The Law Breaker: Case One

The Law Breaker: Case One

The crashing and screaming was at first distant like a dream, and with a start, I knew. Daddy was home. It was no dream. Mama was yelling, “You drunkard!! You lazy coward! The only time you come home is when you run out of money! I’m the one who has to work all day to keep those children in clothes! What do you do?”

Daddy’s answer was always the same. At first, silence, then the hurling of some object across the room. This sound was always followed by another…the slamming of the door. Tonight was no different and Daddy was gone again.

My heart was pounding ,but being the oldest I couldn’t cry. Betsy, Arnie, and Davy were sobbing and whimpering. They wouldn’t stop so I told them I’d get them a present tomorrow…have to lift something from Old Man Barker’s store.

This always happened when Daddy was home, and soon we came to accept the fighting as a fact of life.

Our apartment was on the third floor of an old yellow house in a rundown neighbourhood. The furniture was old and linoleum pattern on the floor was won through and except for a patch of flowers here and there, it was black. The walls were stained, and there were holes in the plaster of the ceiling.

Mama was not the greatest housekeeper in the world so the place looked pretty awful. Mama would come home about six every nigh from her job at the shoe factory and flop down on the sofa. After tow or three cigarettes, she would start supper. Our refrigerator always seemed to be empty. Even so, I had a habit of opening it about twenty times a day, perhaps expecting something good to be there. Fried bologna and potatoes was our regular meal. I never tasted steak until I was twelve and in reform school. After supper, I went out, regardless of the weather.

Danny, Butch and Duke were my friends when I was eight. We played hooky about four days a week. I had to keep breaking into our mailbox when I saw a letter that looked like it might have come from the school. Of course, I had to rifle them all to make sure Mama didn’t get suspicious.

We would spend all day stealing candy, throwing water balloons, and sneaking into movie theatres. At night, we would fight with the guys from around the next block, or we would steal newspapers to sell, or just hang around till midnight.
By the time I was eleven, I had been expelled from school three times, and was getting drunk regularly with Butch, and started to smoke drugs with Danny.

One night, when I was twelve, Butch and Goldie decided to heist a store. Things were going pretty well until we hit the street and ran into a cop you just happened to be walking by.
The next week, I was standing in a juvenile court lying to the judge about how sorry I was. Mama was there saying I was a good boy, and how I was going to be an engineer someday. I believed her, but the judge didn’t. I was sent to reform school.
It was like old home week when I arrived. Guys I hadn’t seen for months were there to greet me. Unfortunately, a few of my street enemies were there too, and I had to knife Jim Smithers to discourage them.

The Law Breaker: Case Two
The following are excerpts from an interview between a psychiatrist and a mass murderer.
”I always hated school. All those teachers trying to tell you something you already know. They were always picking on me. I think they were afraid I’d show them up to be real dummies/”

“The only thing I liked was that everybody knew who I was. They were all afraid of me. Nobody messed with me”

“I quit school in Grade 10.”
”No. I never married. Most women only love you when you have money. Who wants to see the same old face each morning, and listen to screaming kids all day. That’s not for me…that’s for jerks”

“I did different things. I pumped gas, worked in a factory, worked in a newspaper office…mostly lousy jobs. All the people who worked at these places were jerks and snobs. They thought they were too good to talk to me. Most of them were jealous of me. I could do the work better than they could, and some of them had been there ten years. Hell, I was smarter than most of the creeps that were bosses”

The Law Breaker: Case Three

Newspaper excerpt:

A 19 year old drug addict, released on bail 12 times while serving 18 months’ probation, will appear in provincial court today charged with 18 new counts of breaking and entering.
Deputy chief Ackroyd asked for a special report yesterday on the man, who was arrested Monday night by Division 14 detectives on two bench warrants.
The deputy chief said the man had been release by the courts on 12 occasions, six times after he was arrested on bench warrants, and six time after he had been charged with further offences.

Ackroyd said that police officers have appeared in court after three of the arrests to show cause why the accused should not be released on bail, and lost three times although they explained bail and been granted numerous times before.

Police said the man was first arrested on January 24, 1982, and charge with trafficking in heroin. Less than a month later, on February 14th, he was put on probation for 18 months after being convicted of uttering death threats.

The Lawbreakers

Source: handout sheets (The Lawbreakers Cases 1-3)

Your job: You have been hired by the Federal Government to identify the factors that may cause an individual to resort to a life of crime. There is a $10,000 cheque waiting for you if you succeed at your mission.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR??? Start reading your case profiles (geez….)

Factors that Can Cause Someone to Turn to a Life of Crime

I, ______, believe that my research into criminal behaviour has led me to identify the following as possible factors that can cause someone to become a criminal: