The Problem of Youth Crime - Essay Example

Critically discuss what you believe to be the greatest influences/causes of youth crime and identify some of the proposed solutions. You can argue forever about the causes of crime. My approach is based on some simple principles. That children – at home and at school – must be taught the difference between right and wrong. (Michael Howard, Conservative Home Secretary, October 1993, (Goldson, 1999: 10). The problem of youth crime is becoming the most important issue of nowadays. The specialists in different spheres are troubled because of degradation of young generation. Many young people have hardly started their life but they had already lost their worthy place in society. The development of different forms of delinquent behaviour, crime and amoral actions is a great concern for parents, teachers, scientists and politicians, police and courts. Authorities are discussing the formation of special services, which would not only punish young crimes, but also prevent crimes and help young people who have problems with police. The problem will remain as an unsolved problem, if people do not define the main roots and mechanisms of youth crime. Only right preventive arrangements can be real arm against youth crime. Nowadays youth crime is determined by social and economic structure of society. Youth crime is a companion of every society, that is characterized by usual social events, such as unemployment, uncertainty in life, difficulties in getting education. All these factors influence on young generation greatly. Also drug addiction and gaming are the substantial factors for the development of youth crime. It is worth mentioning that Mass media has a great impact on people, especially on children and teenagers, and that is why it can be considered to be one of the factors that influences on formation of thoughts and opinions. It is a well-known fact that Mass media and other means of information do not always suggest positive things to think about. Trying to define the main causes of youth crime many scientists distinguish psychological and microsocial factors. Others explain that youth crime growth is determined by “sexual revolution”, family crisis and youth subcultures. There are some theories which insist on constitutional bias towards violence, national and race peculiarities. Generally speaking the very roots of youth crime are connected with bad breeding, negative events in family. The age peculiarities, such as lack of life experience, inclination to imitation, difficulties in evaluating the life situations, emotional instability and so on, increase the risk of adopting negative things, while being in bad surrounding. Especially this happens if there is no control from parents and educational establishments. A great majority of young crimes is from the families with the low level of parents’ education (Hirschi T.) . Speaking about the causes of youth crime more in detail it should be mentioned that there two approaches exist. The first approach is connected with the defining of the reasons of crime as the complex of all delinquents and deviations. The second approach is oriented on separate deviant’s actions (Flood-Page C.). All causes of youth crime can be divided into four groups: 1. Youth crime is caused by the heterogeneity and changeableness of the normative valuable system of society. Crime appears if the social institutions are starting to disappear. This process is characterized by the social disintegration, weakening of solidarity between people, appearance of subcultures. Due to that fact of cultural heterogeneity people evaluate the life situations differently, what causes conflicts and contradictions; 2. General reason of deviations and crimes is society destabilization. Here we should mention the features of the stable society: relative isolation, relatively low level of population mobility, homogeneity according to race and cultural characteristics, slight differentiation of people according to their social status, presence of the system of general rules or general ethical mentality, high level of non-formal control under the members of society. The violation of these features leads to destabilization and as a result different social pathology appear; 3. Another reason of deviation behaviour is stigmatization. Crime is a result of social evaluation of behaviour and proclaiming some types of it as crime. All people do right and wrong actions though some of them become the objects of social control and others do not. So it is possible to say that social control gives birth to stigmatization and it leads to the formation of the crime behaviour; 4. The global cause of youth crime is social inequality and stratification of society. It is a well-known fact that one of the most important indicators of the level of organization of society is differentiation of society structure. This natural and progressive process causes some negative results, such as social inequality. Inequality is a base for social conflicts, protest reactions which turn into deviant behaviour. A young crime passes trough several stages while developing their crime career: The first stage starts from the simplest things: absence or weakening of the psychological contact between parents and child, troubles