Overview

In recent years, the incidence of violent crime committed by teenagers has escalated, a fact that has hardly escaped the news media. When faced with the challenge of understanding and explaining such occurences in the headlines, one is tempted to rely upon the truism: There are good kids and there are bad kids. Michael D. Kelleher, noted expert on the subject of violence, asserts in When Good Kids Kill that this belief is outdated, oversimplified, and fundamentally wrong. He states that some of the most atrocious murders are, in fact, committed by good kids who have never given a prior indication of violence. Kelleher's book is the first to focus exclusively on homicides committed by previously nonviolent teens, exploring many of the prominent criminal cases covered by the media in recent years. Although individual killings are hard to predict, Kelleher's important new work demonstrates that there are categories of crime that can be attributed to good kids who kill; his work shows for the first time that the young perpetrators of murders that fall into these categories share similar backgrounds and experience. While such crimes as teen mothers disposing of their newborns, sons and daughters murdering their parents, members of cults slaying friends or strangers, and young people murdering the objects of their sexual obsessions are almost always surprising and baffling, Kelleher points out that the killers often exhibit warning signs before erupting into violence. By recognizing these warnings and understanding patterns of experience that can motivate these tragic crimes, the author believes that parents, counselors, and education and law enforcement professionals can begin to address the challenge of increasing teenage violence and ensure a less violent society for our children.

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9780275964108

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Reviews

?Kelleher writes clearly and explains complex issues coherently. If the book is difficult to read, it is because of the troubling content. These kids make murder seem whimsical and random....Satisfactory answers are not forthcoming, but the direct and lucid presenation of the problem may serve to stimulate more rigorous research.?-Publishers Weekly ?Recommended for collections in criminal justice, child welfare, and social work.?-Library Journal Recommended for collections in criminal justice, child welfare, and social work. -Library Journal Kelleher writes clearly and explains complex issues coherently. If the book is difficult to read, it is because of the troubling content. These kids make murder seem whimsical and random....Satisfactory answers are not forthcoming, but the direct and lucid presenation of the problem may serve to stimulate more rigorous research. -Publishers Weekly

"?Kelleher writes clearly and explains complex issues coherently. If the book is difficult to read, it is because of the troubling content. These kids make murder seem whimsical and random....Satisfactory answers are not forthcoming, but the direct and lucid presenation of the problem may serve to stimulate more rigorous research.?-Publishers Weekly ?Recommended for collections in criminal justice, child welfare, and social work.?-Library Journal ""Recommended for collections in criminal justice, child welfare, and social work.""-Library Journal ""Kelleher writes clearly and explains complex issues coherently. If the book is difficult to read, it is because of the troubling content. These kids make murder seem whimsical and random....Satisfactory answers are not forthcoming, but the direct and lucid presenation of the problem may serve to stimulate more rigorous research.""-Publishers Weekly"

Here's a report that could be a handbook for programmers of afternoon talk shows: Teens Who Murder Their Parents, Mothers Who Kill Their Newborns. Kelleher has written much on violence (Murder Most Rare, not reviewed, etc.) and consults for public and private organizations on threat assessment. Here he sets out to examine the backgrounds of young people from stable and supportive families who, with no warning, put bullets through their parents' heads or slaughter a best friend. By knowing more about those savage acts, we can head off increased violence from the baby boomlet now heading into its teens, Kelleher theorizes. He then proceeds to lay out case history after case history of neonaticides (babies killed at birth by their usually teenage mothers), parricides (children who kill their parents), cult killers, and thrill killers, each crime seemingly bloodier than the one before. The executioners are often, but not always, older teens; usually, but not exclusively, boys; and frequently examples in the community: altar boys, honor students, star athletes, without a blemish on their records. Why do these children burst loose in a flood of rage that lets them gun down a friend or a playground full of school mates? They cannot explain it themselves, except in the most prosaic terms: . . . tired of doing the household chores, said one, typically. It is difficult, if not impossible to distinguish these teens' protests against parental rules from the normal adolescent resistance to curfews and family strictures. Kelleher agrees, We do not understand why . . . offering finally some uncertain psychological speculation, advice to parents to love and listen to their children (although many of the parents described here seemed to do just that), and some discussion of the increasingly tough laws mandating that children who commit violent crimes be tried as adults. Voyeurism takes the reins over insight into good kids who murder; sadly, we are no better off than when we began in understanding the why. (Kirkus Reviews)

?Kelleher writes clearly and explains complex issues coherently. If the book is difficult to read, it is because of the troubling content. These kids make murder seem whimsical and random....Satisfactory answers are not forthcoming, but the direct and lucid presenation of the problem may serve to stimulate more rigorous research.?-Publishers Weekly

Author Information

MICHAEL D. KELLEHER, who has written widely on the subject of violence, specializes in threat assessment, strategic management, and human resources management for organizations in the private and public sectors. He is the author of Murder Most Rare (1998), Profiling the Lethal Employee, Flash Point: The American Mass Murderer (1997), and New Arenas for Violence (1996), all published by Praeger.

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