Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 18, 1994 TAG: 9402190001
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MWIZENGE S. TEMBO
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
There is intense public debate in the media about crime and what should be done about it. There are sometimes shrill voices on both sides of the gamut of the usual menus of suggested solutions:
Guns do not shoot people; the criminal who pulls the trigger should be punished. Gun legislation punishes the law-abiding citizen and would not work. Besides, its right there in the Constitution that everyone has the right to own a gun for self-defense.
Criminals should be rehabilitated, as they may be victims of poverty, racism, childhood abuse, drug abuse. Even murderous criminals are human and therefore worthy of building more expensive prisons to keep them alive.
The arguments seem to go around in painful circles. Throw in the ACLU and sometimes you have the human rights of criminals who have committed the worst inhumane acts being placed on the same pedestal as those of Mother Teresa.
Why is it that no solution seems to have universal support? Why is it that certain solutions are ruled out as barbaric and therefore off-limits for even public discussion? Why has violent crime exploded?
To understand why violent crime has exploded from the home to the school to urban streets, one needs to look at the whole enchilada. The Ashanti African proverb perhaps says it all: The ruin of a nation begins in the homes of its people. Some of the bitter fruits of the profound social changes that have shaken the foundation of this society since the 1960s are beginning to ripen.
The civil-rights movement; the pill; welfare; women's liberation; abortion rights; massive technological changes in television, mass media and communication; mass production and consumption made possible by technological advances; and extreme liberal values. Life for the majority has been reduced to a series of individual rights and choices, with virtually neither responsibility nor accountability. All these factors have been brewing and now some of the ugly results are showing.
Women's liberation, civil rights, many technological advances in communication and other fields have brought tremendous improvement to life. But one cannot deny that the negative repercussions or side effects have to be faced head on. On a recent ABC-TV "20/20" program on January 7, I saw something abhorrent. The program suggested that citizens of India commit blatant infanticide. An estimated 16 million baby girls have been murdered after they were born because their parents value boys. Mothers talked about this openly, even how they deliberately suffocated their newly born girls. Ultrasound technology meant for prenatal examination of pregnant mothers is widely used in India to determine the sex of the baby and then to abort it if it is a girl. But it occurred to me that my outrage was misdirected in light of the fact that there are millions of abortions in this country every year.
The discussion about crime and solutions to many of the critical social problems today should have this holistic, whole-enchilada approach. Youths and adults in all communities choose careers, whether to have sex at any age, whether to use drugs, whether to believe in God, whether to have an abortion, whether to be a single mother, whether to marry or divorce, whether to watch pornography, whether to have certain toppings on a pizza, what channels to watch on TV. In all these myriad choices, usually claimed to be backed by the U.S. Constitution, nobody has seriously asked: What is needed to raise children to become responsible adults who will be less likely to commit crimes?"
The bottom line is, until we as a society can figure out that raising children is a 24-hour job and requires the total devotion and sacrifice of at least two parents who have a stable home, all the legislation, toughening of the laws, gun buy-back programs, and billions of dollars for more police protection will not make a lasting dent in violent crime. Young, unattached males between the ages of 13 and 25 commit the majority of the crimes that make streets dangerous.
Married and stable men and women have been missing in many homes during the last 15 to 20 years. Raising children in a responsible way is incompatible with extreme individual rights and selfish choices by parents.
The choices are becoming clear: Either the social fabric needs to be fixed, which would require tremendous effort and sacrifice on the part of all Americans, or more jails need to be built. The latter alternative may be very popular because it appears to infringe less on individual choices and freedoms. If we are ingenious enough, we might find some desolate forbidding place somewhere in the Northern frigid tundra to build more punishing prisons to house violent criminals.
The crime debate will continue. Here are some ideas that may help in livening the debate or finding lasting solutions:
The disintegration of the two-parent family and the erosion of neighborhood communal values have happened gradually over a long time. The crime problems will not be solved overnight. We may have to hunker down for the next 15 to 20 years. You may think there is too much violence, gratuitous sex and sleaze on TV now. Wait until we get 500 channels. You haven't seen anything yet.
Since stable families that raise children and stabilize neighborhoods cannot be legislated, solutions to violent crime and drugs will continue to be discussed in terms of gun legislation, more police and more prisons.
Vicious and inhumane criminal acts have to be met with draconian punishment. Gun-toting juvenile delinquents as young as 12 and 13 have caught on to the idea that if they steal a car, deal drugs or shoot someone, the judge will slap them on the wrist, sending them, at the worst, to a juvenile home.
Next time someone argues that hardened, vicious criminals should be rehabilitated and returned to the communlty, let's send the paroled criminals to the neighborhoods of the parole-board members. All citizens should visit their local maximum-security prisons and find out what criminals really do and how much humanity many of them have.
\ Mwizenge S. Tembo is an assistant professor of sociology at Bridgewater College.
by CNB