggressive criminal behavior in future (Koopmans 156-60). An exposure of a teen to therapeutic programs which base upon long term processes of behavioral and emotional change will tend to produce people who are less likely to engage in criminal behavior for the long term. Therapeutic programs over a long period of time such as counseling instill in the teen a sense of personal responsibility and a change of perspectives as opposed to the quick fix solutions of reform schools. Charles Manson is proof of the ineffectiveness of reform schools in reforming juvenile delinquents. Despite moving from school to school where he experienced different people and methods of instilling good behavior he became more hardened in his resolution for criminal behavior. Juvenile reform schools are not good for teenagers in aversive situations. Such teenagers need to get an understanding of their emotions and behavior in addition to being taught the values of right behavior and positive interaction which will play a great part in improving their personal and societal relations (Koopmans 109-118). Quick fix solutions will always tend to worsen the problem and lead to hard core criminal behavior and as such juvenile reform schools should be avoided. e) Incarceration of a juvenile delinquent for a long time usually has several effects on their resultant criminal activity since it denies them of some specific coping mechanisms and skills. There are several factors which lead to a juvenile delinquent reoffending upon release from a long incarceration. Juveniles released from long term incarceration usually lack education which means they will not get gainful employment increasing their chances of recidivism. They will also lack family networks which are elemental in building a life after institutionalization. Many of the reform skills do not offer meaningful life skills to the adolescent and this means that coping mechanisms such as attitudes and self control of the teen are usually warped. The teen will also lack money and financial support since work is not paid for in juvenile reform school. A combination of these factors after a long term incarceration will increase the chances of recidivism in victims of the reform schools. Since these young people typically are under educated they will find it hard to find gainful employment and thus will resort to illegitimate means such as robbery and mugging to earn a living. A lack of family networks which is important in mentoring the young people will lead to them developing bad attitudes and frustration which results in habits such as drug taking, drinking and prostitution. Since the teen has been exposed to negative psychological notions such as aggression and violence fro a long time, they are likely to exhibit this through criminal violence (Koopmans 318-22). Conclusion Contrary top popular opinion, juvenile reform schools tend to foster criminal behavior as opposed to reform young minds. Juvenile reform schools employ the method of instilling fear into the child in order to modify behavior. This method has long term effect on the child since it fosters aggression and leads to a tendency for criminal behavior in the future. It is important that the social conditions in which a child is brought up be conducive to the psychological well being of the child. Negative stimulants such as rejection, alcoholism, neglect and commission tyo violent reform schools will result to young people who are frustrated and angry at the world. These frustrated people are more likely to engage in criminal behavior than their counterparts brought up in stable families. The story of Charles Manson offers valuable insight into the nature of delinquency with special focus on the family unit and juvenile schools. As such the family plays a very important role in the upbringing of the child and hence the focus on the prevention of juvenile delinquency and its cure should be on the family unit. Work cited Koopmans, Andy. Charles Manson. Detroit: Lucent Books, 2005. Print. Read More