By Pat Culverhouse
Juvenile crime. It’s a national problem that also has significant impact on local communities and Minden is no different. Det. Sgt. Jason Smith heads the Minden Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Division and he sees the problem as one that will continue to grow unless the root causes are addressed.
“Juvenile crime is a big problem, and we’re trying to take analytical tools to develop trends before we get a bigger problem,” he said. “The single most common crime in Minden is violent-related juvenile crime.”
Multiple factors contribute to juvenile crime, but Smith sees one that stands out above others.
“The number one reason that gets kids into the juvenile system is being from a single parent household,” he said. “One hundred percent of our juvenile gang members here come from a single parent household. And the number one reason for adults being involved in the justice system is that they were in the juvenile system.”
Smith said he’s not attacking single moms, “…they’re doing all they can. Half or more of their income is gone, half the supervision is gone, there’s no positive male role model. There are a lot of contributing factors, this is just one.”
Youngsters are looking for family and they’re finding it in street gangs, Smith observed. “They’re not a gang, they’re a family. It doesn’t mean that every kid from a single home will be in a gang. I imagine 99 percent of those kids will be ok, but there are still far too many who won’t be.”
Juvenile street gangs in Minden are not imports, they’re home grown, Smith said. In many cases, young people who turn to gangs often find motivation through social media.
“They’re incubated in cyber space and the streets. Older kids teach the younger ones who idolize them,” he said. “They’ve been desensitized through social media. They watch fights on Snapchat and that becomes their baseline for normalcy. It’s the world we live in where there’s no Boys and Girls Club, no Boy Scouts, no church involvement…nowhere for the kids to go for positive character reinforcement except on the streets.”
And once they’re on the streets, they find themselves capable of doing just about anything with just about everything at their disposal. Firearms, Smith said, are available to kids at an alarming rate.
“Now I’m a Second Amendment advocate, but in the hands of a hyperemotional, hyper-aggressive juvenile with that juvenile brain, it’s a dangerous combination,” Smith said. “It’s become normal that instead of fighting we’ll just fire a couple of shots, not trying to hit anybody but getting our Internet clout. Until we’re able to direct that violence into something positive, it’s going to go to the streets.”
Bringing juveniles into the justice system is made difficult by what seems to be a lack of consequences for young offenders, Smith said.
“The juvenile justice system here does everything it can, but when we have only two beds (space available at juvenile facilities) there’s nothing any of us can do,” he said. “We have great respect for (City Court) Judge (Sherb) Sentell. He does everything he can for these kids, but he’s at the mercy of the system.”
Smith said it’s up to the state legislature to help with laws addressing the juvenile criminal system, including funding for more facilities and more programs designed to take instructive measures.
“There have to be consequences for actions, but we need a system that is more corrective and not instructive in how to get better at crime,” he said. “Some of these kids come away from a juvenile facility, knowing that all they’re going to get is an ankle monitor. They are unchanged. I’ve literally pulled a gun from a waistband and a sack of weed from the ankle monitor.”
Smith believes statistics verify that kids must be shown alternatives that aren’t being offered at home. Problems will only worsen without efforts to make positive changes in a time of negative influences.
“Guidance is lacking. In some cases, we’re three of four generations into single parent households and two generations outside the church,” he said. “When morality is taken from the picture, kids are filling it with something else. Asian children idolize mathematicians and scientists, ours idolize sports figures, musicians, rappers…it’s another symptom of degrading our society.”