Research Paper on Youth Crime

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TITLE- RESEARCH PAPER ON A SOCIOLOGICAL TOPIC
TOPIC- YOUTH CRIME

ABSTRACT
This research paper talks about a sociological topic that discusses one of the main
problems of today’s society and people. In this paper, youth crime will be taken as an issue in
the growing society amongst the teenagers and the adult section of public. With the number
of crimes going up amongst the youth, it has been sought by the public to understand the
main reasons behind the growing crimes and connect it with the theories of sociology. Youth
plays a big role as a part of society and it is not only about the average personality of youth
members being created but also the future of a country and humanity in future generation.
INTRODUCTION
Youth crime refers to the crimes committed by the minors or the teenagers and these
are mostly dealt in juvenile courts. It has been found that, with an increase in population,
there has been poverty rise in the society and it is one of the main reasons behind the increase
in youth crimes. Sociology along with many other disciplinary subjects provides with the
main reasons behind the youth crimes ("Juvenile Deliquency: A Radical Approach", 2009).
Main causes behind the increasing crimes amongst the youth are social disenchantment,
urban decay, social alienation, low employment rate and family breakdown. It had been seen
that a huge part of the youth commit crimes at that age and also, a huge part of them grow out
of it as they grow older. As some sociologists illustrated that some levels of criminal
behaviour were ordinary. Talking about this, we remember that a new course of action came
in the UK that required treating all kinds of crimes as extreme and punishable by an official
criminal justice permit. The special effects of this law have been to tag a young criminal as an
offender in a very early age. On people, this has had a lot of effects. Amongst them, the first
one is to advance establish criminality into the perpetrator, whereas the other goal is to
persuade the young towards the futility of the crime, on condition that punishments are equal
to the crime ("Juvenile Deliquency: A Radical Approach", 2009). The aim was to discourage
against supplementary criminal acts.
THE THEORIES ON YOUTH CRIME
A general theory of crime was placed by Edwin Sutherland which stated that a crime
in an outcome of an individual’s low self control. This theory basically made a clarified view

on the behaviour of a criminal and placed an understanding on the perspective of a learned
behaviour of a criminal (Miyata, 2016).
With the perspective of a great sociologist, Karl Marx, this article focuses on the
conflict theory of criminology. The conflict theory basically focuses on the economic and
social factors as a reason to the deviance and crime. It does not look into these factors as with
a positive p=outlook, but, as negative functions present in the society. It refers to the
inequality present in the system of society which leads to criminal activities.
Conflict theory challenges the control theory and social disorganisation theory in
many ways and often argues that these two theories avoid the socioeconomic and racial issues
and makes the trends of society as over simple rules and regulations. It also tries to connect
the race and wealth issue with the theory of criminology. Conflict theory not only adds a
perspective to the criminal behaviour but also tends to change the developmental outlook
with the focus on unequal behaviour amongst the people in society (Miyata, 2016).
THE UNEQUAL SYSTEM – BY KARL MARX
Karl Marx was a German philosopher, a social scientist and an economist who stated
the conflict theory and has worked in developing a perspective on the following issue. He
describes the people who are wealthy and creating business as the bourgeois class whereas
the workers working under these men as the proletariats (Muncie, 2015). The immense power
in the hands of the wealthy creates a sense of inequality amongst the people of a society and
this was related to the crimes and deviance amongst the youth section of the society.
THE CONFLICT THEORY AND YOUTH CRIME
With a growth in wealth and power in the hands of wealthy people, there becomes a
shortage of basic necessities in the hands of people working hard for the fulfilment of their
basic needs. This often leads to anger, dissatisfaction in the minds of youth and the growing
need of wealth and food leads them to the way of criminalisation. Youth criminals can be of
two types- first, the ones who are short of wealth and power and other are the ones who are
blessed with extravagant power and money (Muncie, 2015).
The first ones often have to deal with difficult situations to prove their worth in
society or earn money to fulfil their food, living and clothing needs and this leads them to