A report shows that more children are committing crime. What can parents do to make sure that it's not our children?

I took my 5-year-old, Zach, to see the newly enhanced "Return of the Jedi" Friday night. It's his favorite of the three Star Wars movies, which his youth excuses. He likes it for the Ewoks and Jabba the Hut and all of the other puppet-type characters that seem to detract from the movie for me.

As an adult and holding no delight in puppets, I think the best of the lot was obviously "Empire Strikes Back." That's the only movie in the trilogy that had tragedy, a sense of the unexpected, and the biggest surprise in film history until "The Crying Game" came along several years later.

The main surprise of "Empire," of course, is the revelation that Darth Vader is Luke's father. The scene has become a favorite one around the Moyers household. Zach and I recreate the scene, he with his toy light saber, me with a flashlight.

"Nooooooooooooooo!" Zach screams when I announce -- with a salad bowl on my head -- that I am his father. He's very convincing. I think he relates to Luke more than I care to admit.

And the best scenes in "Return of the Jedi," which is still a fine film, involve Luke and Darth Vader. Darth thinks Luke should join the Empire while Luke thinks his father still has some good in him.

That's probably very analogous to many parent-child relationships even in this galaxy. Adults think kids should act more adult-like, and kids think their parents are old fogeys who need to loosen up. There is probably a little wisdom in both attitudes.

Meanwhile, a report released last week has shown that more and more of our local young people are becoming entangled in the juvenile system. That means more kids are committing crime. The numbers were up last year. In fact, they have grown for the past several years.

The 32nd Judicial Circuit Juvenile Division's annual report shows higher numbers for first-time offenders, other offenders and commitments to the Missouri Division of Youth Services in Cape Girardeau, Perry and Bollinger counties.

In 1996, 1,583 juveniles were arrested, 76 more than in 1995. Of those, 670 children came into the system for the first time, 42 more than the previous year. The number of youths sentenced to time in group homes and youth centers rose to 57 in 1996, from 24 in 1995.

And it's not just a local problem. The numbers are up nationally, too.

Keeping to my Star Wars analogy, that means more and more children are turning to the dark side of the force. They're throwing away their Jedi futures as doctors, lawyers and, maybe, if they work hard enough, newspaper reporters.

There's no way to know by looking at Zach whether he's going to be president of the United States someday or the next Al Capone. So what do parents do?

Even though Zach's mom and I are no longer together, I think we do a good job of giving him guidance. We make sure Zach goes to church (what better role model than Jesus Christ?), knows what is right and wrong behavior, and that bad behavior is punished.

Even so, there's still that chance that Zach could give in to the evil emperor and become another juvenile statistic.

Other than that, all we can do is pray.

Scott Moyers is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.