YOUTH CRIME

Literature Review on Youth Crime

Abstract

This paper tries to explore the concept of Youth Crime in a holistic context. The purpose of this research is to understand what Youth Crime is, and the intervention policies and strategies used to prevent youth crime. The paper also analyses the therapies required to control the youth crime. Literature Review on Youth Crime

Introduction

In common parlance, there is an understanding of youth crime as meaning adolescents breaking the law or participating in mischievous behaviour. Defining criminals as being under the age of 18 years is the general rule of thumb because, in the current legal system, upon reaching this age individuals can be tried as adults, serve in the military, and, in some states, consume alcohol.

One may ask why youth crime is viewed as a separate construct from adult deviant behaviour. The answer to this legitimate question is derived historically from societal attitudes about children. Only after the Victorian Age were children seen as emotionally and intellectually developing human beings. During the Victorian Age, children were simply viewed as little adults. They were not regarded as having a world of their own. Their reality was that of their elders. With the industrial revolution and the social reforms that followed (child labour laws, mandatory educational requirements, etc.), children were viewed as a group to be protected. From this attitude concerning the welfare of children sprang the juvenile justice system. The role of the juvenile justice system was to rehabilitate wayward youth. The idea of parens patriae, the court acting as the parent, became the foundation for the juvenile justice system. Unlike the adult criminal justice system, which was a penal system demanding restitution and levying penalties for breaking the law, the juvenile justice system was seen as a means to reform adolescents who, through no fault of their own, had fallen victim to deviant ways, through either bad friends or lack of parental guidance. Driving the juvenile justice system was the philosophy that the young could be rehabilitated.

Economic deprivation has been theoretically linked to youth violence and delinquency across a number of different paradigms including Social Disorganization, Institutional Anomie, Strain, Sub cultural Control, and Life-Course theories. A general theme across these otherwise opposing models is that economic deprivation indirectly influences youth crime by undermining the legitimacy of the law and other conventional values, weakening social bonds, or impeding socialization and other family processes such as discipline and supervision that serves to buffer youths from criminal involvement. Moreover, economic deprivation is associated with financial strains that may motivate youths to commit property and violent crimes as well as youth crime rates in disadvantaged areas where social institutions are weaker sources of social control.

Poverty Absolute deprivation refers to a lack of income to meet basic needs according to some fixed standard and is commonly demarcated by the official poverty line, which 22 defines the standard for minimum family income according to family size and composition. Poverty, and in particular chronic poverty, has detrimental consequences for families and ...