at school, conflicts with friends and teachers. The causes of all this problems can be different: cruel relationship in family, inattentive teachers and their neglect towards child’s inner world, aggression of peers, inner conflicts, wrong methods of upbringing at school and in family. So it is obvious that the first push toward the crime world is made by family and school. According to CS&CPC Statement on the Root Causes of Crime approved in 1996 “low family income and poor housing often amplify poor parental supervision, marital disharmony, inconsistent care, poor nutrition, chronic health care problems, poor school performance and psychological disorders. Unsatisfactory living conditions are particularly stressful during pregnancy. Fetal development is negatively affected by maternal stress. Such stress has shown to be closely related to ill-health, neurological problems, slow development and behaviour disturbances in children. While there is not direct cause and effect relationship between poverty and crime, the conditions arising out of poverty combine to create "high" risk populations who are over-represented in the criminal justice system” (The root causes of crime). The second stage is examining the delinquent subculture and people. This subculture gives new ways of solving the problems, and escaping from the world of cruel family and school. The third stage is characterized by the approbation of the new variants of achieving aims. On this stage a young person is definitely defined as crime. A very important feature of this stage is the appearance and development of the complicated inner process – crisis of social identity. This stage is not final and it is still possible to get rid of the deviant forms of behaviour. At the fourth stage a young person can not imagine the world without subculture and accepts their social role. This stage leads to professional crime (organized underworld). After having learned the causes of youth crime it is possible to define the general directions in the preventive measures: 1. social preventive measures (social policy); 2. situational prevention of youth crime; 3. prevention of youth crime with the help of population. To the social preventive measures belong: creating of the proper legislative base; public control under the police organs; special approaches in the sphere of health care: creating the programs for mentally and physically ill children in order to integrate them into society, popularization of healthy way of life: discussions about harmful results of drug and alcohol taking, creating the conditions for the development of all forms of treating alcoholism and drug addiction; educational measures: courses of social skills – healthy way of life, self-defense, preventing violence at school, integration of family and educational establishments; consultations on the problems of smoking, drug taking, sexual relationship, conflict solving; holding the arrangements aimed to realize the creative potential of every child; defining the gifted children from the poor families and their support; free sports activity; family measures: flexible schedule for women having children, discussion about pedagogical skills with parents, creating the programs aimed to support families in conditions of social disadaptation and stressful situations (Goldson B., Jamieson J.); local accomplishment: liquidation of the boondocks, solving the problems of homeless young people. To the situational preventive measures belong: measures which make deviations more difficult: self-defense propaganda in Mass media, credit cards instead of cash; police patrolling. As for the third group of measures it is worth mentioning that it includes all forms of cooperation of population and authorities in achieving the common aims. It is very important to note that one of the effective preventive arrangements is sports. Young people who are not getting education should be involved into sports activities in order to improve their health and to be busy with the popularization of healthy way of life. In conclusion it is worth saying that family and school are an integral part of character formation. That is why special attention should be paid to family values in order to bring up ethically healthy generation. Cultural and national traditions, family values, love to close people, and to the world in general, are guarantee for youth crime reducing. References Flood-Page C., Campbell S., Harrington V., Miller J., Youth crime:Findings from the 1998/99.Youth Lifestyles Survey Goldson B., Jamieson J.,Youth Crime, the ‘Parenting Deficit’ and State Intervention: A Contextual Critique Goldson, B. (1999) Youth (In)justice: Contemporary Developments in Policy and Practice, in Goldson, B. (Ed.) Youth Justice: Contemporary Policy and Practice. Aldershot, Ashgate. Hirschi Travis, Causes of Delinquency http://books.google.com/books?id=WS_GhQPOt4AC&pg=PR9&lpg=PR7&dq=causes+of+youth+crime&psp=9&sig=53X3h22CFJAD2qg4sybk9t0olr8 Social Policy Research 93 - April 1996, Understanding and preventing youth crime http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/findings/socialpolicy/SP93.asp The root causes of crime,CS&CPC Statement on the Root Causes of Crime approved in 1996 http://www.preventingcrime.net/library/Causes_of_Crime.pdf Read More