Here's a report that could be a handbook for programmers of
afternoon talk shows: "Teens Who Murder Their Parents," "Mothers
Who Kill Their Newborns." Kelleher has written much on violence
(Murder Most Rare, not reviewed, etc.) and consults for public and
private organizations on threat assessment. Here he sets out to
examine the backgrounds of young people from stable and supportive
families who, with no warning, put bullets through their parents'
heads or slaughter a best friend. By knowing more about those
savage acts, we can head off increased violence from the baby
boomlet now heading into its teens, Kelleher theorizes. He then
proceeds to lay out case history after case history of
"neonaticides" (babies killed at birth by their usually teenage
mothers), parricides (children who kill their parents), cult
killers, and thrill killers, each crime seemingly bloodier than the
one before. The executioners are often, but not always, older
teens; usually, but not exclusively, boys; and frequently examples
in the community: altar boys, honor students, star athletes,
without a blemish on their records. Why do these children burst
loose in a flood of rage that lets them gun down a friend or a
playground full of school mates? They cannot explain it themselves,
except in the most prosaic terms: ". . . tired of doing the
household chores," said one, typically. It is difficult, if not
impossible to distinguish these teens' protests against parental
rules from the normal adolescent resistance to curfews and family
strictures. Kelleher agrees, "We do not understand why . . ."
offering finally some uncertain psychological speculation, advice
to parents to love and listen to their children (although many of
the parents described here seemed to do just that), and some
discussion of the increasingly tough laws mandating that children
who commit violent crimes be tried as adults. Voyeurism takes the
reins over insight into "good kids" who murder; sadly, we are no
better off than when we began in understanding the "why." (Kirkus
Reviews)
In recent years, the incidence of violent crime committed by
teenagers has escalated, a fact that has hardly escaped the news
media. When faced with the challenge of understanding and
explaining such occurences in the headlines, one is tempted to rely
upon the truism: There are good kids and there are bad kids.
Michael D. Kelleher, noted expert on the subject of violence,
asserts in When Good Kids Kill that this belief is outdated,
oversimplified, and fundamentally wrong. He states that some of the
most atrocious murders are, in fact, committed by good kids who
have never given a prior indication of violence. Kelleher's book is
the first to focus exclusively on homicides committed by previously
nonviolent teens, exploring many of the prominent criminal cases
covered by the media in recent years. Although individual killings
are hard to predict, Kelleher's important new work demonstrates
that there are categories of crime that can be attributed to good
kids who kill; his work shows for the first time that the young
perpetrators of murders that fall into these categories share
similar backgrounds and experience. While such crimes as teen
mothers disposing of their newborns, sons and daughters murdering
their parents, members of cults slaying friends or strangers, and
young people murdering the objects of their sexual obsessions are
almost always surprising and baffling, Kelleher points out that the
killers often exhibit warning signs before erupting into violence.
By recognizing these warnings and understanding patterns of
experience that can motivate these tragic crimes, the author
believes that parents, counselors, and education and law
enforcement professionals can begin to address the challenge of
increasing teenage violence and ensure a less violent society for
our children.
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