Palatine has a juvenile delinquency problem, as do all suburbs? (Buffalo Grove: rentals, violent crime)

[tinepala]

I currently live in Palatine. When I came here in the beginning of '04, it was a nice little town. It had that warm feeling nice towns had; it feeled like "home". At the time I was 9 and probably didn't realize it, or maybe it's been a problem increasing with my generation, but there are A LOT of crimes comitted around here by pubescent teenagers. Just today I was walking home from school when a ball of over 25 students gathered up behind the McDonald's at Rand Road. I soon saw what was going on and I called the cops. I didn't mean to be a snitch, but goodness were they going at it. Did I do the right thing in terms of their safety? Probably. In terms of MY safety probably not. Hopefully nobody saw me. It was really unsettling to see kids hurt themselves like that.

Does anybody who live in the 'Burbs feel the same way? About the rise in juvenile delinquency? What can be done to lessen it?

[chet everett]

You should not feel bad. When people, of any age, commit violent crimes the police should get involved.

I often am in Palatine and I think the large number of rentals complexes lend themselves to both minor and more serious criminal activity. Sadly the laborers that live in these complexes are either too tired are just not interested in being involved parents. Unsupervised youth tend to find the worst ways to fill their time, a sled perpetuating cycle of the underprepared having kids too young thus feeds on it self...

The path from school to a decent job and not having a family until one is more stable is very hard to lay out to kids that are probably in a bad situation and eager to set out on their own. Criminal elements know this and prey on the desires of youth to "make it big, make it fast".

Role models of folks that could have "gone either way" are pretty scarce. Even those that HAVE "turned their lives around" might not be the sort of bling covered big baller that impresses teens. When kids see cops with their low rent looking undercover clothes I know from experience that just makes the kids snicker...

I do think that some effort to expand the options for people to more quickly move from high school to a decent paying job can be useful. Kids that buy into the pitch from military recruiters might also be tempted if folks in the trades made a similar pitch, it is not glamorous to be an electrician or something but lots of folks do work in pleasant surroundings, with expensive equipment / tools, a high degree of autonomy, very solid income, no college requirements, ability to move around whenever you want ... Of course the relative number of jobs in general needs to expand before any trades people start encouraging more youth to join their ranks.

The other side is of course to tolerate less bad actions. If more folks did drop a dime to break up fights, stop loitering, arrest shoplifters, put drug dealers in prison the ability to choose crime as an 'easy path' would dry up!

[cubssoxfan]

Originally Posted by tinepala

I currently live in Palatine. When I came here in the beginning of '04, it was a nice little town. It had that warm feeling nice towns had; it feeled like "home". At the time I was 9 and probably didn't realize it, or maybe it's been a problem increasing with my generation, but there are A LOT of crimes comitted around here by pubescent teenagers. Just today I was walking home from school when a ball of over 25 students gathered up behind the McDonald's at Rand Road. I soon saw what was going on and I called the cops. I didn't mean to be a snitch, but goodness were they going at it. Did I do the right thing in terms of their safety? Probably. In terms of MY safety probably not. Hopefully nobody saw me. It was really unsettling to see kids hurt themselves like that.

Does anybody who live in the 'Burbs feel the same way? About the rise in juvenile delinquency? What can be done to lessen it?

Do you notice a difference between the Rand Rd & Dundee Rd area compared with downtown Palatine regarding the "juvenile delinquency"?

[SJaye]

I spent my high school years not too far from you (Buffalo Grove) and I would say that all suburbs, as well as all towns and cities do have some kind of a juvenile delinquency problem. All the reason chet mentioned as to why it occurs can pretty much happen anywhere. The difference between areas that are desirable places to raise a family and those that aren't mostly revolve around how widespread it is, and how much of a direct danger it poses to innocent people. Buffalo Grove is considered a good place to raise kids. But, we did have fights in shopping center parking lots, and significant drug use. However, those kids don't attack random people, or conduct drive-by shootings, or anything else you see in some of the city neighborhoods that make people afraid to live there. Also, the drug culture is not so prevalent that students were constantly tempted and pressured to take part. A parent can send their kid to school and know that if this kid WANTS to succeed, they can go through their lives with little risk of being threatened/shot, and find a group of friends that won't drag them down into a spiral of drug abuse. However, almost anyone that wants to get involved in drugs and fighting can most likely easily do so- especially if they have inattentive parents- and anyone, anywhere can have a kid and not pay attention to him/her.

Whether it is on the rise, I cannot tell, I live in the city now. Wouldn't be surprised if it is with the number of inattentive parents and incomplete families out there nowadays. Most of what can be done as far as reducing it probably needs to be done on a local level, finding positive things for teenagers to do, and positive influences in their lives. As a teenager, I would suggest being encouraging to anyone that does try (whether it be through a charity, church group, or after school program) to help out, and trying to find some activities that other teenagers would enjoy. I know when I was in high school I really enjoyed playing lazer tag, but I have probably been out of touch for several years now- I don't even get the obsession with vampire movies!