Choose the best answer for each of the following questions according to the text.
Juvenile Crime
1.By the year 2005, the number of teens, ages 14 to 17, will swell by 17 per cent, with an even larger increase among people of color — 20 per cent among African-Americans and 30 per cent among Latinos. Given the difficult conditions in which many of these youngsters grow up —with inferior schools and violence-torn neighborhoods — many more teenagers will be at risk in the years ahead.
2.Tragically,the number of violent teens has grown in recent years, even as the population of teenagers has contracted. But the teen population has bottomed out and is now on the upswing. If current rates of offending remain unchanged,the number of teens who commit murder and other serious violent crimes shall increase, if only because of the demographic turnaround in the population at risk. However, given the worsening conditions in which children are being raised, given the breakdown of all our institutions as well as of our cultural norm, given our wholesale disinvestment in youth, our Nation faces the grim prospect of a future wave of juvenile violence that may make the coming years look like “the good old days."
3.The hopeful news is that there is still time to stem the tide —to prevent the next wave of youth crime. But we must act now — by reinvesting in schools, recreation, job training, support for families, and mentoring. We must act now while this baby-boomerang generation is still young and impressionable, and will be impressed with what a teacher, a preacher, or some other authority figure has to say. If we wait until these children reach their teenage years and the next crime wave is upon us, it may be too late to do much about it.
4.The challenge for the future, therefore, is how best to deal with youth violence. Unfortunately, we are obsessed with quick and easy solutions that will not work, such as the wholesale transfer of juveniles to the jurisdiction of the adult court,parental responsibility laws,midnight curfews, the V-chip, boot camps, three strikes, even caning and capital punishments at the expense of long-term and difficult solutions that will work, such as providing young children with strong, positive role models, quality schools, and recreation programs.
5.One of the most compelling easy solutions is the "three strikes you're out" movement for repeat offenders that has swept across America,from Washington State, where it began. to Washington,D.C., where our congressmen and congresswomen are eager to show their constituents that they can strike out the side on crime.
6.Besides the significant drain on court resources as many more felons 11 demand jury trials, disputing second and third strike calls more vociferously than Billy Martin ever did, besides the long-term effects of filling our prisons with aging lifers whose criminal history is really history, and besides the inevitable miscarriages of justice when certain petty felons get sent up the river inappropriately, why do we need this kind of automatic provision? Most States have long maintained a provision for locking up the so-called "three-time losers." On a case-by-case basis, certain habitual offenders could and should be put on ice for an extended period of time. What's so wrong with discretion?Even in baseball, umpires have discretion in calling strikes. The umpire rules whether the pitch J1 was on the corner or whether the batter checked his swing.Perhaps we should give judges as much discretion as the umpires. Punishments should be based on the nature of the crimes, not the number.
7.The same concern over the elimination of judicial discretion applies to the national movement toward the automatic waiver11 of violent juveniles to the adult court. Undeniably, certain repeat violent juvenile offenders have demonstrated through recidivism that they are not amenable to treatment. These offenders can and should be transferred to the adult system. But this is not the case with all juvenile violent offenders, even though they may commit an adult-like crime such as murder or rape. The inspiration for their vicious crimes often stems from their immaturity —for example, kids committing murder in order to impress their peers.
8.Don't misunderstand me. I'm not opposed to punishment (except capital punishment). However, we cannot deal effectively with teen violence through the threat of the criminal justice system. The threat of punishment, no matter how harsh, cannot deter kids who face the threat of violence every day in their classrooms and their neighborhoods. As far as they are concerned, the criminal justice system can just take a number and wait its turn in line. Often these are juveniles who care little about the future, who don't expect to live past their 21st birthday. The prospect of a long-term prison sentence or even the death penalty will not dissuade them in the least.
9.Of course, I am hardly the first person to advocate for prevention rather than punishment. Many policymakers have been pushing prevention programs — from education to recreation — but the programs are not early enough. For example, anti-violence curricula promoting conflict resolution skills have been introduced in many high schools across America. But that's far too little and much too late. Those teens whom we most need to reach are often not in high school. And if they are in high school, they're not listening. If they're listening, they don't care.
10.We must instead locate these programmatic efforts in the primary grades where we can make a significant difference in the attitudes and behaviors of children before they are seduced by the temptations of street thrills, gang membership, drugs, and crime. Of course, we then must be patient, for we will not see an impact of this investment on the crime problem for a number of years until these young children become teenagers and are not as violent as their predecessors.
11.From a purely political point of view, investing in long-term solutions may not seem overly attractive. Rather, the three R s of punishment —retribution - revenge, and retaliation — clearly tend to promote the fourth R,re-election. Nevertheless, it is critical that our leaders on Capitol Hill maintain a balanced view between punishment and prevention. As always, an ounce of prevention in terms of programs for youth is worth 10 years of cure inside the walls of a prison cell. It is far easier and considerably less expensive to build the child than to rebuild the adult criminal. With a Federal commitment to invest in long-term, workable solutions to the problem of youth crime, we can stem the tide of violence before it is too late.
4.The author is opposed to death penalty because ______.
A、he doesn't believe it works effectively in preventing kids from committing crimes
B、those juveniles won t live past 21 so they don't have to be cared about
C、the criminal justice system does not function effectively
D、it only deters adult criminals but not juvenile criminals
【正确答案】：A
【题目解析】：P404
