Youth Offenders: An Analysis

As business dictionary simply explains, power is an authority held by a group within a society, whereas society is a group of people sharing the same norms, values, culture and identity. However, youth society is a little bit different from adulthood and have different rules and norms when we talk about authority and by who it is being held. Power is established by Government, however as Tim Newburn stated in his article police is a first line of contact with young offenders. Everything what happens in the youth justice system hinge on set of decisions taken earlier by the police. They use different types of controlling juvenile offenders such as reprimands, final warnings and stop and search. Focusing on how police use their power within this

According to Reiner (2010: 123) there are seven key groups which can be distinguished in a society which are crucial divisions for the police. One of group is called “police property”. ‘A category becomes police property when the dominant power of society (in the economy, polity, etc.) leave the problems of social control of the category to the police’(J.Lee 1981 53-4). As an author explained, youth are among the groups which are usually helpless and vulnerable people without the rights to express their views and opinions, that can give an explanation why young offenders are treated in more harmful and unfair ways. Stop and search is a police power, part of the Police and Criminal evidence act to stop a person who is suspected of doing something illegal. Police use and maintain authority in public, ignoring manners in which this is done. Stop and search has been a conventional and problematic tactic in this, can be highly emotive and if misused it can be harmful to the trust and confidence of young people in the police. What is worrying more than 1000 under-10s had been stopped and searched in less than five years period, including even toddlers.

Young people are usually exposed to victimasation, not only by the children who are the same age as them but also by adults. Moreover, according to Youth Justice Board almost 32% boys in 2015-16 in custody reported being victimised by staff, which means that it is really hard to build trust towards police officers or member of staff when evan they are not helping them to correct their behaviour but bullying and insulting them. Police station-Based “triage” assessments are likely to be beneficial but we also need to limit the potentially negative consequences of informal, street-based contacts between police and young people. Some types of controlling young offenders are misused, what leads to rebelling and re-offending. Those below the age of 18 should be treated as children first also listening to the voices of children is crucial. The way in which they police this population now will affect attitudes and culture long into the