At-Risk Males: A Cry for Help | Editorial

By Kieron Murdoch | Opinion Contributor

As the nation’s leaders and residents contemplate measures to respond to the criminal violence menacing society, we must remember that we need to combat the root causes of the violent street level criminal behaviour that has become such a menace.

Hold-ups, armed robberies, home invasions, shootings, stabbings, slashings, and general gun-toting knife-wielding banditry – these crimes are being perpetrated by a cadre of males who have become socially deviant.

So the question must be asked: why do some males exhibit such anti-social and criminally deviant behaviour? Where did they grow up? What sort of circumstances did they endure as children? What was their performance like at school? What was their home environment like?

What life circumstances brought them to the point at which they are menacing good citizens in their businesses and homes both at night and in broad day? If we answer these questions, we stand a chance of actually understanding more fully the nature of the problem we have to tackle.

More than any other demographic, we should view the ongoing incidence of violent street level crime and reported “gang” activity as a cry for help from our at-risk young males. The point bears emphasizing. More than any other demographic, we should view the ongoing incidence of violent street level crime and reported “gang” activity as a cry for help from our at-risk young males.

How many males who successfully graduated primary school, secondary school, and went on to a local tertiary institution are currently menacing our streets? How many young men with an exceptional command of the English language and stellar reading and writing skills are currently menacing our streets?

How many males who consistently got the additional support they needed in order to pass their courses and not drop out when their grades were failing and their interest in academic achievement was strained, are currently menacing our streets?

How many males who in their adolescence and young adulthood, gained economically valuable skills, qualifications, or entrepreneurial habits, are currently menacing our streets?

How many males who in their adolescence, formed a network of friends who were all well adjusted, morally upright youths, who acted as positive influences on their lives, are currently menacing our streets?

How many males who come from stable households (nuclear, single-parent, extended, blended or otherwise) where their emotional needs for affection and security were met throughout their childhood up to their adulthood, are currently menacing our streets?

How many males who were fortunate enough to grow up in safe communities – free from high levels of crime, insecurity, social decay, delinquency, drug use, substance addiction, and domestic violence – are presently menacing our streets?

How many males who as youth, had consistent access – whether by the means of their parents, a state-funded programme, or the goodwill of the community – to after school programmes in sports or other extracurricular activities where they were valued, are presently menacing our streets?

How many males who, in navigating the troubles and pitfalls of their youth, could rely on the consistent meaningful presence of a network of extended family, role models, and institutional or community leaders, are currently menacing our streets?

How many males who did not develop an addiction to marijuana or alcohol in their childhood or adolescence are currently menacing our streets? How many of the young men menacing our streets have been self medicating themselves with alcohol and marijuana since they were boys and adolescents?

How many males who in their adolescence, displayed some form of mental or emotional distress, depression, anxiety, or some form of mental disorder or illness, and got the professional help and the change in circumstances that they needed to get better, are currently menacing our streets?

In each case, the answer to the question we posed is “few”. None of these factors alone determines that any young male will become a violent criminal. Many persons reading this right now, endured such circumstances, and are nonetheless, upright invaluable members of society.

Many have risen from such circumstances to dominate the heights of the economy, politics, industry, academia, and so on. But they are the exceptions.

The fact remains that the presence of the factors discussed, and other factors, in the lives of boys increases the risk that they will be disillusioned, underachieve, become socially deviant and aggressive, pick up few valuable skills, abuse substances, and turn to deviant cliques and subcultures, finally giving way to criminal acts and criminal violence.

It illustrates a point which we already know, but still need to adequately address: If our at-risk population of boys do not benefit from the coordinated multi-layered multi-year intervention that they need throughout their childhood and adolescence, they will continue to be the most predisposed demographic to falling into crime and deviance.

Let us say, for example, we treat the age of 10-years-old as a good intervention point to come into youngsters’ lives and take steps to deter at-risk males from going down the wrong path.

It means that the males who are committing violent street level crimes today at an age like 15-years-old would have still been malleable 10-year-old youths, receptive to intervention, as recently as 2019. What were we doing for our at-risk youth in 2019?

A then 16-year-old boy was arrested for the murder of Rhoudi Shamly in 2023. At his age, he would have still been a malleable 10-year-old youth , receptive to intervention, as recently as 2017. What were we doing for our at-risk youth back in 2017?

In 2023, a 17-year-old boy from Villa was charged for a robbery and shooting in Yorks. At his age, he would have still been a malleable 10-year-old youth , receptive to intervention, as recently as 2016. What were we doing for our at-risk youth back in 2016?

In 2024, police charged an 18-year-old, Mitchy Spencer Jr. of Hatton, with receiving stolen goods worth $16,000. He too would have still been a malleable 10-year-old youth, receptive to intervention, as recently as 2016.

In 2024, 21-year-old Nickquan Valarie was arrested for unlawful possession of a 9mm pistol and ammunition. At his age, he would have been a malleable 10-year-old youth, receptive to intervention, as recently as 2013. Was 2013 really that long ago? What were we doing for our at-risk youth back in 2013?

In 2024, a 27-year-old man, Jahari Adams of Golden Grove, was charged with robbing the owner of a Mini-Mart in Herberts. At his age, he would have been a malleable 10-year-old youth, receptive to intervention, back in 2007. Think back. What were we doing for our at-risk youth back in 2007?

Perhaps it is time that we acknowledge that we are suffering the consequences of our decades long indifference to the plight of our at-risk boys. What are we prepared to do about it?

Again, we know the factors at play: unstable households; inadequate emotional nurturing; underachievement at school; poorly developed literacy skills; addiction to marijuana and abuse of other substances; living in communities with crime, delinquency and violence; forming friendships networks based on delinquency; being surrounded by horrible male role models; no sustained access to sports and extracurricular activities; and no academic support to prevent course failure and dropping out.

We can go on: no effective support network of adult role models to assist their primary caregivers; no secondary shelter when the primary household fails; no intervention to address aggression and mental health challenges in adolescence; undiagnosed trauma from physical abuse, emotional abuse, incest, molestation, and child sexual abuse; and gaining little to no valuable economic skills, qualifications or habits in their late teens and into young adulthood.

For the boys in our communities today who are presently 10-years-old and fall into the at-risk group, ask yourself, what are we doing now? What will their outcomes be in 2029? Will an intervention this year have set them on a brighter path? Or will some of them, at 15-years-old by 2029, be menacing our society in the same ways we are lamenting today?

About the writer:

Kieron Murdoch worked as a journalist and later as a radio presenter in Antigua and Barbuda for eight years, covering politics and governance especially. He is an opinion contributor at antigua.news.

If you have an opinion on the issues raised in this editorial and you would like to submit a response by email to be considered for publication, please email [email protected].