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Preventing Crime

Posted in
December 7, 2009

The following story and inquiries are an example of the text and curriculum found in a Crime Prevention Cognitive Lifeskills Workbook.

Jason was born in 1958. His grandpa, Ralph Johnson, had an extremely negative influence on all of his children and grandchildren except for Jason, his first cousin Becky and a few other cousins. The whole remaining Johnson family was busy with narcotic addiction, anger, theft, hostility, prostitution, welfare, ruined relationships, and a plethora other crimes and bad habits. His mom, a drug addict and a prostitute, was gone for lengthy periods of time, abandoning the children and suffering them to survive on their own.

Jason was caught stealing a car. He was immediately sent to juvenile detention and while there he attended a cognitive life skills class similar to this one. Because he wanted to improve, the class had a life-changing influence on him. He was tired of street dwelling, suffering and wondering how to get the next meal.

Following Jasons release, he soon reported to his probation officer. She asked him what he had gained a knowledge of from the life skills class that he took while in juvenile detention. He explained to her:

I was going in the same track as my familydrugs, jail, anger, and ruin. Subconsciously I had been programmed with the falsehoods that I was no good and I lived on the bottom. I figured out that I am a great deal better than I ever believed . I also learned that coming from an abusive home wasnt my fault.

I learned that regardless of the fact that I didnt have power over my childhood, I absolutely do have control over the present. I'm a new person every day and I can forgive the damages done to me. I can choose to forgive and forget so that I can continue with my life peacefully. My past doesnt have to become my future.

I learned that I cannot continue to blame my parents or other people for my issues. Life isnt always fair and I have to make the best of my situation. The only I have to move my life forward is to release the past.

The Lifeskills class caused me to realize that I am a valuable individual with immense potential, that this life is a free gift bursting with a plethora of new and exciting prospects, and that I will be able to conquer my drug addiction if I choose to.

I learned that being beaten, flung into brick walls, burned with cigarettes, starving, feeling shame and living inconstant fear can help me develop into a better, more sensitive person. I learned that difficulty and opposition can help me become stronger, if I desire to learn something from each experience.

In conclusion, I started to understand that I am in-charge of my own ship. I can steer it where I wish. If I dont modify my direction I'll keep suffering the negative consequences of my actions and life will only get harder and harder until the day that I change or die.

Questions:

1) Jason was a victim; in his young life he did not have power over his house or surrounding. Now as a grown-up, what is his responsibility? _______________________________________________________________

2) Are there a lot of individuals in America who have been abused from childhood? ________ What are a few of the consequences of childhood abuse? _______________________________________________________________

3) Can Jason choose to become a successful person? ______ How hard will it be? ______ Will it be worth the effort? ________

4) Life is summerized in a clear-cut phrase. It says, If you keep on doing what you have been doing, you'll keep on getting what you have been getting. If the Johnson family persists in doing drugs and robbing, what'll they continue getting? _____________________________________________________________

5) How will they ever be able to change what they are receiving? _____________________________________________________________

6) If you asked a hundred people what the meaning or purpose of life, and what it is that they desire from life before they die, what, do you imagine, would they say? ______________________________________________________________