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OpenLine: Hopelessness drives juvenile crime

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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — What leads young people to a life of crime?

A Nashville minister, recounting his own experience, said an overwhelming sense of hopelessness led him down the wrong path.

Bishop Marcus A. Campbell of Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church now heads a program, Gentlemen And Not Gangsters (G.A.N.G.), that works with teen boys who have been put on intensive gang probation by Davidson County Juvenile Court.

"I just didn't care," Campbell said during a recent appearance on OpenLine on NewsChannel 5+.

"In my mindset, I wanted to die, but I didn't have the courage to kill myself. So I felt like if I would rob somebody and they knew who I was, they would come back and kill me and help me to kill my pain."

Hear more from Campbell in the interview above.

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