In my opinion, the family should have the greatest responsibility for youth crime in Hong Kong. Nowadays, people no longer live in extended families, in which several generations share the same house. Instead, nuclear families are the norm, with only the parents and children sharing the same house. However, most parents go out to work early in the morning, return home late at night. There is no one looking after the children, the parents just leave them alone at home. As a result, the parents do not understand their children well enough and may even have difficulty in communicating with them. Due to little communication between parents and children and insufficient parental guidance, the children easily go astray as they are not able to distinguish right from wrong and so they are easily influenced by the surroundings and the people around them ---- the society.
Why is the society responsible for youth crime? Someone may think that there is no direct relationship between the society and youth crime but it is not the case. Messages are transmitted to the public through the mass media. The method used by them may not be suitable for all the people especially youngsters. As the mass media may use a new method, which is completely different from the traditional one ---- directly tell the truth, to tell the public what is right and what is wrong, youngsters may not be able to identify the newly used method and understand the actual meaning behind. Hence, the youngsters will probably develop a wrong belief and misconception about the messages transmitted by the mass media.
The most common case is that some films exaggerate the advantages of using violence to solve problems at the beginning so as to emphasize the bad ending of the character. As I have mentioned before, the youngsters are often not properly cared for by the parents and so they cannot seek advice or guidance from them. Youngsters may therefore neglect the actual meaning behind and just believe that violence can solve all problems. They will then follow what the actors have done ---- fight with others when they have disputes with others and commit assault. It is really a pity.
In fact, all the above problems can be avoided if the family has taken the right approaches to treating their children. If the parents spend more time with their children, communicating with them, educating them and satisfying their spiritual needs other than their material needs, the youngsters will be more likely to develop a positive attitude towards life. They will understand that committing crime is wrong and so they will not do anything which contravenes the law. In conclusion, the family has the greatest responsibility for youth crime in Hong Kong.
