An Analytical Study of Youth Crime in the United Kingdom: A Report

This report provides an analytical study of youth crime in the United Kingdom, examining the factors contributing to juvenile delinquency and its impact on society. It explores the legal framework, including the Children Act and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and analyzes various theories of youth crime, such as differential association, labeling, and strain theories. The report also discusses the role of the criminal justice system, the effectiveness of different interventions, and the importance of community-based initiatives. It highlights the need to understand the root causes of youth crime, including family issues, peer pressure, and socioeconomic factors, and emphasizes the importance of rehabilitation, counseling programs, and equal treatment within the judicial system. The report concludes by stressing the need for a comprehensive approach to addressing youth crime, focusing on prevention and early intervention strategies to mitigate the negative consequences of juvenile delinquency and promote positive outcomes for young people and society as a whole. The report also provides statistics on youth crime and mentions the government's initiatives to deal with knife crime.

Running Head : An analytical study of youth crime in United Kingdom
AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF YOUTH CRIME IN UNITED KINGDOM
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Author Note

1An analytical study of youth crime in United Kingdom
Juvenile Delinquency is a significant concern in contemporary society, causing the
community to evaluate the origin of the current juvenile justice system and also analyse the
causes which push the society towards juvenile crime. Youth crime refers to the criminal activity
of a child aged below 16 years for boys and below 18 years for girls who do an act contrary to
law ( Shoemaker 2017). The main reasons which lead to juvenile delinquency are broken family,
lack of interaction, lack of wealth, lack of moral and social training. The Juvenile is categorised
by the low standard of maturity in both mental and physical abilities which is a major
determining factor that demarcates them from the adult (Goldson and Muncie 2015). In
pursuance with the consideration, the reformist of English criminal system adopts a different
measure for dealing with the juvenile offenders in the state of the United Kingdom (Ratcliffe
2016). This paper deals with the idea as to what extent the crime committed by young people
considered a severe problem in society today.
The young offenders, after they set free from the prison, need adequate education and
training to blend them with society. Kleptomaniacs is very common among youngsters in which
there is repeated failure to withstand the urge to steal the object which is not needed for his
personal use. In order to curb the issue of kleptomania, society takes the policy of restitution.
The policy of restitution allows the child to witness the consequence of crime which he commits
instead of feeling bad for him. If the child repeats the offence of Kleptomania, then he deserves
to get harsh punishment which includes loss of privileges, freedom and free time. The parent of
the child should instead of opting the method of beating should make their children realise that
their life would be more pleasant if they follow the laws of society. The child due to their anti-
social behaviour suffers more rather than society does. In society the obedient law citizen
supports harsh punishment of the youth offenders on the point that the child did wrongful act to
fulfil their desires which put an adverse effect on the citizens and society at large (France 2016).
The problem of youth crime is not merely constrained to the factor of the definite number of
criminal activities; it also expands to the way the individuals and the society deal with the
problems. The two approaches which require are at one level the youth offenders need to
detract from criminal activities and at another level the public review of youth crime requires
awareness. In order to counteract with the negative impact of youth crime, there should be a
direct link of children with their community so that they can realise the outcome of their anti-
social behaviour in society. In Cyprus rape case, the British teenager who was guilty of gang
raped sentenced to four months in prison, suspended for three years with fine but they are to
free to get back in the home. In social perspective as rates of crime have reduced as recorded
in the past three years the individuals are less afraid about crime. The youth of present society

2An analytical study of youth crime in United Kingdom
is more self-centred than the youth in the past and they discard outdated American ethics which
push them towards the criminal act. For this reason, the public considers that the juvenile
delinquency is growing. The women viewed Juvenile Delinquency as a more significant problem
rather than men and persons of colour considers it as immense problematic than whites. The
public attitude towards kids is neutral but the concept of juvenile put a negative impression in
the mind of people. The negativity of the term juvenile occurs as it has linked with the concept of
Juvenile delinquency. The majority of crime in the society is committed by juveniles whose age
is between 13-15 years. The public in society is more doubtful that the media reporting of
juvenile crime portrait a misleading picture. The public in the society put their opinion which is
contrary to controversial wisdom that juvenile crime is committed irrespective of their class. The
youth who in an early age did not afraid of committing illegal act always tend to become
criminals in future which pose a threat to the society. According to public opinion, the cause of
juvenile crime is mostly influenced by the absence of strong families. The one-fourth of public
response considers the drug offences as the most common crime among young offenders.
There is the various recommendation made by the public which includes recognizing
responsibility by the youth offenders. Considering the youth people accountable for their illegal
act does not imply incarceration. The public accepts that young people have the ability to
change by adopting the process of rehabilitation rather than locking them up. According to the
public, there should be counselling programmes which are considered an effective step to deal
with the problem of youth crimes. There should be equal treatment of all youth in the judicial
system which will help to prevent juvenile crimes
According to the Youth Justice Statistics which is published in the year January 2018
pointed out there are 14000 new entries, 26000 youth who are sentenced to imprisonment and
in 2017 there are almost 71000 crimes. The offences involve weapons has become above
40000 offences registered with the increase in 7% among the adolescents (Parker et al. 2018).
The Criminal Justice system designed for youth have failed to prevent the children from
engaging in criminal offences, 41 % of children committed a crime again within 12 months and
carried out over 3.92 offences (Parker et al. 2018). All the initiatives taken by the current
government failed in reducing youth crime. In the publication of Youth Justice Statistics, the
present government in the United Kingdom framed a policy to deal with knife crime (Pitts 2015).
The legal text assumes to reduce knife crime by banning the selling of crime through online is
not an effective method for eliminating knife crime among youth. It is said in the Criminal Justice
system that “No child is born a criminal”. The environment, circumstances, surroundings play a
crucial role in building up a passage to criminality which is termed as risk factors. The risk

