Young people's behaviours are seen in the society as a catalyser of change, a vector for social and moral evolution. Usually our societies, often driven by a sense of cautious conservatism, are prudent or even resistant towards youth's attitude.
Contrary to the common thoughts youth delinquency has existed for a very long time and has ever raised such an amount of hostile concern among the witness citizens; As Pearson explains it "youth cultures and youth crimes assume the appearance of ever increasing outrage and perpetual novelty" .He goes on giving us one of the first instance of historic "young offenders" in London in 1625. Thus youth offending, and the consecutive reactions of the society, are not and have never been recent phenomenon. Last century saw successive waves of concerns of what was seen as youthful lawlessness. Different subcultures that belonged to the young part of the population were described and demonised, where in fact none involved any criminal connection at all. But young people were, and still are seen as disruptive and dangerous. The association of youth and crime seems obvious and results in defiance widespread in the society, becoming progressively a mere prejudice. The different forms of leisure, the most natural behaviours expected from the children, have now often turned in a mean of delinquency.
Is the link between young people's criminality, their leisure and the fear of crime really justified or is the youth just an easy scapegoat?
[...] The official statistics, Criminal Statistics 2000, tend to show that at least one quarter of all recorded crime is committed by ten to seventeen year olds and that over two fifths is committed by those under twenty The recent Youth Survey Board survey showed that the number of criminal offences committed by young people is probably far higher than the conviction rates suggest: 26 per cent of school pupils claim to have been involved in some form of crime. Besides it is interesting to point out the differences existing in gender and age in the youth delinquency. [...]
[...] Among all the surveys conducted with the youth, a common finding regularly appears: most of them recognise that a main element of the attraction for crime lies in the seductiveness, the fun, the excitement which is provided by the illegal act.[11] Such acknowledgement could lead us to admit that petty crime or even more serious offences are viewed by the young perpetrators as a recreational habit! In sum new games to play. Fighting the boredom of the dull, repetitive, daily life as Collison noticed.[12] Anderson and his colleagues found these patterns in their behaviour and drew “attention to the fun involved in many delinquent acts, vandalism can be seen as a form of creative art work and gang fights, whether real or imagined, occasion excitement and thrill”. [...]
[...] The Oxford Handbook of Criminology third edition pp540 BBC News : Excluded Pupils risk of delinquency” April 2002 Crime Reduction; Working together to reduce crime, Keeping young people safe and out of trouble 2000 British Crime Survey Home Office research Study 140: Young People, Victimisation, and the Police. Crime Reduction Toolkits: Youth. Fear of Crime Anderson Kinsey Loader I and Smith C {1994} Cautionary tales: Young People, Crime and Policing in Edinburgh. Aldershot: Avebury Anderson Kinsey Loader I and Smith C {1994} Cautionary tales: Young People, Crime and Policing in Edinburgh. [...]
[...] The risk increases if the young belongs to a particular group and the crime applied also differs: - young men are more at risk of physical violence than young women - young women are more at risk of sexual violence than young men - young disabled people are more at risk of being physically and/or verbally abused than the non-disabled. Schools appear to be a most favourable background of criminal activities instead of being a safe haven of study and entertainment: - 46 per cent of children in mainstream school reported being a victim of an offence in the past year - 21 per cent reported being bullied at school - 26 per cent reported being threatened It is interesting to stop a moment on the bullying incidents: this kind of activities can be considered as a funny leisure by the powerful party and as a daily nightmare by the victim. [...]
[...] “Styles of leisure such as rave parties were also subject to tougher controls and successive moral panics about joyriders, rioters and persistent young offenders prompted calls for much heavier sentencing of young offenders”[22]; this translated in the United States by the explosion of the Boot-Camps and in the United Kingdom by the launch of the curfews. Youth is one of the main targets of the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 1998. A recent instance of this focus on the “young devils” is relevant: four out of five children are worried that government plans to tackle antisocial behaviour will cause tension between them and the police. [...]
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