CNN reported that at least 30,000 children in Mexico are involved in some sort of organized crime, according to a nationwide alliance of civic and social organizations. The Child Rights Network in Mexico says many of these children are taking part because of death threats or because of economic and social necessity. It is urging the government to start recognizing them as victims of child abuse.
"The drug cartels are not training them to be ringleaders," spokeswoman Veronica Morales said. "It is a new form of abuse in which they are being used to commit an offense, to violate the law and to deceive authorities."

In the past year, there have been numerous headlines of children being arrested in Mexico.
Perhaps the most high-profile case involved a 14-year-old boy known as "El Ponchis" ("The Cloak"). He was found guilty of torturing and beheading at least four people for the South Pacific drug cartel.


A month after the boy was sentenced to three years in a correctional facility, a 13-year-old girl was captured in the state of Jalisco and accused of being part of the Zetas drug cartel. Authorities said the girl was receiving 8,000 pesos a month -almost $800- for being a lookout. She would let gang members know who was entering and who was leaving Luis Moya, a municipality in north-central Mexico.

 

"Socially, (the children) see the violence as the only way to make people respect them -- and as a way to exercise certain power, something that has been denied to their families," Cisneros said.
While the Child Rights Network in Mexico said it has documented at least 30,000 kids involved in some criminal group, the Mexican government said it has not. According to the Agence Presse-France, the government told the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child that it doesn't have information about minors involved in criminal or armed groups.

 Relating to Chapter 1, this article discusses the issue of social structures impact on human behavior. The children in Mexico are brought up in a society where violence is the only way to gain power and respect. As stated in the article this may be a result of economic determinism. Because the economic and social disparities in Mexico, the children see no other way to succeed in life besides joining organized crime. This may develop a class conflict between those who run the gangs in Mexico and those who will be working for them.

Article can be found at: http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/17/world/americas/mexico-children-crime/index.html?iref=allsearch

Prof. B