The role of mentors in the activities of an adolescent, whether enriching or corruptive, is pivotal to how they see the world and interact within it. If it is an enriching mentor that is supportive, nurturing and protective, this person is contributing to the social capital and feeding the need to feel wanted. It is easier to emulate a person you admire and trust then it is the opposite. In the case of mentors who lead adolescents towards vices, there are more forceful interactions then the later. The relationship would be almost one sided, the adolescent trying to fill that need to be wanted, and the mentor taking advantage of their lack of knowledge of the world due to their youth. Furthermore, some corruptive mentors can just be downright
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Many people that are incarcerated today would say that they did not have a strong foundation in their mother, father or both. Can an adult blame their childhood for crimes they commit? I think it is reasonable to see, to some extent, yes. Take the case of Jesse Timmendequas, the convicted rapist and murder of 7 year old Megan Kanka. His defense utilized his childhood horrors and violent abusive early environment to help understand why he became a sexual offender. “the defense lawyers have said Mr. Timmendequas is the product of a family plagued by alcohol abuse, sexual assaults, out-of-wedlock births, mental illness, retardation and general domestic chaos.” (Glaberson, 1997) His own father, Charles Hall, sexually victimized him, beginning around age 7. Timmendequas’ mother, Carol Krych, routinely had men in and out of her life, he and his siblings where routinely exposed to maltreatment and abuse at the hands of those men. “Several of her children, she said, faulted her for failing to protect them when they were sexually assaulted as children by men in her life.” (Glaberson, 1997) The environment, these two adults, established for adolescent Timmendequas resulted in a warped view of right and wrong. Ultimately, the cycle of violence in this family created ripple effects in his life and that of his
Many people that are incarcerated today would say that they did not have a strong foundation in their mother, father or both. Can an adult blame their childhood for crimes they commit? I think it is reasonable to see, to some extent, yes. Take the case of Jesse Timmendequas, the convicted rapist and murder of 7 year old Megan Kanka. His defense utilized his childhood horrors and violent abusive early environment to help understand why he became a sexual offender. “the defense lawyers have said Mr. Timmendequas is the product of a family plagued by alcohol abuse, sexual assaults, out-of-wedlock births, mental illness, retardation and general domestic chaos.” (Glaberson, 1997) His own father, Charles Hall, sexually victimized him, beginning around age 7. Timmendequas’ mother, Carol Krych, routinely had men in and out of her life, he and his siblings where routinely exposed to maltreatment and abuse at the hands of those men. “Several of her children, she said, faulted her for failing to protect them when they were sexually assaulted as children by men in her life.” (Glaberson, 1997) The environment, these two adults, established for adolescent Timmendequas resulted in a warped view of right and wrong. Ultimately, the cycle of violence in this family created ripple effects in his life and that of his