Free Law Dissertations - According To A Home Office Study, One Out Of Four Teenagers Could Be
According to a Home Office study, one out of four teenagers could be classified as a serious offender, with high potential to become a criminal. The 2003 crime and justice survey suggests that there are 3.8 million active offenders in England and Wales. Government and the society always hope that these young offenders would grow out of their crimes eventually. But this may not be the case under all circumstances. There are a large number of exceptions where they become bigger criminals posing higher threats to the society. Offence by teenagers is much higher than it was estimated. It is also a fact that many of these potential criminals start with a humble beginning in the early teens. A Home Office study says that 57% of the male population between 12 and 30 have committed at least one crime. This obviously does not mean that the girls are not offenders at all. They can claim an equal success in crime. They start quite early on drinking, drug addiction, shoplifting, prostituting, buying stolen goods knowingly, causing criminal damage to public property etc. Both boys and girls involve in serious fights, thieving at work places, foul mouthing, insulting and offensive language, ridiculing and indulging in racist offences.
In the last hundred years, juvenile justice is concentrating on punishment and welfare both. England earlier had the unfortunate system of juvenile justice of imprisonment, transportation and even death penalty, regardless of the age of the offender. Now children and adults are treated differently and juveniles have their own courts to try their offences. A large number of them are considered to be suffering from behavioural disorders and in such cases, they are sent for psychiatric treatments and psychotherapies. The Punishments are milder keeping in view of the offence and the age of the offender and his responsibility in the crime. The most important point here is the welfare of the child and delinking him from later life offences.
Children Act 1908, Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Criminal Justice Bill, 1948, Children Act 1948, Children and Young Persons Act, 1969, and Children’s Act, 1989, steadily passed various beneficent laws for the children. Young offenders naturally have to be treated with care, as they might not be fully responsible for their crimes and their future should never get marred due to a crime committed when they are still juveniles. Over the years, the stress has shifted from punishment to welfare with more planning for their adult life. Condemnation of the crime has been steadily becoming milder and concern for the adult life had been growing.
Today juvenile crime is being treated as a social melody. Records are not only maintained by the Police, but also by the Social services Police and Social Services work from many angles now.
