In literature, it is important to note that monsters are often created, not born, and that monsters conflate a being’s humanity with a kind of bestial nature. In this book, Humes usually conflates monstrosity with a lack of morality, differentiating between those kids who are monsters and those who can be saved.

This language of the monstrous was common during the time in which Humes writes, as politicians like Bill Clinton referred to juvenile delinquents as predators and the media hyped up the frenzy surrounding monstrous juveniles able to get away with murder because of their age. As is often the case, the language that the media has created unintentionally indicates a reality at work: namely, that these kids exist entirely as products of their environments.

Humes repeatedly delineates between seemingly arbitrary categories within the juvenile-justice system: the monsters who cannot be saved and should be locked up and the misunderstood kids. Janet Reno gives a similar statistic, in which she argues that approximately one in ten violent offenders are sociopaths (336); however, this delineation—much like Humes’s delineation—represents a seemingly arbitrary number which then reflects upon the problem with the fitness system as well. The ability to delineate who is a monster and who is salvageable demonstrates one of the weak points within the juvenile-justice system, within which any categorization seems up to the discretion of the adults in question.