Youth Justice. Welfare And Punishment Management - Essay Example

"AT THE HEART OF THE CRISIS IN YOUTH JUSTICE IS CONFUSION AND CONFLICT BETWEEN WELFARE AND PUNISHMENT" Introduction Crime has been one of the social problems affecting many communities in the world. Throughout the history of mankind, there is evidence that there have been different kinds of crimes and at the same time there have been different modes of punishment for these crimes. Modern societies have tried to study crimes but there have been no conclusive data that legalized crimes or give a reason why people commit crimes even if they are fully aware of the consequences of their action. All the studies that have been carried out on crimes have given different views on the reason fro crimes and different methods that should be sued to punish these crimes. (Laub, 2003, p. 76) Crimes know no age barrier. The old and the youth have all been involved in crimes. There is no definition that can associate crime to particular age group though statistics may be associating one age group with increased crime compared to the other. This shows that crimes can be committed by any one depending on the situation they are in and there is no immune that can be used to prevent a certain age group from committing crimes. Youth crime Also known as juvenile crimes, youth crimes have been on the rise in the recent past in the whole world. Statistic shows that the level of juvenile crimes has been increasing by a great margin. In the UK, the number of youths who have been convicted of crimes have been on the rise and especially for the under 18s offenders which has been growing at an average rate of 37 percent in the recent years. In china the number of young offenders has been increasing at an alarming rate in a country which is associated with strict moral and harsh punishment for crimes. It has been shown that in china the rate of youth crime has doubled in a person for 10 year and the tread is still on the rise. The same applies the same to other places like America where the rate of youth crimes has increased at an alarming rate also. (Hewitt 2006, p. 61) The above statistics shows us that the rate of youth crimes have been increasing in the world. This has been attributed to the social change that is taking place with the increased wave of globalization which has taking place in the world. Youth crime has been described as one of the negative outcome of globalization. So what is youth crime or juvenile crimes Youth or juvenile crimes have been defined as the crimes that are committed by the youth. These are crimes which are committed by those within the age bracket of below 35 years who are mostly considered as the youth. However in the particle use, the tem juvenile crimes has been used for described crimes which are committed by those who are below than the age of 18 years who are most attributed to with the term juvenile. The rise of this term has been attributed to the rise of crimes committed by the youth and the difficult that the criminal justice system has faced in dealing with some of these crimes due to the need to take care of the welfare to these children and at the same time punish the youths for the crimes that they commit. Therefore the term was coined in order to refer to that specific age group due to the circumstances surrounding the need to deter crimes in the group. (Spigel, 2004, p. 56) As expected this could be the group that would be less involved in crimes but this is turning to the contrary. Rationale to the increased youth crimes has been attributed to many of the crime theories which show that the cause of crimes comes from the individual offender instead of the external environment that surrounds the offender. This is given by the classical crime theory that also stress that the offender is motivated the rational self-interest to commit crime. But this theory doesn't fully apply to the youth crimes due to the evidence collected from statistics which shows that rather than the personal interest the environment also plays a role in the construction of a youth criminal. For example it has been shown that youths from low income areas are more involved in crime compared to youths from high income area. It has also been shown that the kind of crime that the two groups are involved in varies. This shows that the environment around which the young person grow plays a role in construction the susceptibility of the youth to crime. (Carrington 2006, p. 3) For the youth the peer group influence which is one of the environment under which they go up in is a big factor in luring them to crime. It has been shown that the kind of peer group that the youth relates with determines whether they will grow up as criminals or not. In order to find the best way to deal with youth crimes, there is need to understand the youth people and the reason why they indulge in crimes so that we can construct the best model to deter these crimes. In understanding the youth crime, the conscious and self control of are important determinant of a potential youth offender. It has to be understood that the two attributes are mostly formed by the parental and societal conditioning. Therefore to understand a youth offender we should go back to the kind of parenting the youth person has grown up with and then look at the society where the young person has grown up in. That is the reason why we have said the personal aspect and the environmental factors play a role in determining the youth offender. Taking a more deep perception, we will be taking a positivist approach in which we evil be looking on