Personal Application of Criminology Paper

Personal Application of Criminology paper

Hello, My name is _______ and I am a parent of a 16-year-old boy. He has many friends in our neighborhood and I know mostly all of the parents. Every Saturday I leave and go for a run while the rest of my family is out doing other things. The house is left alone for a while until I return. I had an unexpected phone call before I left home letting me know that I would have to pick up my daughter so my run could not be as long as usual. So, out I went for my morning run and when I came home I saw that my door was ajar and I was pretty shocked. Nothing ever happens in this neighborhood, it is a pretty quite and tight nit, and I do not think I left the door unlocked, but when I walked inside I noticed a teenager in my kitchen looking threw my drawers, I was beside myself. He said that he was looking for a pencil and a piece of paper so he could write my son a note letting him know that he came by. He never said how he got into my house. As I looked over, I saw a lock-pick and some of my jewelry on the counter. I asked the young man to leave and as he passed by me he smelt of marijuana. For a minute I could not figure out what to do.

The first thing I did was walk outside with the phone and called the cops. I informed them of what had just happened. They came out and made a report, I let them know that I smelled marijuana on the teen and they went back inside to gather the necessary evidence they needed. I talked to them about the teenaged boy and where he lives. I told them that I would call over there to see if the teen was home so they could talk to him. I believe that this was the right form of action to do because if it scares the teen enough, then maybe he will no longer burglarize people’s houses or do criminal acts. This could save him from a long line of criminal activity in the near future. I was reading an article in the paper about how teen burglary is on the rise in many towns and cities. I guess I never really noticed until it happened to me. The paper said that these burglaries done by teens are mainly because of gangs and drugs. I am not sure what I would have done had the teen in my house had a weapon. I am really glad that he left when I asked him to. I do think that he would have sold my belongings to a pawnshop or someone on the street in order to get more drugs.

The next thing I did was call the young mans parents to inform them of what their son had done. They were very upset and had him come back to my house and turn himself into the police. I let them know why I called the cops and told them that I hope he learns a lesson about being in trouble with the police and that when you do something it has consequences. For every action there is a reaction and that he should be so lucky that doing a crime at a young age is better then one when they are older. His parents were very supportive of my decision to call the police and they were very happy to play along. After the boy left with the police it wasn’t long before the parents were called to come and pick the boy up. The parents told the police to keep him for 72 hours where he can find out how bad it is in jail, or juvenile hall so maybe that could help in him never wanting to do this sort of thing again. The teenager was very upset that his parents would not come and pick him up and it was not long before he was calling and telling his parents how horrible it was there. The parents told him that if he is going to do bad things that he would have to live in bad places like juvenile hall or jail with all the other bad people. After three long days the parents went to juvenile hall to pick up the teenager and he immediately hugged them and said he was sorry. The parents told him that he would have to make up for what he did by apologizing to my family and I. And then some community service not only at my house but around the neighborhood as well. Everyone in the neighborhood was hoping that the teen would understand that he can not act like that and not have any consequences.

I also decided to tell my son everything. He would have found out from someone else and I am certain that the story would have been different from the truth so it is better he hear it from the source. It would not have been nice to have my son go to school and hear things from everyone in his class. Not telling him would be worse for the teen in my eyes. He was very disappointed in his friend and could not believe what I was telling him. He never thought his friend would do this to him and his family. My son decided that he should talk to him and he went to go visit him while he was in juvenile hall. The boy did not like that he hurt his friend and had to talk to him threw glass.

Many teens go into crime because of drugs or gangs. Some teens think they have to do bad things in order to be part of the “in”