Youth Crime

Youth gangs in Canada is becoming more and more of issue. Adolescents across Canada resort to joining youth gangs for many different reasons. A youth gang is a group of young adolescents who use intimidation and violence to gain prestige among other gangs and control certain areas of unlawful activities. For all the reasons an adolescent would join a youth gang, police and the Government have come up with programs to prevent youth from joining and to get them to leave the gangs. With programs involving prevention, intervention, and suppression, the Canadian Government is adequately addressing youth gangs within Canada.

Throughout this essay, I am going to be looking at the topic of youth offending. I will be looking at what factors can be used as the predictors for youth offending and in particular I will be researching into how important social and cultural factors as predictors of youth offending. In order to do this, I will be looking at different sociologists theories as far as young offending is concerned and what evidence there is to support these theories. I will then conclude by discussing whether I believe social and cultural factors are important in determining youth offending.

Youth crime is a growing epidemic that affects most teenagers at one point in their life. There is no question in society to whether or not youths are committing crimes. It has been shown that since 1986 to 1998 violent crime committed by youth jumped approximately 120% (CITE). The most controversial debate in Canadian history would have to be about the Young Offenders Act (YOA). In 1982, Parliament passed the Young Offenders Act (YOA). Effective since 1984, the Young Offenders Act replaced the most recent version of the Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA). The Young Offenders Act’s purpose was to shift from a social welfare approach to making youth take responsibility for their actions. It also addressed concerns that the paternalistic

Young people have been a main focus in society. Since 1960 there has been an increase in youth crime which is the reason as to why there are major adult concerns (Newburn, 2013). “Government became more harsh and intrusive in dealing with young people who were seen to be a problem” (France, 2007, pg.19). Older generations perceive young people as having less morals and respect in comparison to what they did at their age (Newburn, 2013). In particular, society views the youth of today as troublemakers, lazy, untrustworthy and unreliable. There are different theories that provide an explanation between involvement in offending and different factors such as family factors and wider social factors which will be discussed below.

Juvenile or youth crime has become a controversial issue in the politics of Canada because of the huge disagreements regarding how the youths should be treated in the criminal system despite of the fact that youth crime in the country is lamentable. The controversy is mainly centered on the best and most suitable approach taken to handle the youth criminals and the severity of the punishment that should be given (Makarenko, 2007). In addition to generating concerns and dominating Canada politics, youth crime has also attracted huge concerns by many Canadians, especially violent youth crime. According to some statistics, youth crime has continued to increase despite reports by the police that offenses committed by people between 12 and 17 years have declined. In 2010, the overall juvenile crime rate declined by 7 percent relative to 2009 while violent crime dropped by 3 percent within the same period. The Youth Criminal Justice Act has contributed to numerous changes in youth justice in Canada including decrease in the rate of youth crime, changes in the way the society responds to young people, and development of humane and respectful ways of dealing with the youth.

Youth crime is an issue in Canada and it needs to be dealt with correctly. In Canada there is a law called the “youth criminal justice act”, the purpose of the YCJA is to hold youth accountable to their actions and give them meaningful consequences, as well as promote rehabilitation and reintegration into society. Several studies show that a young person's brain and an adult's brain are not the same, therefore youth cases and adult cases must be sentenced and dealt with differently. In this cartoon, it depicts a young child going through a pair of handcuffs labelled as “law”, suggesting that the YCJA is too easy for offenders to get through and it does not help them or society. The artist believes that the justice system does not punish youth

Violent crime will always be a problem; just because Canada doesn’t face high rates of violent crime in comparison to other countries doesn’t deem it an unimportant issue. My knowledge about this topic, violent crime, has come from a variety of resources that will be discussed as this paper progresses. The crime control policies in Alberta and/or Canada to my knowledge are having a positive impact, but more could always be done. Overall, I believe an enhanced proactive approach is needed. The youth of our generation need to be educated more about the justice system, violent crimes, and risks of the gang life at an earlier age.

Youth gangs in North American society are nothing new. When we turn on the news we often hear stories of misguided youth contributing to yet another gang related crime. Even though it is known that youth crimes are overrepresented in the media today, the subject of youth gang activity is quite a predicament to our society. Over the last few years, there has been a moral panic created by constant exposure to the media which portrays a great amount of youth crimes and violence. In Canada there are large urban cities with high proportions of young people, many of which live in poverty, that now have the issue of dealing with youth gangs and youth crimes. Toronto, British Columbia, and Ottawa are examples of Canadian cities that have youth

New Brunswick’s rate of youth criminally charged has been decreasing ever since the introduction of Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2002. However, a decade has passed with still no progress on lowering the number of youth sent to pretrial and secure custody, which is disproportionately high compared to other provinces. The Office of the Child and Youth Advocate’s More Less Court report identifies issues such as this and offers solutions to the problems with New Brunswick’s youth justice system. Vulnerable youth being caught up in the justice system and improvements on diverting youth from the criminal justice system are among other withstanding issues that will also be touched upon. The government of New Brunswick’s Provincial Crime Prevention

Are crime rates for juveniles in the United States on the rise or are they falling? What kinds of crimes are juveniles typically arrested for? Are all the laws and policies with reference to juvenile justice seen as truly fair? Should a juvenile be locked up for life without the possibility of parole? What has the U.S. Supreme Court ruled as to locking juveniles up for life without the possibility of parole? These and other issues will be discussed in this speech.

Youth crime is the crime committed by juvenile offenders. It is the common issue in Australia. The age group between 14-19 years old is the popular group of youth crime. (News 2013) Different age groups commit different types of crimes. (The youth court 2009) Also, there are many kinds of crime and crime method in the society, such as, drug offences, robbery, burglary, assault and violent offenses. The group of people who crime together that is called criminal group. It is a prevalence crime method and it is effective for crime. This question will focus on what is youth crime, the change of youth crime in recent year and the relationship between drug offences and the youth crime in Australia.

Since the 1930’s the Uniform Crime Reports on the amount criminal behavior among individuals throughout the United States to the FBI. These reports range from murder, rape, robbery, assault to burglary and more that have been reported to the police. Police will then make reports on all the crimes they have collected over a period of time and send them to the FBI for statistical purposes. Unfortunately, youth are often part of these reports. “Youth crime is widespread in U.S. society. The number of victimization discovered is much higher than the number of offenses reported to the police” (Bartollas & Miller, 2014, p.28). This is because again many times family’s keep these incidents to themselves and do not report to the police when youth are

Youth criminal behaviour from the ages of 12-17 has been and still is a major concern for utmost cultural societies in Canada. Youth commit crimes ranging from small petty crimes to big killings; like theft, mischief, the possession of cannabis to shooting or common assaults. “Statistics Canada reported that there were almost 101,000 youth aged from 12-17 accused of criminal code violation reported by the police in 2014” (Allen & Superle, 2014, 3). “101,000 aged youths results in 4,322 per 100,000 youth population, while in the Canadian population youth make up 7% of the population, and persons accused of crime comprise of 13%” (Allen & Superle, 2014, 3). The small petty crimes youth commit are done daily. The dominant group to be committing these crimes are more males than females. One of the major crimes male youth commit is mischief, which

Certain youth programs are catering to these issues in Toronto, however, since there has been a surge in crime among youths in the past couple decades, there must be certain factors that influence this trend and

Crime is a major issue in America today; an issue that continues to eat away at our country economically. Because of the immensity of the issue, there have been numerous speculations into what the cause of crime may be in an effort to find a solution. Many people lean towards believing that a one’s home life, economic status, and location are all factors in the possibility of becoming involved in criminal activity.