In some countries, it is believed that crime among young people is increasing. What do you think are the reasons for this trend? What types of punishment or approaches are most suitable for young offenders?
Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Reasons
Economic factors: lack of jobs and impoverishment
Social factor: peer pressure and advent of social media,and the situation is exacerbated by lack of proper counseling
Lack of parental monitorings and guidance
Suitable punitive measures
Engaging the young perpetrators in restoring the damage caused to places or assets
Reformation and redemption through rehabilitation
Educational support
Community initiatives should be run to involve youngsters in constructive activities
Warnings and retention
This surging incidence of unlawful endeavors involving young individuals has become a pressing concern across the world, making it imperative to delve into attributes driving this phenomenon, and discovering probable remedies to stem this trend.
The most prominent factor driving this tendency is a deterioration in familial, and social values and circumstances which has made the young generation lose its sense of direction, and stop distinguishing between right or wrong. Perpetrators, as young as those in their teens, regardless of their socioeconomic backgrounds, are reportedly found engaging in activities such as mugging, robbing, vandalizing public property, and so forth, in all urban centres on the globe, as has been reported by the Washington post.
Likewise, another factor underpinning the propensity to break laws amongst youngsters is abject poverty, and accompanying unemployment, forcing young people to resort to deviant ways to earn livelihood and survive. To corroborate, as per WHO, nearly ninety percent of pickpocketing and snatching in cities like London and New York, to name a few, can be ascribed to the jobless poor youth, unable to earn lawfully.
This social malady can be cured effectively provided families, community, and lawmakers join hands, to afford counseling, alternative skills training, and community services and activities, to the delinquent young. Moreover, selective punitive measures such as detention in correction facilities that san hardened criminals can also help curtail this development. For example, Singapore Police has successfully reformed numerous young offenders by sending them to rehabilitation schools and offering them occupational training.
To conclude, most young unlawful elements embrace anti-social ways of life owing to absence of appropriate enlightenment about righteousness, resources for survival and jobs. However, concerted efforts by every responsible component of society can help mitigate this complication, and reform the youth.
