Today I came across a really interesting letter on Today Online
titled: "A new code for youth crime". Juvenile crime as we
know in general is on the up and up and that when we read the news these days,
we will probably read about a couple of news a day about it.
Is this new?
The
historian Geoffrey Pearson quotes a 60-year-old named Charlotte Kirkman, who
lamented that, “I think morals are getting much worse... There were no such
girls in my time as there are now. When I was four or five and twenty my mother
would have knocked me down if I had spoken improperly to her”. Kirkman was
speaking in 1843, as part of an investigation into the bad behaviour of
contemporary youth. Lord Ashley, speaking in the House of Commons in the same
year, argued that “the morals of the children are tenfold worse than formerly”.
Past generations, then, have been just as convinced as
we are that the “youth of today” were misbehaving more than ever before.
Pearson has suggested that such fears about youth are a way of expressing more
general uncertainties about social change and recur with each generation. (Wills, n.d)
So what is the Issue?
Why out of the sudden we are seeing so much crime in
the last decade alone?
According to a United Nations report, Statistical data
in many countries show that delinquency is largely a group phenomenon; between
two-thirds and three-quarters of all juvenile offences are committed by members
of various groups. Even those juveniles who commit offences alone are likely to
be associated with groups. According to data from the Russian Federation, the
rate of criminal activity among juveniles in groups is about three to four
times higher than that of adult offenders. Juvenile group crime is most
prevalent among 14-yearolds and least prevalent among 17-year-olds. The rates
are higher for theft, robbery and rape, and lower for premeditated murder and
grievous bodily harm. (UN, 2003)
The issue in my opinion seems to be the influence from
the peers around us. As we grow up, we would be easily influenced by the people
around us and these make it even more important to mix around with the right
choices of people.
However, I am also wondering if it goes deeper than
just the mixing of friends or does it even come down to whether a moral
degradation.
Now back to the letter that I mentioned above, it
states that current system in Singapore is too soft and that it is sending a
signal which is wrong and that the true lesson will not be learnt. He also
further added that with a harsher approach, such as sending juveniles to a
special rehab home.
I feel that if we have to come to such a state then we
are literally pouring ‘kerosene into fire’. I feel that we need to nip this
issue at the bud and not let them commit their first crime so that we can
implement such measure to counter act them. I believe that parents play a vital
important role in the upbringing and development of a child and that the child
will mimic the behaviour of the parent.
In my next blog post, I will look into the other
factors that could affect juvenile crimes and what in my opinion can be done to
counter those other issues.
Works Cited
UN. (2003).
Juvenile Delinquency. World Youth Report, 191.
Wills, A. (n.d). Youth
culture and crime: what can we learn from History. Retrieved from BBC
History Magazine:
http://www.historyextra.com/feature/youth-culture-and-crime-what-can-we-learn-history
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