the cultural and socio-economic environment of the young person as some of the most environment factors that determines the suitability of the youth to crime. (Hagan 2003, p. 59) Understanding the young people and their involvement in crimes will be an important step in helping us to understand the best way that will be used to punish the youth. This is because one of the problem hat has been facing the juvenile criminal justice system has been the need to take care of the welfare of the young people and the need to punish them in order to deter them from committing crimes. These are currently the two important issues in youth crime What is the distinction between Welfare and Punishment A punishment is a method of negative reward that has been used to deter crime. The main aim of punishment is to makes sure that offender feel the pain as result of the crime and therefore they are unlikely repeat it later. Punishment of offenders is also meant to act as a warning to other potential offenders since they are less likely to repeat the crimes when the reward that has been given to offenders. Throughout the history for crimes, the forms of punishment have been charging with time. Traditionally the forms of punishment were reduced and even included mutilating a part of the body of the individual or stoning to death or even public hanging. The reason for this punishment was to act as an example to others so that they could not repeat the same crimes. This later changed to introduction of fines for crimes but the practice of hanging of individual who is convicted of having committed crimes has not been dropped with time. However the modern punished methods are supposed to reform the offended so that they are released back to the society as good individuals. Even the youth have been subjected to the same kind of punishment though there are differences in the way they are punished compared to others. (Lee 2000, p. 72) On the other hand welfare describes the need to take care of someone. The aim of the crimes justice system has not been only to punish the individuals but it has also been to take care of their welfare in the futures. That is why the punishment system that is used helps to reform the individual for the better. For the youth the issue of the punishment methods that are used has been on the need to help them to grow and receive their education and at the same time punish them for the crimes. (Robinson 2004, p. 98) Throughout history, the two concepts have been changing with time. In the late 1800-1960s the emphasis on crime punishment was on the welfare of the offender. In this regard the welfare of the youth was taken into consideration and hence the form of punish did not involve confined with which distracted them from their education. However this was to change late as people progressed. From 1960s there was a change in the perception for youth and crime as more and more youth started engaging in crime due to the changes that were taking place in the world. The emphasize was starting to shift more from the need to take care of the welfare of the youth and youth offenders were starting to be viewed in a other social dimension. Crime was considered to be a crime and was not based on the age or the look of the person. There was emphasis on the need to show to the youth the need to do good this for the society and therefore the method of punishment by then was more preventative although this did little to change the youth perception of crime. There was a change in the perception for the education system which was started to be seen as social system that should be used to reconstruct the youths. From 1970s there was a new perception of the youth crime and their welfare and it was seen that there was not need to look at the background of the youth which in this sense meant the growth environment and there was emphasis on the behaviour of the youth. In 1997, the New Labour parties which took the office made it clear that they are were no more excuses from youth crime and there was need to give them the same treatment like other offenders. The focus change rapidly and in 1998, there was a focuses on punishment, welfare and restoration. This meant that in punishing the youths, there was need to look at the method of punishment that was being used and at the same time look at their welfare and relate the two aspects. There was more emphasis on the need for integration of youth offenders back to the society. Crime and Disorder, making the society safer Therefore the focus was change to that of punish the youth and at the same time making the society safer. Punishment was meant to change the behaviour of the youth. In the view of criminal justice system, punishment was seen as a way of emphasizing the welfare of the youth. This was seen in the sense that punishing the youth was meant to change their behaviours and therefore a way of taking care of their welfare. But this is a greater contradiction. As we saw earlier, theory of juvenile crimes are supported by factors of personal aspect and the environment factors. Therefore these two factors must be dealt with in order to take care of the welfare of the youths. But the punishment system does nothing to change their personal aspects and the environment which they grow up in. In the current punishment system, the youths are confined in juvenile prisons an in the prison. The issue of welfare here has been the ability for these youth to access their education and at the same time serve their terms in prisons. Therefore we can deduce here that the system has practically failed to integrate the two