The Nightwatch Program, Inc. - Crime Prevention At Its Best

Choices: What motivates the decisions the youth of America make?
By: Abigail Crapo, Paul Grabania

It is human nature to test uncharted territory. Historically, that's accurate. Columbus is guilty, as are Marquette and Joliet, Magellan, how we know we can reach the moon and travel into outer space; everyone of those people risked their life for the mission in the hopes of seeking an answer or finding new territory. Most of us, as children were told it's not ok to question what you're told. Columbus didn't think the world was flat; however, it is soon after reinforced that only certain topics and issues can or should be questioned. Today's youth are expected to question what they're told, but still respect authority, to enjoy themselves, without overindulgence. They've been raised on television advertisements that reflect upon the essence of the generation. A byproduct of the preventative measures has also been a great focus on a person having friends, and having the capacity to judge whether they will prove to have a positive impact or how successful are they at finding trouble. Unfortunately, every person, at some point, encounters peer pressure; and if not direct influence many feel almost inclined to play "catch up" in regards to life experiences to that of their friends. How can we tell, for all purposes, lets use Mary, that trying weed could hurt her entire life. She has seen the public service announcements, people have talked about it in her classes, but, no matter how much intervention there is, Mary has to make the decision to take this weed, be cool, or turn it down. Be Un-cool. Therefore, Mary has two arguments in her mind - "All of my friends have tried it, and they're ok." And, "What if this stuff really DOES hurt me? Although, it's only after it's done a lot that it could hurt me." After she's tried said action the first time, when the opportunity resumes she may think didn't hurt me the first time, and people say that our friend Mary don't get the full effect from her first hit. Now, she's hearing this, and thinking "Maybe I should try it again.Imagine the ad on television switches off with the messages that drugs are bad, they ruin your life, the marketing experts crack an egg, and scramble it. "This is you" they say. The advertisements are informative, entertaining, and some messages are so apparent, that we've rolled our eyes at their simplicity. They said "stay in school", "don't do drugs", "don't smoke", "don't use guns", "knowledge is power", the ever popular "just say no", and so on, and so forth.There were campaigns against sex, some focused on premarital, while others on safety concerns: "Being aware of your surroundings", "don't trust strangers", and millions others that all had messages aimed at giving guidance and structure to young people. These ads were a part of growing up. As dumb and simultaneously obvious the message seems, over time the meaning of the one very obvious message becomes distorted, and muted. Over time, one recalls how intense the breaking of glass or a sizzling of an egg seems but not necessarily the correlation between that and drugs. As young people grow up and experience situations personally, they begin to question these messages. They question what is so bad about this, that it elicits these warnings; the negatives must be greatly exaggerated. Yes, drugs are a prevalent problem, from both the perspective of youth, and community leaders. Have we gone too far in saturating the airwaves of childrens programs? Over and over again we promote how bad drugs are, have we inadvertently given drugs the appeal of being a "forbidden fruit?" Almost all youth have been in a situation where an opportunity to try something, or a situation where a person is attempting to influence them to use something.Extensive research has been done by Sociologists that says "one is more likely to submit under the pressure of multiple, rather than the influence of a single individual" (Kimmel, The Gendered Society). Research has shown contrary to popular opinion, that drugs can negatively impact ones academics, are detrimental to ones health, and some, destroy ones ability to learn by causing brain damage; and it further impairs judgment towards right and wrong and legal behavior. Another topic that comes under fire when one speaks of peer pressure is that topic of youth being sexually active. Unfortunately, youth are one of the fastest growing populations at risk for the infection of HIV (www.jhaf.org), part of that lies within young peoples mindset that they are invincible. Some ads are geared towards abstinence until marriage, others at using condoms for both straight and gay couples, and others are about healthy relationships and against rape. Youth are having sex at a much earlier age and by doing so they tend not to have the information about protection as well as the awareness of their own emotional development. This is a concern more in terms of maturity than of actually the issue of sexual intimacy; frequently young women will use their bodies to reinforce their relationship. Unfortunately, our young people are getting hurt emotionally because they don't have the information regarding the need to follow their own timeline of maturity. Whenever situations erupt that elicit media attention, people always band together and question why. Unfortunately, over time we've become less community oriented and more individually focused. As a result of the shift in our concerns, there is less community involvement and parents tend also to be less aware of whom their children are "hanging out with". It's no longer that all the kids on the block are friends, they're from all over which does give everyone more exposure, but unfortunately, it also lends more opportunity for youth to seek their own entertainment, usually without an adult present. Personally we were always drawn to the house where their weren't adults home.Since almost everyone is from a family where the caregiver(s) are employed outside of the home, there is more opportunity for the "mice to play while the cats are away". This leads to more time for youth to depend on each other for guidance, and to obtain a sense of community. There is a silver lining to every cloud, situations where parents are occupied elsewhere, does not always illicit negative behavior from youth. As a result of their situation based upon parents availability, as well as the decrepit nature of their street or a neighborhood park. The Nightwatch Program came to be, three youths who refused to sit down created their own sense of community because it wasn't where it needed to be.We all seek community usually within our own circle of friends and, at times that dependency on each other for strength can become altogether too great. Unfortunately the need to belong, and to have others care for you, and to watch out and take care of each other, can easily go haywire. If you study gangs, they've formed their own family with a system of a hierarchy. They watch out for each other and provide for each other. In that context gangs don't sound like such bad apples; unfortunately all too often the negative outweigh the positives and power corrupts and the innocent, emotionally weak people get involved over their heads and don't know what's hit them.

Kids are expected to rebel. Yes, it is seen as right of passage. Some rebel from parents, others in school, and some of those find themselves in situations that could prove detrimental.