The majority of young people lack responsibilities that include having children, keeping a job and financial demands such as rent or mortgage. The lacking of responsibilities such as these as well as looking for thrills among the peers can often glide young people in the direction of deviant acts that sometimes collide with the law. They might give up these criminal careers, as they grow older due to things such as marriage, parenthood, buying and looking after a home of their own etc.
Another reason for why young people engage in crime could be due to the fact that their parents and teachers can no longer control their behaviour. Some sort of breakdown of behaviour control at home and at school may have occurred.
These are the only explanations I can find for why a lot of criminals are young. Their offences usually involve trivial things like shoplifting, under-age drinking and are usually peer group related.
Male
Statistics also suggest that males are more likely to offend than females and only about four percent of the prison population are females. I think this could be due to gender role socialisation and the way in which the bringing up of males and females differ. Teenage girls are more likely to be closely supervised by their parents and boys are thought to be given more freedom, as I have already mentioned above. Boys have also been brought up to thinking that their expected behaviour is aggressive, confident, violent and especially dominant.
This could lead them to be more involved in crime than girls, whereas girls are prevented from getting involved in crime in the first place due to the close supervision by their parents.
It might also be due to the police stereotype. A stereotype is an exaggerated and distorted view of a social group. An example is how police think men are more likely to get involved in crime and therefore see women as not a threat. This benefits women and if they are caught committing a crime, the chances are that they will just be moved along and given are warning. Males in the same situation are likely to be arrested, and later convicted.
Adult females are less likely to be involved in crime since they have a lot of demanding responsibilities. Such as motherhood, Housewife role, caring for husbands, the home and elderly relatives that are dependant upon them. These priorities may mean that a woman will think twice before turning to crime. However, men also have their responsibilities. They are seen as the breadwinner of the family, the one expected to earn an income but nowadays women are capable of looking after themselves. A male’s demands aren’t seen as being too important compared with those of a female’s.
Women’s offences are more likely to be less detectable offences, such as prostitution, shoplifting or petty theft. The tough and dominant behaviour expected of men is more likely to lead to more serious and detectable criminal behaviour, as well as the fact that police expect men to be the more probable criminals.
Working-class.
According to the official crime statistics, working-class people are more likely to be arrested and charged for crimes than those of other social classes. This could be due to the fact that most people desire success and prosperity. Working-class people have relatively fewer opportunities to succeed through means that are legal. As a consequence, they may turn to crime.
This could also be due to police stereotype again. Working-class people fit more closely to what the police expect and therefore there is a greater police presence in working-class areas than middle class areas. Crime rates will therefore be higher in working-class areas but only because there are more police there that can respond straightaway to criminal deeds.
These are the only explanations I can find to explain why a lot more criminals are young, male and working class. Most of it is due to police stereotype and what they expect to find, as this is what determines where most of the policemen are located. Where there are a lot of policemen, more crime will be detected, which means more criminals being arrested, later convicted.