Juvenile Homicide: A Search for Acceptance

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“Existence.....what a strange word. He, set out by determination & curiosity, knows no existence, knows nothing [relevant] to himself. The petty destinations of others & everything on this world, in this world, he knows the answers to. Yet they have no purpose to him. He seeks knowledge of the unthinkable, of the [indefinable], of the unknown. He explores the everything...using his mind, the most powerful tool known to him. Not a physical barrier blocking the limits of exploration, time thru thought thru dimensions....the everything is his realm. Yet, the more he thinks, hoping to find answers to his questions, the more come up. Amazingly, the petty things mean much to him at this time, how he wants to be normal, not this transceiver of the everything” (Klebold 4). This quote was taken from the journal of Dylan Klebold.

On April 20, 1999, Columbine High School Senior Dylan Klebold and his friend Eric Harris killed twelve students and one teacher before taking their own lives shortly after. They were armed, cruel, and just full of hatred that day. They decided to channel that hatred towards their classmates and teachers in the form of havoc, devastation, and death. Crimes such as this are sensitive subjects, especially when the youth are involved. The subject is even touchier when both the murderers and those murdered are children themselves.

Juvenile homicide is rarely defined as anything other than a horrific, illegal behavior performed by children or adolescents. It is simply seen as a criminal act. I think it is much more than that. Juvenile homicide in essence, is a search for acceptance.

Kids will change friends, clothes, music, hobbies, pretty much their entire lifestyles as in effort to discover where they fit in and ...

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...ndtrack of the School Shootings : Cultural Script, Music and Male Rag." Sage Publications. (2011): n. page. Web. 19 Jan. 2012. .

Larkin, Ralph W. Comprehending Columbine. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007. Print.

Snyder, Howard N., and Melissa Sickmund. "Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report.” Juvenile Offenders and Victims: 2006 National Report. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Mar 2006. Web. 16 Jan 2012. .

Tapia, Mike. "U.S. Juvenile Arrests: Gang Membership, Social Class, and Labeling Effects." Youth & Society. Sage Publications, 2010. Web. 16 Jan 2012. .

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