Dole Wants ‘Life’ For Juvenile Crime Gop Candidate Says Records Should Not Be Expunged At Adulthood
Just two days before President Clinton is to announce ways to reduce youth violence, his rival Bob Dole called for getting tough on juvenile criminals by making their records stick with them through life.
“Unless something is done soon, some of today’s newborns will become tomorrow’s super predators - merciless criminals capable of committing the most vicious of acts for the most trivial of reasons,” the Republican presidential candidate said Saturday in a weekly GOP radio address.
The Clinton campaign immediately pounced on the former lawmaker, who served 35 years in Congress, saying “citizen Dole’s rhetoric does not match the record of Senator Bob Dole.”
“Senator Dole had a chance to ban assault weapons and make sure convicted felons were barred from purchasing handguns. When faced with promoting our national interests or promoting special interests, Senator Dole sided with the National Rifle Association,” campaign spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
“Senator Dole had a chance to promote safe and drug-free schools and institute a policy of zero tolerance on teenagers who bring guns into schools. Senator Dole voted no again,” Lockhart added.
But Dole, who did not mention Clinton by name during his address, pointed out that one of his last acts before resigning as Senate majority leader in June was to sponsor legislation that would ensure juveniles who commit violent federal crimes are prosecuted as adults.
“A violent teenager who commits an adult crime should be treated as an adult in court and should receive adult punishment,” he said Saturday. “Teenagers who rape, rob and murder should not be automatically released when they turn 18 or 20.”
Dole also called for making juvenile criminal records available to schools, courts and some employers even after an offender becomes an adult. Now, such records as expunged when a juvenile reaches majority age.
“Thirty-five percent of all violent crime is now committed by offenders less than 20 years of age,” Dole said, noting the murder rate among 14-to-17-year-olds more than doubled between 1985 and 1994.
“It wasn’t long ago that we started worrying about children having children. Today, we’re also worried about children killing children.”
In the past month, Clinton also has expressed worries about rising juvenile violence at a time when crimes committed by adults are declining.
But the president favors preventative programs, including dusk-to-dawn curfews, tutoring, counseling and other services for juvenile offenders. “We simply cannot jail our way out of America’s crime problem,” Clinton said last month while campaigning in the West. “We are simply going to have to invest more money in prevention.”
Dole, 72, said many of the rules regulating today’s juvenile justice systems were created during more innocent times when the worst offenses committed by teenagers were “truancy and joy riding.”
Dole said he wasn’t unsympathetic to children who drift toward crime amid difficult environments. “Too many children are born into circumstances few of us can imagine and grow up on mean streets and in loveless homes.”
He said he believes that rebuilding the family, transforming a culture that values self-indulgence over self-restraint and emphasizing punishment as well as rehabilitation are the best ways to prevent juvenile crime.
“We can start by reforming welfare,” he said, saying he supports reforms “that will help curb illegitimacy and give people on welfare the tools they need to become independent citizens and also require work.”