Youth Justice System Addresss The Problem Of Youth Crime

YWU609- Young People and Crime

Assignment- Discuss to the extent to which the Youth Justice system addresses the “problem” of youth crime.

During this essay I will be discussing antisocial behaviour and the impact it has on society. I will also

Antisocial Behaviour

Antisocial Behaviour is often defined as behaviour which has or is more than likely going to cause harassment, or distress to somebody this includes;

• Verbal abuse

• Homophobic behaviour

• Too much noise

• Fly tipping

• Vandalism, graffiti, property damage

• Racial harassment

• Intimidating behaviour from neighbours through threats or violence

“Antisocial behaviours are disruptive acts characterized by covert and overt hostility and intentional aggression toward others”- www.healthofchildren.com

• Public spaces protection order- this order will deal with any problems in a public area, this certain order applies to everyone in the area, for example no alcohol in the town centre, no smoking in public places, no dogs in the park.

• Closure of premises- This is used to stop anybody entering a building which has become a hotspot for antisocial behaviour or fear that it may become one, this could be somebodies home, for example you have a teenage son and he has friends come in and out the house all day and cause disruption when doing so and it gets reported on numerous occasions then action would

It might be to do with the fact that they could come from a broken home, they could’ve been abused, they live in poverty, or the lack of parental control. I believe to a certain extent that the individuals background plays a part in why young people commit crime, although I feel it is a way of them expressing themselves to get noticed, for example if a young lad has come from a council estate and committed a few petty crimes and went to prison his peers would then respect him and his street cred would go up this is also known as hyper masculinity. I would also argue to the point in which it may not always the background as you could have somebody who came from an upper class background, went to school and done well then go downhill from college by mixing in with the wrong crowd and getting up to stuff which they wouldn’t of thought about doing before. This links into Robert K. Merton’s “Strain theory”, this specific theory was built around the “American dream”. I feel that this theory fits in with Antisocial behaviour as there are 5 different types of deviance, which are conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion, It also proposes that people commit crime to fit in, there are many different barriers which the individual will have to over come in order to feel that they fit