When the gunfire ceases, the bodies of the wounded and dead, teachers and students alike, litter the ground. Ordinarily, this situation would make for a scary Stephen King novel. In Wyoming, Kentucky, Arkansas, Colorado, and California, however, this is not just a scary story. This sort of scenario has happened, and is continuing to happen more and more frequently. According to CrimeStrike, a juvenile is arrested for murder every 3 hours, rape every 2 hours, robbery every 12 minutes, and aggravated assault every 8 minutes.
Juvenile crime is worse than ever before, and shows no sign of improving.
In addition, child offenders are committing very adult offenses. According to the Salon Newsreel, on state and federal fronts, efforts are proliferating to sentence children as adults, abolish the protective segregation of children from adult inmates, and limit parole juvenile offenders. In 1988 the Supreme Court ruled that nobody under the age of sixteen may be sentenced to death. In twenty of the thirty-eight states that enforce capital punishment, the minimum age to inflict the death penalty is sixteen. Senate Minority Leader, Tom Daschle, saw the urgency to change juvenile laws after the Jonesboro incident when he responded, The horrific tragedy is another illustration of the need to do an array of things, including passing a good juvenile crime bill.