Youth And Crime

Youth crimes are increasing everywhere and this became a growing concern around the globe. There are several reasons for this, but I believe that the foremost reason for the increasing youth criminal rate is the poverty. As the society develops, the income gaps get wider at a faster rate and the young people can get the feeling of unfairness of society which can be expressed in vandalism ways. As a result, the poverty appears to be the one of the vital reason that contributes to increase the youth criminal rates.

In addition to this, the second reasons could be due to the internal factors. Since teenagers are experiencing of hormone changes, they are easily influenced by their peer groups. Due to this hormone aspects and peer group influences, teenagers are easily get angry and hard to control which can lead to commit a crime. Thus, the friends and hormone changes can be the other reasons for the increasing of crime rates.

When a minor is tried for an offence, the parents or guardians are required to attend the proceedings so that the judge can get a sense of the family situation and the minor concerned. If the parents fail to attend a hearing, the court can issue a warrant to secure their attendance in court. In such cases, the police pick up the parents at home and escort them to court.

Parents are also involved before the trial. The police often talk to the parents and the Child Protection Board also establishes contact with them. The Youth Probation Service contacts them after the pre-trial detention order is lifted.

Since the youth crimes are increasing rapidly around the world, it is becoming important to solve this issue. There are two possible solutions to tackle this issue. The first solution is to impose of stricter and stronger punishment to minor criminals. Even though the reasons are outside factors that lead to crimes, it is still important to have severe punishments by showing them as an example to other criminals.

Preventing re-offending by minors

The government is taking the following measures to prevent young offenders from re-offending:

• Personalised approach: Every young person is different and deserves support that is specifically tailored to them. For example, an aggressive person can be ordered to attend a course to learn how to cope with and control aggression. The Offending Behaviour Programmes Accreditation Committee (in Dutch) reviews the courses to determine whether they have actually had the desired effect.

• Training and education programmes: When a young person is released from young offenders’ institution, he or she needs to reintegrate into society by attending school or university, or finding a job. The training and education programmes provided at the end of the custodial period are intended to help them prepare for this.

• Proper support and guidance: Young offenders’ institutions, the Child Protection Board (in Dutch), the Youth Probation Service (in Dutch) and municipalities work together in network and process-related consultative bodies. They arrange shelter, income, education and/or work for young offenders upon release.

Dealing with problem gangs of youths is one of the government’s policy priorities. Its approach is tailored to the specific group and individual members. What works best is a combination of care, punitive, educational and employment measures. The government wants to do more than simply set limits by imposing penalties on youths who have committed a crime. It is also important to offer young people the prospect of work or education. This will keep them from embarking on a life of crime.

The integrated approach designed to tackle gangs of youths at local level is coordinated by the municipality in collaboration with the police, the Public Prosecution Service and the Ministry of Security and Justice.

Also, the second way of dealing with this typical issue is to punish those young criminals’ parents for lacking of their roles to control their children. Parents have to take more responsibility for their children commit crimes. With all these measure, the youth crimes will be solved but currently way of courts are too lenient. Therefore, this solution hopefully prevents further committing crimes by young criminals