How significant a problem is youth offending - Essay Example

Order 441690 Topic: How significant a problem is youth offending? Youth is the modern ‘terror generation!’ The generation that is in a hurry! The generation that acts before thinking! The combustible generation that operates disregarding the consequences! Thus it lands in prison, not because of its daring activities but as a punishment for the devilish deeds. The real problem is with the first time offenders, who commit crimes in a fit of anger. Such offenders should not be allowed to interact with the hardened criminals in the prison and guided through reformation and rehabilitation courses, given direction and training, and taught how to convert defeats of life into victories.

Their stay in the prison must be utilized to fine-tune their personality, so that upon release, they would find it easy to assimilate into the mainstream of society. The negligent society and adults are responsible for majority of the criminal offenses by young people. Early life experiences have much to do with the criminal leanings of the youngsters. Low achievement in school, family history of problem behavior, and lack of social commitment could be some of the reasons for the youth to get into crimes.

Youth offenders should not be treated as the regular criminals. Mercifully, there is a separate youth justice system to look after this aspect, through the intervention of Youth Courts. In his book titled “Criminology” Tim Newburn, deals extensively on this subject in chapter “Youth Crime and Youth Justice (p714-741). He highlights the role of the administration, the working of the prisons, police and measurement of youth offending and tries to offer appropriate solutions. No two young offenders are alike and they require varied types of counseling on the basis of their backgrounder information, as to what led them to the path of crime.

Some of his observations about youth offending are: “Some studies have also detected a more specific link between drinking and persistent offending.” (p.506) “Age of offending vary, but generally place it somewhere between 15 and 18 and show it to be higher for males than it is for females.”(p.717) “Youth crime and youth justice: the rates of use of drugs such as crack and heroin were significantly higher among young.”(p.724-729) “A smaller number of children are committing a larger number of crimes.”(p.729) “Approximately one-quarter of all appearances before Youth Court now results in a referral order.”(p.739) Society and administration have lots of responsibility in treating and looking after the first time offenders.

Youth, besides being combustible, have impressionable minds. Every offender is not a criminal, but has the potentiality to become one, if not guided well in time. What is important is to develop an understanding of the causes of crime. What is the possible solution? Newburn writes, “…imposition of an overreaching aim for youth justice, the creation of the Youth Justice Board to oversee practice, and the establishment of multi-agency Youth Offending Teams to deliver justice…”(p.549) are important.

The ultimate aim of the reforming agencies is to target the offending behaviour and to address the specific factors linked with offender’s offending. Function with relevance to offender’s learning style, the objective being to promote community reintegration. ************** Reference List: Newburn, Tim. Criminology: Willan Publishing (31 Aug 2007)