Requirements for Healthy Development of Adolescent Youth - Essay Example

Child Saving Child Saving pertains to the measures undertaken to correct, guide, discipline the youth who have vague, rude and childish and false ideals, leading to lack of discipline and insubordination thus becoming a universal condition which must be addressed both by society and government. "Child" refers to adolescents or those in their teenage years who are by nature undergoing physical, mental and human development and adjustment in view of their transition form childhood to adulthood Due to their confusion emotionally and physically, social psychologist and child psychologist in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, theorized that the youth's failure to do what is required of them by law or duty, have become delinquent due to the inherent nature of adolescence and other factors of working class culture and delinquency. Victorian assumption on delinquency views this issue in relation to the working class culture while Edwardian reform pertains to all young people Concept of Adolescence The discovery of the concept of adolescence by Rousseau in 1760 who compared adolescence to a second birth mainly due emotional unrest leading to moral deterioration most particularly in the aspect of sex, hence suggested that the youth must be confined and segregated from adult life as long as possible. However, Musgrove contested this idea who attributed the youth's moral decline to prolonged education granted to upper class students and apprentices in the late 18th century which was later debated on as to whether the male youth education be done at home or in public schools. State of Adolescence The issue on whether the male youth education be done at home or in public schools was resolved when reforms in public school was instituted causing the dramatic increase of middle-class pupils. Thus, giving birth to the state of adolescence in mid 19th century but only to the bourgeoisie while to the labouring group, the issue was immaterial until the late 19th century where the beginning of compulsory state education to the age of 13. At this stage, the issue on adolescence was attributed to the failure of the family or labour to control them leading to a more negative implication. By the turn of the 19th century, adult supervision and control on all behaviour of youngsters of all classes was necessary because of the natural aspect of adolescence and not on the social norms of a particular class of society However, in the 20th century, the natural aspect of adolescence became contrary to the working class youth of this stage who had to work for survival hence rendering them to be more independent and less conforming to the idea of being "young' thus branded as "delinquent". According psychologist Granville Stanley Hall, adolescence is an upsetting stage because young people are torn between the opposite directions of primal childhood and rational and civilized state of adulthood. In 1880's, revival on the issue of rude and independent working youth due to the following factors: a.) the failure of urban working class family to discipline and exert its authoritarian duty over the youth regardless of whether they were working or not b.) independence from the family's supervision was gained by the working youth due to their ability to look for job and earn their own money Moreover, these working youth spend their leisure time on the streets that in the late 19th century, these leisure undertakings become less wholesome and undesirable like street gambling and football ( street gangs) which certainly result to minor offenses or delinquency and criminality. Thus reformers saw the need to undertaken measure to intervene between the working youth and their family so that control over these working-class adolescents can be set-up with the aim of getting back their dependency on their family, namely: 1.) Setting up of youth clubs to provide discipline, regulations and guidance which parent could not provide on the working youth especially the working class girls who were deemed socially undesirable due to too much independence from family 2.) Undertaking of important changes in the legal position of the youth where many laws were passed in the early 20th century relative to juvenile justice. Impact of child saving in the creation of juvenile justice in Great Britain Because adolescents are less responsible for their behavior, special forms of contradicting arbitrations are needed to cure their delinquencies namely 1.) greater leniency and 2.) heightened interventionism. These led to the issuance of the following laws: a.) Probation Act in 1907) which established community supervision as an alternative to prison to avoid repeat of offense through befriending, advising and assisting. b.) Children Act of 1908, separate juvenile courts to hear criminal cases, care and protection cases, abolished the imprisonment of children under 14 and set up of special places of detention (remand homes) before trial. The bases for these legislation was that the juveniles were less responsible than adults for their actions and should not be subjected to the full authority of the laws with the end view that the welfare of the child will be important and taken into consideration in drafting succeeding policies on juvenile justice. A major set back on these juvenile courts is that they handle both the child who committed lesser crimes like begging, vagrancy hence considered as "troubled child' but also those children who have committed more serious crimes or criminals in the true sense of the word. According to Morris and Gillder, juvenile courts are basically criminal courts in the sense that the child is considered an offender and the same procedures for dealing with offending adults are also applied to child offenders despite the lesser punishment ranging from fine, discharge and probation, whipping and imprisonment for those over 14 years old. In the end, child saving movement was far from being democratic or liberal since invoking compassion in allowing the state to directly interfere into the working class life that it may deem immoral or unruly, has denied the working class youth the right to be more responsible, independent and resourceful when in fact its very aim was to implement more extensive networks to enforce discipline. Compassion and intimidation in dealing with juveniles obviously do not go hand in hand, but a more individualized treatment and recovery would be ideal. Konopka, G. (1973) "Requirements for Healthy Development of Adolescent Youth", Adolescence. VIII(31), p. 2. Read More