O.C. Youths Ride Tide of Brutal Crime

In the past 14 days, Orange County youths have been arrested in three vicious crimes: the apparent gay bashing of a man beaten beyond recognition in Laguna Beach, the bludgeoning death of an honors student in Buena Park and the mugging of an elderly Garden Grove woman whose arm and shoulder were broken by two teen-agers who stole 50 cents to play video games.

Authorities say these brutal incidents are symptomatic of a steady rise in ever more violent crimes being committed by juveniles.

Violent crime by youths under 18 has increased 44.6% over the past decade in Orange County alone, and shows little sign of abating. Nationally, in 1989 alone, more than 70,000 juveniles were tried for violent crimes, according to the National Center for Juvenile Justice in Pennsylvania.

Experts say violence among young people--whether drive-by shootings, drug-related robberies, the Dec. 27 mugging of Justine Byrnes, 72, the New Year’s Eve slaying of Stuart A. Tay of Orange, and the Saturday beating of an unidentified man in Laguna Beach--is a measure of the rising tide of violence in society at large.

Yet murders, armed robberies, assaults, rape and kidnaping are increasing faster among youths under 18 than among adults.

According to the California Department of Justice, the homicide arrest rate of juveniles jumped 104.9% per 100,000 population statewide from 1986 through 1991. The arrest rate of adults for murder declined 2.9% in the same period.

“We are finding that violence is happening in younger and younger groups--we are even seeing it down to 10-, 11- and 12-year-olds,” said child psychiatrist Jennifer Hagman, director of the child and adolescent unit at UCI Medical Center.

That it is happening is indisputable. Why it is occurring is harder to pin down, experts say.

Most argue that pressures on modern families have resulted in less guidance for youngsters in their formative years.

Some blame fictional and real-life violence that saturates youths and adults alike in television and film. By the time a child is 18, he or she has seen more than 16,000 violent deaths depicted in television and in movies, according to USC criminologist Robert J. Barry.

“When the most powerful instrument of social learning teaches the desirability of being violent and irresponsible, young people who are good learners will learn to do that,” said Dr. Park E. Dietz, a forensic psychiatrist from Newport Beach and expert witness who has testified in many high-profile cases, including those of John Hinckley Jr., the man who shot President Ronald Reagan, and Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

While viewing 30 minutes of the music video cable channel MTV on a recent day, Dietz said he watched males trying to sexually arouse a woman who turned out to be a child, people in cages struggling to get free and other graphic images of violence or torture.

“There was another that Jeffrey Dahmer would have liked, because of the severed body parts,” Dietz said.

The psychiatrist said it is difficult for parents to match the influence television has on the character development of children.

“Between MTV, Showtime, HBO, Cinemax and The Movie Channel, there is available nonstop bad influences . . . for vulnerable, defective or at-risk young people,” Dietz said. “I’d like to have bumper stickers that say: ‘Save a child, shoot a TV.’ ”

Mission Viejo High School senior Kent Jancarik agreed with Dietz.

“I would limit what can be shown on television,” said Jancarik, 18. “These days any kid can come home from school and see a dead body or a violent crime two minutes after they turn on the television. It’s too much.”

Anaheim 15-year-old Cara Wilson said fictional programs are “so far out, no one believes (the violence) is real.” She does, however, fault television news reporting of violent crime.

“They’re always showing real murders and other violent crimes,” the Loara High School sophomore said. “They need to do more positive stories.”

Other experts argue that movies and even sensational televised news reports about the grizzly Dahmer mutilations and the Tay slaying merely reflect the violence around us.

“It’s in the ethos of our society; violence is valued,” said UC Irvine sociologist emeritus Gilbert Geis, co-author of a 1988 college textbook on juvenile delinquency.

Geis urged parents to examine the subtle messages they send their children.

“Parents do not want a kid who is a sissy,” Geis said. “They would prefer that he doesn’t get hurt, but fathers do not want boys to run away from fights.”

Jancarik does believe today’s environment has escalated violence among youths.

“If you live in an area where there is a lot of violent crime, there is a perception that it is OK,” he said. “You end up learning to act out your feelings through violence.”

All experts agree, however, that the ready availability of guns has changed the dynamics of juvenile crime. These days, kids with a grudge are more apt to turn to firearms or weapons of destruction to solve adolescent conflicts, say prosecutors, sociologists, police and defense attorneys who deal with juvenile criminals.

