Bad kids
Subtitle: South African youngsters who rob and kill
By: Chris Karsten ; [English translation by Herman Fourie].
Series: True crime; True crime (Cape Town, South Africa)
Publisher: Human & Rousseau; Thorold's Africana Books [distributor]; Thorold's Africana Books [distributor
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Cape Town; Johannesburg
Language: eng
Number of pages: 143
ISBN-13: 9780798149013
Subjects: Juvenile homicide -- South Africa -- Case studies; Juvenile delinquents -- South Africa -- Case studies
Genres: Case studies.
Description: Bad Kids tells ten true stories of youngsters involved in serious crime, often the worst possible crime: ending other people's lives before their own have properly begun. There are tales of unspeakable malice: boys and girls who lie and steal to gain favours; students from privileged backgrounds who brutally kill a homeless man; sixteen-year-olds who murder their parents and siblings. Sometimes heroism and hope flow from tragedy: Angeline Taljaard bravely sings in a musical the day after members of her immediate family have been murdered and maimed by two fifteen-year-old boys; and many people on both sides of the Atlantic still benefit from Amy Biehl s legacy after she was stoned to death by teenagers coming from a political rally. Chris Karsten follows the often bizarre twists and turns in the story behind the headline crime, masterfully recreating the suspense and action. He gets right inside the minds of the main characters and puts a human face to these perplexing crimes. As a journalist he was directly involved with many of the events recounted in this collection. Like a series of still photographs, they place you in the centre of the dramatic events of which the outcomes were still unclear at the time. To flesh out these often-sketchy facts, he held lengthy discussions with people who were intimately involved with the cases: survivors, next of kin, detectives, forensic specialists and psychologists.
Notes: Distributor information from label.

Originally published in Afrikaans.