Juvenile Delinquency
...including themselves. The reasoning behind the Jonesboro shooting is a broken relationship with a girlfriend. The motive for the Littleton shooting is suspected to be racism. All of the boys that committed these crimes have the same characteristics. They all felt inferior or picked on or held a grudge, all had easy access to guns, all were obsessed with violent pop culture and all gave warning signs. Some of the signs were in writing and some done by video tape. (Rutebuka 2001) The Jonesboro shooting and the Littleton shooting had more in common with each other than they did with the other shootings. Both of these shootings were carefully planned and well laid out. The difference in the two shootings is that the boys in the Littleton case used heavy artillery including bombs. The manner in which the Jonesboro shooting took place was very professional. The two skipped school, dressed in camouflage, gathered ammunition and had a getaway van. The 11-year-old boy walked inside the school and pulled the fire alarm and the two began shooting. It only took them four minutes to kill four classmates and one teacher and injure several others. It is believed by some that extensive news coverage of the initial shootings played a role in the future shootings. The news coverage gave others ideas on how to carry out this crime. When delinquent behavior like this occurs, fingers are pointed in all direction placing blame on everyone except for the juveniles that committed the crime. Society likes to place blame on television, music, video games and gun manufacturers. Some also believe that juveniles that show delinquent behavior have low self-esteem. Research shows that this belief is untrue. In fact, in many cases the victims are the ones with low self-esteem. (Sheras and Tippins 2002) Delinquent behavior is poss...