aspects in the life of these offenders. Furthermore when they are released from their terms, they also face a hard time integrating back to the society. The way the society welcomes back is not sufficiently to make them feel a part of the society again. It has been observed that there is an increasing trend of second time youth offenders which means that the correction system is not meeting its mandate. Instead of reforming the youths, it is making them radical criminals. The acts that have been put in place by the government have been undermining the role of parent in reforming the young people. Fore example Children and Young Person Act 1933 c 12 seems to prevent those from under 16 year from punishment. But even the bible had other religious books have it is clear that the rod is the best way to avoid spoiling the child. The irony is how this act can be applied in reforming the young people in the reform school. (UK Government, 1997; UK Government, 1993) The modern punishment system emphasize on keeping the young offenders in reform schools which were established by Reforms School of 1854. This was meant to create reform school for male young offenders so that they could the reformed and at the same time continue with their education. But it is the method of integration of these offenders back to the society that matter most rather than the aspects of reforming them. The England industrial school Act which was established in 1857 was supposed to deal with the problem of Juvenile delinquency and for the purpose of removing poor and neglected children from their homes to a boarding school environment. The above two act seems to have focused on the need to confine delinquent youth in order to reform them. As we can see from the above acts, the emphasis has been on confining the young offenders and then reforming them. This means that in their confinement school these young people are able to raising their education and at the same time get reformed. But even the mode of system has not alienated from this early approached in the sense that it is still emphasizing on the need to confine them. The war between the two process of confinement and punishment comes in the fact that both neglect the role that parents play in the life of the young person. As was postulated in the benign the parental society environment is very important in during the submission of the young offender to crimes. Therefore the theory of confinement means that the young person will be confined which will remove them from parental care and societal care which are all important for complement growth. Therefore we can say that confinement and punishment are not an approach to taking care o the life of the young offenders. (Sampson 2003, p. 29) Instead the more practical approach should be coming up with a way in which the young person will be punished and at the same time taken care of the welfare. In this regard the society with the help of the criminal justice system should be seen as one of the most effective collaborates in reforming the young offender. With the approach of punishment, welfare and restoration, we would find that the aim of all the system is of reform the young offender so that to restore them back to the society as good person. But this cannot happen when we confine them and delineate them from the main society that they know. When they come from their confinement, they seen a different society from the one that they are used to. Hence the more important aspect of taking care of the offenders would be to reform them in the same society that they are used to. They find it difficult to integrate with the society and therefore e the best way for them to live is to commit crimes again and be taken back to the system that they have been used to. Therefore the current criminal justice system is working to produced graduate radical criminals from mere young offenders. (Farrington 1997, p. 72; Kyvsgaard, 2003, p. 9) Welfare and punishment management Looking closely that the two aspects we can say that they are important in the reforming the young offenders. While it is essential to reforms the young offender, it is also important to take care of their welfare. Though we may not consider punishment as a form of their welfare, it is necessary in dealing with the young offender and acting as an example to others. The modern approach that should be used to determine offence in youth should be target the young people and preventing them from coming crimes rather than using the earlier approach of confusing and punishing them. Preventing the youth from crimes will be one of the most effective ways of taking care of their welfare Reference Carrington, P 2006, Age and youth Crime, Ottawa, Justice Department Farrington D 1997, Criminal careers, Oxford Handbook of Criminality, Oxford University Press Hagan, J 2003, Youth Crime and Homelessness, New York, Cambridge university press Hewitt, J 2006, Juvenile Delinquency in Society, Oxford University Kyvsgaard, B 2003, A study on Criminal Career, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press Laub, H 2003, Shared Beginning but Divergent lives, Cambridge, Harvard University Press Lee, N 2000, The likelihood of Recidivism in Youth court histories, Ottawa, Justice Department of Canada Robinson, P 2004, Youth Court Statistics, Ottawa Sampson, R 2003, Crime in the Making, Cambridge, Harvard University Press Spigel, S 2004, Correction, Juveni Delinquency, OLR research Report, June 2004 UK Government, 1993, Children and Young Persons Act 1993 UK Government, 1997, Crime (Sentence) Act 1997, 1997 Chapter 43 Read More