Research Proposal

Victim or Criminal?

            Innocence, purity, ignorance, enthusiastic, outgoing, obedience, are the words that one may use to describe children. Is it possible that there may be an alternate side of these children that people may not see or refuse to accept? Is there a darker more vile side hidden inside themselves or is it just a deranged, mentally they adopted due to certain events in their experience. In society, there are numerous crimes being committed by young children. Some are so young that one may be dismayed by the age of these children. The most common solution that one may think of is harsh punishments and imprison them. However, what people fail to understand is that these children who commit these murders are also victims themselves. Jail and harsh punishments are not the way to deter murders and other gruesome crimes from occurring. By placing them in prison does not assist people or the police in understanding the root of the problem, the child may repeat the crime, and there is no real treatment being administered to achieve the ultimate successful solution.

            This topic is significant because people must be knowledgeable about why these children are committing these crimes and find a way to prevent it. These children should not all be seen as victims but they should not also be assumed as a criminal who is in the right state of mind and committed a vicious crime. If the police or people in the criminal justice system understand the psychology of young adolescence’s minds that commit the crime or have the tendency to be extremely violent, they just may be able to deter these crimes from occurring as often as they do. When they achieve that knowledge, then this society will in all become a better and safer place for all its inhabitants.

            Using the academic resources, there will be articles related to psychology and children behavior that will help in this particular topic. Also there may be news articles on child murders and their point of views on this issue of whether they should be seen as victims or as criminals. Muller states “The public and the media called for justice, seeking harsh punishment and life imprisonment for the murder of a child.” (Muller 2015) Here is the opinion of what the public thinks and they feel that there needs to be justice and by justice it means life imprisonment of these children who murdered other children. Many other articles and academic journals will allow a deeper and more enhanced paper about the topic of child murderers.