Personal Application of Criminology

Many parents in the real-world run into the dilemma of another child getting into trouble. It is the person's obligation to decide on how to handle the situation. The choices are to call the police, contact the parents, or have a sit down with their own child. Some people would do all three and to me that does not sound like a bad idea. Contacting the parents in this situation is the first step in my opinion.

Depending on the background of this child and how the parents normally handled situations would greatly weigh on my decision as how to handle this situation. I am going to assume that there has never been an issue with this child and that they have never done anything like this before. With that said I would first contact the boys parents and also have a sit down conversation with my child. I think that it is important that the boys parents get involved and handle the situation how they feel necessary. If this were a repeat offense however, I would call the police first, then the parents, and have a sit down with my child.

With the boy being 16-years-old it is unlikely that he would face any type of punishment from law enforcement. This is why I think it would be better to allow the parents to handle the situation. Unless the police were called, and they found drugs or paraphernalia on him the state would be unable to pursue any possession charges, and he would be handed over to his parents anyway. Theft charges would be hard to sustain due to the fact that the boy did not leave the house with the possessions, and it could be argued that the jewelry just so happened to be sitting on the counter near the drawer he was going through. The chance at charging the boy would be for burglary due to the fact that no one was home, and he did have a burglary tool with him. The best solution at this time would be for the parents to handle the situation and get their son help with some type of counseling or drug treatment to get him back on the