3An analytical study of youth crime in United Kingdom
factors comprise of external elements that increase the chances of individual becoming a
criminal (Oatley and Crick 2015). The prison sentences failed to establish preventive measures
among the youths as there is an increase in recidivism rates in spite of the increase in a prison
sentence, as stated in (Ratcliffe 2016). The Howard League for Penal Reform, 2015 and
Criminal Justice Alliance, 2013 have raised the question whether the criminal system can
throwback culpability of young adults for which the youths are required to face sentencing
guidelines framed for adults (Ward and Warkel 2015).
According to Article 37 of the United Nation Convention, it is stated that the sentencing
of youth shall only be taken as the last expedient measure and for a lesser period. The Children
(Amendment) Act, 1908 creates a distinct system of law on the juvenile court. Section 16 of The
Children and Young Person Act, 1993 children whose age is below ten years, should not be
detained. If the child is arrested and later discovers that he is below ten years, he should be
released right away as laid down in Section 34(2) of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act.
There are various instances where court initiate to balance the threat caused by the youth
crime. In IPH vs Chief Constable of South Wales, an old boy of age 11 years commit the act
with the knowledge that his act involves serious damage to the motor vehicle. In Director of
Public Prosecutor vs K & B children, a children below 14 years of age was charged for rape
as the element of mens rea present at the time of committing the crime. In Powell case a child
of 16 years age charged for rape of 15 year old girl with the previous record of detention for
obscene assault. The trial of youth offenders involves the number of fundamental right under the
European Convention on Human Rights. Article 40(1) of the UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child implies the right of the child who infringed the penal law to be treated in the way that will
promote dignity, age of the child and desirability of enhancing the child integration and the child
presuming to create a constructive part in society. The concept of doli incapax was formulated
to diminish the low age of criminal responsibility. Therefore in order to mitigate crimes among
youth, it is necessary to understand the reasons for committing crimes by young people. The
factors include family troubles, peer pressure, monetary hardship, bullying, as well as alcohol
and drug use. If the youths get support from family, it will help to deter them from committing
crimes. The first theory of youth crime advocated by Edwin Sutherland is the differential
association theory by which the criminal behaviour of youth is derived from social contact with
other persons The second theory of youth cri.me is labelling theory by which the deviance does
not arrive from the individuals' conduct but on factors that how, others react to the action that is
it mainly focuses on social reaction to crime and its divergence. The third theory is strain theory
which believes that the structure of society can control the individual to commit the offence

4An analytical study of youth crime in United Kingdom
(Nwalozie 2015). These three theories give a detail view as to the reason behind committing
crime and divergence from it. Youngsters who commit the crime at an early age tend to become
habitual offenders in the future. The Young Justice System of England and Wales introduced by
the Crime and Disorder Act, 1988 illustrates a long term government project that has pointed
itself into a corner and exhausted ideas for change, although not the compulsion for change.
The amalgamation of the expert opinion and scientific evidence will support in improving the
strongest and promising approaches regarding the decrease of youth crime in the
community(Allen 2016). There are several examples of community-based commencement for
evaluation of scientific evidence. As an example, in the Youth Inclusion Support Project (YISP)
has adopted multi-modal concession appearances that will help to reduce the risk profile of
young people.
Thus it can be summarised from the above-mentioned discussion that juvenile
delinquency is one of the severe issues in society, which is a consequence of modern
industrialisation. Due to the increasing number of crimes which is mostly committed by youth
creates a threat to society. The youth crime leads society to bear the considerable cost by the
decrease of productivity of society. The future of delinquency prevention needs to be directed at
harsher punishment for repeat offenders or maybe offenders. Though several attempts have
been made by law enforcement measure, the rate of Juvenile delinquency is at an increasing
rate. Thus it is necessary to emphasise causes which leads the youth to commit crime rather
than focusing on the offence.
References
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5An analytical study of youth crime in United Kingdom
Oatley, G. and Crick, T., 2015. Measuring UK crime gangs: a social network problem. Social
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The Children and Young Persons Act (Amendment),1993
The Crime and Disorder Act, 1988
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