Discuss the extent to which the Youth Justice system addresses the problem of Youth Crime - Essay Example

In US, property crimes are the most frequently committed crimes (Mungatana, 2001). Violent crimes happen when an individual threatens to harm, conspire to harm or attempts to harm someone (Finkelhor and Ormrod, 2001). Violent crimes involve the threat of force and include homicide, robbery or rape. The differences between crime and deviance are (a) crime is a violation of laws pertaining the land whereas deviance is a breach of social norms, (b) agents that control crime are judiciary and police whereas agents controlling deviance are fear of God and societal pressure, (c) society lack coercive power to control deviance while crime is checked using instruments of governments, (d) crime is criminal in nature while deviance can be non criminal or criminal, (e), most behaviors that initially were crimes are currently deviant behaviors, (f) infringement of law makes deviance behavior a crime and (d) deviance is not regarded as serious as a crime.

Criminological theories that explain crime and deviance include psychological, biological and sociological perspectives. Biological perspective is a key approach when conducting psychological research and focuses on the notion that behaviors have a biological basis (wise GEEK. 2013). Sociological perspective is abroad way of viewing phenomena. The sociological perspective helps in understanding the individual’s behavior and provides insights about the surrounding world. Psychological perspective postulates that human behavior is the result of an individual’s experiences and ideas.

This paper is a discussion on the extent to, which the youth justice system addresses the problem of youth crime. To aid in examination of the issues, various criminological perspective theories will be used and an in-depth evaluation of the historical process of youth justice system. The paper sides with biological perspective, which states that children are born criminals. Historically,