Introduction
Children become participants in and victims of crime due to various factors, among which the environment is dominant. The most dangerous thing is that they become victims of teenagers like them, such as sexual abuse by older students or siblings. It is necessary to update the data on why sexual crimes are committed and to explain the origins of the fact that children commit them themselves.
Juvenile Sex Offenders
Sexual offenses by adolescents are particularly acute in the school setting because of the incompetence of schools as such. If a teenager commits a sex crime at school, it means school efforts at sex education have been meaningless. Schools are supposed to teach children about it, to give them the basics of the reasons for certain sexual behaviors.
However, cases with juvenile sex offenders show the imperfection of such lessons (McNamara & Bucher, 2012a). Nevertheless, juvenile offenders cannot simply be cataloged because of the characteristics of the first sexual interactions during adolescence (McNamara & Bucher, 2012a). This means that not all cases can be and are crimes, which nevertheless creates many myths about adolescents.
There is a significant difference between sexual offenses among adults and children. Unlike adults, adolescents are easier to treat (e.g., pedophilia) and respond to psychological interventions (McNamara & Bucher, 2012a). There is a correlation between the early onset of sexual content consumption (pornography) and sexual violence in the background (Siria et al., 2020).
Early identification of child deviant sexual behavior is a primary tool for responding to crime and can reduce future risks of such behavior in adulthood. The main task of school psychologists and teachers is to be sensitive to the behavior of adolescents, as observation will make it possible to understand why children commit crimes in time (Siria et al., 2020). Although the statistics of such crimes are not as high as among adults, this does not diminish the complexity of each case.
Juvenile Prostitution
Involving adolescents in prostitution is a serious offense that should be severely punished. Consideration must be given to the fact that older adolescents may also recruit children under 12 or less into prostitution, make content with them, and sell it (McNamara & Bucher, 2012b). Using minors for profit based on their sexual slavery is a problem that continues to plague even developed countries because of the prevalence of mental illness.
Adolescents who become involved in prostitution then have difficulty rehabilitating and re-entering society because their identities are leveled and destroyed during their use (ECPAT, 2021). Child sexual abuse requires close monitoring by law enforcement, school professionals, and psychologists who can identify adolescents’ problems and behavioral changes due to involvement in prostitution.
It must be remembered that involvement in prostitution occurs in a variety of environments, including family settings. Suppose we want to achieve a safe and comfortable school environment. In that case, it is the task of teachers and psychologists to be aware of if the parents of their students have been previously prosecuted for organizing prostitution. Poor contact with caregivers and family can play a role in involvement in sex crimes, so we should be careful to interact with such cases (Sitney & Kaufman, 2020).
Adolescents who commit crimes need additional help even after incarceration, and those who have been involved in prostitution need psychological safety and complete isolation from the offender (ECPAT, 2021). Because of the problem of victim-blaming and the pressure on victims of sexual abuse, schools should integrate safety plans for victims.
Juvenile Domestic Violence
Children are regularly abused: they have difficulties at school, with older students, with teachers, and with parents. Different types of abuse follow them in different instances, and it is our job to minimize the chance of harm to children (McNamara & Bucher, 2012c). It is worth noting that domestic violence is a global problem because there are not always enough mechanisms to eliminate abusive factors from a child’s environment. Violence is both physical (including sexual) and psychological, and various visual signs can indicate that a child is experiencing discomfort in the home (McNamara & Bucher, 2012c).
The danger of violence in families is that the risk of children committing crimes and violence increases significantly (Li et al., 2021). Children can become violent: toward peers, younger siblings, parents, and even animals. They cannot cope with the trauma of being abused and cannot solve their psychological problems. Consequently, teenagers’ levels of aggression and cruelty increase, and their chances of everyday interaction with the community decrease. Violence must be prevented because it destroys a child’s identity and leaves them with no educational opportunities.
Conclusion
The consequences of violence against minors are varied, making it difficult to catalog the crimes committed by adolescents afterward. The nature of sexual offenses committed by adolescents lies in the misperception of sexual behavior and the lack of adequate support. In addition, environmental conditions, namely harshness in the family and involvement in sexual slavery/prostitution/pornography, cause children’s psyches to fail to cope with the strain. As a consequence, unstable teenagers cannot integrate into the school environment, which leads to uncontrollable cruelty and committing crimes.
References
ECPAT. (2021). Sexual exploration of children in prostitution. ECPAT Summary Papers. Web.
Li, S. D., Ziong, R., Liang, M., Zhang, Z., & Tang, W. (2021). Pathways from family violence to adolescent violence: Examining the mediating mechanisms. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. Web.
McNamara, R. H., & Bucher, C. C. (2012a). Chapter 2: Juvenile sex offenders. In Problem children: Special populations in delinquency. Durham, NC: Caroline Academic Press (19-52).
McNamara, R. H., & Bucher, C. C. (2012b). Chapter 3: Juvenile prostitution. In Problem children: Special populations in delinquency. Durham, NC: Caroline Academic Press (53-82).
McNamara, R. H., & Bucher, C. C. (2012c). Chapter 5: Juvenile domestic violence. In Problem children: Special populations in delinquency. Durham, NC: Caroline Academic Press (107-128).
Siria, S., Echeburua, E., & Amor, P. J. (2020). Characteristics and risk factors in juvenile sexual offenders. Psicothema, 32(3), 314-321. Web.
Sitney, M. H., & Kaufman, K. L. (2020). The impact of disrupted caregiving for juvenile sexual offenders. Journal of Sexual Aggression, 26(2), 274-287. Web.