Youth Crime

Moore (2002) quotes 'without an understanding of why people commit crime, it is impossible to develop effective policies to combat it.' (Moore, 2002 pg. 275) Moore (2002) explains that criminologists and social scientists base their findings into three groups, which are 'the immediate explanations (related to the activities of family and friends), contextual explanations (based on the daily social context in which people live out their lives and structural explanations (which are broader social and economic factors which help to shape the immediate and contextual explanations.' (Moore, 2002 pg. 275) It could be felt that the most important group of all is the immediate explanation as this is linked to the way people are nurtured from birth by their family members and close friends. Young offenders who commit crime on a regular basis are much more likely to have a family life which would be regarded as deficient by most people. They are also more likely to have parents or older siblings who have no regard for law and order and have even offended themselves. The parents of young offenders do not feel it necessary to socialise their children into the accepted values of society, (it could be argued that the main reason for this is that they were not taught such values by their parents when they were young therefore a cycle of ignorance continues). The government are well aware of this evidence so funding is put into special programmes that teach parents of young offenders valuable parenting skills, the courts can insist that parents attend these classes if they feel their youngsters will benefit from them.

Young offenders are more likely to come from areas of deprivation, where there is limited community control and where local adult residents may be too afraid to oppose vandalism and street crime or because unruly behaviour is regarded as acceptable by a significant proportion of the local community. Friendships and peer pressure come under the heading of immediate explanations that again could have a detrimental effect on the way young people behave. Many friendships are made with those of similar backgrounds and interests. The young people who are most deprived and who have the most unsettled home lives very often tend to form friendship groups. Offending behaviour is more likely to occur as young people will offer each other mutual support and encourage their various actions. It could be argued that it is imperative that these youths attend school on a regular basis as not only does it stop them committing crimes through the day they are taught (using the hidden curriculum) what is acceptable and unacceptable within society. According to Walsh (2000) there is a close relationship between deprivation and crime so 'the extent and effectiveness of welfare policies alleviating poverty and creating a better quality of life is important.' (Walsh, 2000 pg. 247) At present both local and central government spend a great deal of money repairing damage to houses on run down housing estates with bad reputations, maybe if the same money was spent on building new houses for low income families there would be less stigma attached which in turn would give them a great sense of pride.

According to the Police Review (2001) many youths commit crimes to fund their drug addictions. Hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine are quite widely accessible in and around areas of deprivation. Police understand that anyone caught taking drugs need to be punished as they are breaking the law but are also well aware that they need medical help and counselling to be help them quit their habit. Police are more focused on catching the people who actually sell the drugs on to the youngsters, as they are the ones who need to be severely punished.

As explained by Walsh (2000) just over a decade ago it was normal practise for young offenders to be sent to detention centres but like prisons they did not work as records showed that over 70 per cent of youths re offended once they were released. Since the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 the main responsibility for dealing with offending by those aged 10-17 has been taken over by the Youth Justice Board. Their intention is to prevent youngsters from finding themselves back in court. They have 150 youth offending teams who operate locally to combat youth crime. Youth offending teams are made up of the police, staff from social services, education and health services. Many young people may commit a crime as they see it as having a laugh therefore if it is their first or second offence they are given a caution. Anyone caught after their second warning will be given a supervision order. This can be anything from 3 months to 3 years depending on the offence. The young offender meets up with a member of the youth offending team and will be required to undertake tasks set out by them. Youth offending teams continually assess youngsters and arrange case studies to help them address the cause of offending. Moore (2002). Many law-abiding citizens may feel that the above is far too lenient but youngsters are made to take responsibility by attending their meetings and a great deal of their freedom is taken away from them.

Young (1998) explains that since 1999 electronic tagging has been in use throughout England and Wales. Young offenders have electronic tags fastened around their ankles and electronic monitors capture all movements. 'The enforcement of tagging is done by private security firms,' (Young 1998, pg 252) therefore allowing the police to target specific problems such as drug pushers. These young people have to follow strict guidelines as to where they can go and they are given a curfew whereby they have to be at a designated address by a certain time (by order of the court) if they fail to uphold their order they are liable to be re arrested by the police.

It could be argued that simply punishing a young person by locking them away is not the way forward and more resources must be implemented into finding out the reasons why people commit crimes in the first instance and then overcoming the underlying problems.

477 WORDS

WENDY SHORT