These days, juvenile delinquency presents a topic of multiple discussions. Researchers are extremely interested in exploring the reasons, which are highly likely to prompt a teenager to commit a crime. Robert Agnew and Timothy Brezina (2017) have introduced a General Theory of delinquency, which involves observing the major direct causes of determination to take illegal actions among adolescents. This theory could be illustratively applied and provide a deep insight into the murder of Elizabeth Olten. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to describe the aforementioned case and explain it from the General Theory perspective.
In 2009, in St. Martins, Missouri, a dreadful murder was committed. Alyssa Bustamante, an American teenager aged 15, was proved to be a murderer of Elizabeth Olten, a nine-year-old girl in her neighborhood, and the victim lived four houses from the young offender. The crime happened on the 21st of October in the evening, when Elizabeth was playing with her friend Emma. The young sister was convinced by Alyssa to invite the girl to the forest near their houses to have a walk and play. When the victim arrived, the adolescent started to strangle her, cut her throat, and stabbed in the chest. After Elizabeth died, Alyssa buried her in the grave, which she had dug by herself five days before the incident. Then, she wrote in her diary: “I just [—] killed someone. I strangled them and slit their throat and stabbed them… it was amazing… it’s pretty enjoyable… I gotta go to church now.. lol.” (True Crime Daily, 2019). Her diary was the main evidence for her guilt, and after the police examined her notes, she revealed all the details of the killing.
The investigation of this incident depicted that the offender had serious problems with her family. Alyssa’s grandparents had to take custody of her and her younger siblings, as her parents could not provide children with care. Her mother had problems with drug addiction, and her father was sentenced to imprisonment. Observing the room of the murderer, the police found cards and letters taped to the walls sent by her father (True Crime Daily, 2019). According to Agnew and Brezina’s list of the major direct causes of delinquency (2017), it might be a motive which prompted the girl to this action. The authors highlight poor parenting experience as one of the considerable causes (Agnew and Brezina, 2017). They state that “other factors, like having parents who are criminals or are divorced or separated, are important largely because they affect these dimensions of poor parenting” (Agnew and Brezina, 2017:343). These factors imply conflicts between family members, lack of loving feelings and attitude towards children. They are also poorly supervised and are most likely to be abused by parents.
All the mentioned aspects impact the mentality of children and make them more predisposed to committing crime. The General Theory appears to be especially relevant to Alyssa Bustamante’s case, whose parents could not be responsible for their offspring. In addition, they showed they do not present an example to follow, as they were engaged in drug addiction and sentenced to imprisonment. Although the report does not emphases these circumstances but mentions them, the impact of these factors should not be underestimated, as they are highly likely to prompt to stick to criminal activity. Apart from that, the report does not reveal any information on their home environment and relationships with grandparents. Conflicts and misunderstandings with them could also contribute to Alyssa’s intention to kill and affect her worldview. Furthermore, there is no information about other possible causes of committing the crime and increasing delinquency in the report, except the General Theory.
References
Agnew, Robert and Timothy Brezina. 2017. Juvenile Delinquency: Causes and Control. New York: Oxford University Press.
True Crime Daily. 2019. Diary Solves Crime: The Alyssa Bustamante Case [YouTube video].