[Chat] Mystery writer Anne Perry contrasted with juveniles just arrested

[Stephen J Gewirtz]

Some years ago, there was a movie made and set in New Zealand and based 
on a true case.  In the movie, two young girls plotted and carried out 
the murder of the mother of one of them.  That mother had threatened to 
separate the girls, and there were hints that the girls might have had a 
sexual relationship.  Unfortunately, I do not remember the name of the 
movie.

Anyway, after the movie came out, it was reported that one of the girls 
(her name in the movie was Juliet Hulme, and that may have been her real 
name), after doing her time as a juvenile, had migrated to Great Britain 
and had become the mystery writer Anne Perry.  I have not read any Anne 
Perry mysteries, but my wife has enjoyed a couple of them.

In thinking about possibly trying as adults the two juveniles who 
reportedly have confessed to at least some of the recent wave of 
robberies in Charles Village and Remington, I find myself asking myself 
whether the two juveniles can be salvaged from a life of crime.  I do 
not know the answer.  I do know that we in the U.S. deal much more 
severely with crime than people in much of the rest of the world, 
especially Europe.  At the same time, a lot of our crime results from 
the failed war on drugs.  And unfortunately, our prisons often turn out 
to be schools in which the incarcerated learn to be better at committing 
crimes.

A difference between the two girls in the movie and the two just 
arrested juveniles is that the girls presumably were younger,  Also, the 
two just arrested have committed armed robberies against the general 
public, whereas the two girls in the movie killed the mother of one of 
them in the likely belief that that was the only way they could be 
together.  Clearly, Juliet Hulme/Anne Perry turned into a useful member 
of society.

My inclination, in the absence of more information, is that our 
protection from the two who were just arrested requires more than a slap 
on the wrist in a juvenile proceeding.  At least while they are 
incarcerated, they cannot commit any more armed robberies.  I do not 
know how successful programs run by Juvenile Services are at preventing 
recidivism.  But I am curious to see other opinions.

And in any case, I wish that we as a society were doing a lot more to 
keep our kids away from crime.  I am sure that prevention before the 
fact is a lot more effective than punishment after the fact.  Recently, 
I spent part of an afternoon at Waverly Library tutoring a fifth grader 
who still adds numbers by counting on his fingers, and I have been told 
that there are a lot of kids just like him.  At least he was coming for 
tutoring.  When we do not provide enough recreation centers to give kids 
something positive to do after school, when we fail to educate our kids 
to expect to be able to enter good careers, we are just sowing the seeds 
for future problems.

Steve