“Now, instead of getting into a fistfight, kids today get into a gunfight,” said Orange County Assistant Dist. Atty. Brent Romney, who headed his office’s juvenile crime and gang unit in the early and mid-1980s.

“If I’ve got a gun, I’m No. 1 for the day,” added Orange County Juvenile Hall Director Thomas Wright. “It’s a power thing.”

Guns make possible more anonymous crimes such as drive-by shootings; they also raise the odds that a minor dispute or a robbery could become a homicide.

“Guns are easier to use,” said UCI criminologist Bryan Vila, a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy. “It really takes a lot of courage, however misplaced, to face somebody down with a knife or a club or your fists. Any fool with a firearm can drive by and open fire. . . . Guns allow weaker people to . . . strut around and play the game.”

Firearms may be especially dangerous in the hands of immature youths, who often have little concept of the value of life and the finality of death.

“They pull the trigger without thinking of the future consequences,” said Superior Court Judge Francisco P. Briseno, presiding judge of Orange County Juvenile Court. “It is not until they are in the courtroom and they see the faces of the victim’s family in tears . . . that (they) realize the pain they have caused. By then it is too late. . . . The youngster is dead and can’t be brought back.”

Wright, the juvenile hall director, said he believes drug use is an equal factor with guns in many juvenile crimes.

“It is not uncommon to have a kid come in here that has not eaten in three weeks,” he said. “They are speeding (on amphetamines) and then sleep for two days. Those kids did not exist 20 years ago.”

Peer pressure also should not be underestimated as a force underlying juvenile violence and crime. And it is one that cuts across ethnic, cultural and economic lines, experts say.

“One of the troubling things I’ve seen is how quickly a group of kids can become a gang,” said Orange County Assistant Dist. Atty. John Conley, who headed his office’s juvenile crime and gang unit until 1990.

“It may start with tagging or with just hanging around, or an interest in a type of music. Pretty soon, they’re carrying weapons of one kind or another, and someone gets hurt.”

Once a group dynamic takes over, otherwise intelligent kids may do things they would normally find abhorrent. Some authorities suggest that may well have been the case in the Tay murder.

On New Year’s Eve, Tay, a 17-year-old Foothill High School senior, was beaten with baseball bats and a sledgehammer for more than 20 minutes, allegedly by members of a group of five teen-agers with whom he had conspired to heist computer parts, according to court documents filed against the five. Then rubbing alcohol was poured down Tay’s throat, his mouth covered with duct tape, and his 180-pound body wrapped in a sheet and dumped in a waiting grave in the back yard of a Buena Park residence.

Through it all, authorities allege, one teen-ager stood watch, two others listened in a nearby room, while 18-year-old Sunny Hills High honors student Robert Chan and a 16-year-old remedial student at the Fullerton school did the beating. All participated in some way with disposing of Tay’s body and the red sports car his parents had given him for his birthday, according to court documents.

“I do think group dynamics may have played into this,” said UCI sociologist Geis. “Nobody is willing to lose face in front of the other guys. It’s like a lynch mob. They do things together that none of them would think of doing alone. And each one insulates and isolates the other one.”

Increasingly in parts of Orange County, many kids have two choices: Be on their own and be harassed by a gang, or join, said Deputy Public Defender Roger Alexander, who until this month headed his office’s juvenile court staff of defense attorneys.

“Which would you choose?” he asked. “They think . . . if (gang members) do anything wrong, they won’t go along with them. They think they’ll just hold the gun and not shoot it. A lot of kids do that. . . . Then they hop into the car and all of a sudden someone’s firing a gun and there they are in the back seat and all of a sudden they are involved.”

Gangs can just as easily be a haven for youths seeking to belong.

Many youngsters “see gangs as a place to get what they can’t get at home,” UCI psychiatrist Hagman said. “With a gang they feel secure, protected. There’s always someone there to listen, and they feel like they fit.”

Some experts say the tug of forces in American society influences many youths--particularly new immigrants--to join ethnic gangs. Asian gangs as well as Latino gangs are believed to be on the rise--in Orange County, in Southern California and in the state.

UCI anthropologist Leo R. Chavez said gangs thrive in urbanized areas where poverty exists, and are not unique to Latinos or other ethnic groups.

“Most of the Mexicans come from rural areas (where) they don’t have gangs,” Chavez said. “They have strong family support who support them through even the harshest economic times. But there is a breakdown when they come to the United States. And that goes for any group--Asians, Italians or Irish. . . . It has nothing to do with culture.”

Four of the five suspects in the Tay murder are Asian, but only one ever talked of gang links. The alleged mastermind, Robert Chan, an 18-year-old native of Taiwan, boasted to school mates that he had connections with the Wah Ching, a national Chinese gang centered mainly in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Police were investigating whether Chan had such ties.

Dan Guzman, a gang specialist for Los Angeles County, said a growing number of Asian youngsters around Southern California are loosely affiliated with gangs, and many are good students preparing for universities and successful careers.

“A lot of the Asians are in gangs, and maybe 1% of them are from affluent families,” Guzman said. “They will finish school if they don’t get arrested or killed. But a lot of times the parents don’t even know. . . . They think that their kids don’t have anything to with gangs because their kids have this kind of quietness, which is a facade.”

For such youths, gang membership is “more of a business-type of thing,” Guzman added. “The bottom line for them is to make money.”

Analisa Castro, 17, of Placentia, blamed peer pressure for much of the violence among juveniles, and said youths eager to escape problems at home sometimes commit violent acts as a way of gaining acceptance from their peers.

“I think there’s too much violence on television. It makes people numb and more tolerant of violence in real life,” Castro said.

If the reasons for violence among juveniles are so difficult to assess, changing their attitudes may be even harder.

Many judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers say they believe penalties are too lenient for juveniles, given the magnitude of violence today. Only in the most heinous cases are boys or girls under 18 tried as adults and sentenced to prison.

But others say a different system of handling youthful offenders is needed besides locking them away in Juvenile Hall or youth camps with other hardened youngsters. Many need therapy, but there is precious little public funding for it anymore.

“Our mental health units for children have disintegrated, especially for the kids in Juvenile Hall,” UCI psychiatrist Hagman said. “They get what the system has to offer, but what they really need is therapy.”

Alexander of the public defender’s office said there must also be a support network in the community for young offenders.

For youngsters not yet on the path to violence, more fundamental social changes are needed.

“We have to pay more attention to the kids,” said Costa Mesa drug and alcohol counselor Roy Alvarado. “We have kids in the higher (economic) spectrum who are not getting attention from their wealthy parents because they are too busy. And we have kids from poor families whose parents have to work two or three jobs and leave their kids alone at home.”

Criminologist Robert Barry predicted the problem will worsen in the next several years.

“We might have to lose a whole generation until we can teach the next group some parenting skills,” said Barry, director of USC’s Public Administration Center. “We teach our children more about premarital sex than we do about being responsible parents. . . .

“Ten years from now, with the drop in the birthrate, crime will go down. . . . But it’s going to take time to teach our children and we have to do it by the time they reach the age of 7 years old,” he said.

Times staff writers David Avila, Len Hall and Timothy Chou contributed to this story.

Serious Crime by Youth Has Risen

Violent crime by children under 18 years old has increased significantly during the past few years in both Orange County and California. Those crimes are murder, rape, robbery, assault and kidnaping.

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Arrest Rate Has Climbed

The juvenile arrest rate rose dramatically between 1986 and 1991. (Figures for 1992 are not yet available.)

Violent Crime Arrests per 100,000

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The Charge: Murder

Orange County juveniles charged with homicide: 1988: 16 1989: 11 1990: 20 1991: 28* 1992: 19 * Coincides with increased enforcement activity by the district attorney’s gang unit.

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Older Teens Involved Most

In 1991, 16- and 17-year-olds committed more than half the 819 violent crimes by youth in Orange County.

10-11: 1% 12-13: 8% 14-15: 32% 16-17: 59% *

More Adult Trials Sought

Orange County juveniles that prosecutors sought to try as adults because of seriousness of the crime: 1987: 33 1988: 17 1989: 24 1990: 64 1991: 126 *

Violent Crime Arrests

Orange County juveniles arrested for violent crimes. 1987: 500 1988: 548 1989: 641 1990: 823 1991: 819 Source: Law Enforcement Information Center, California Department of Justice; Orange County district attorney’s office.