Youth Offending: Documentary Analysis

In the Documentary ,Girl Trouble, the lives of three girls are recorded over the course 3 years. During those three years the lives of the girls were evaluated while they were incarcerated in the San Francisco’s’ Juvenile Justice system. According to youth advocate Lateefah, and other delinquent advocates, the prison system is not adolescent friendly when it comes to girls. Lateefah insists that there is a worldwide misconception about bad girls, being that there is no meaningful way to rehabilitate, which results to the system throwing away children lives forever. In order to shy away from this misconception, Lateefah and other lobbyists for at risk youth gets girls like the three in the documentary, to attend rehabilitative centers such

There are many factors that inhibit women to commit violent crimes. Most women suffer from substance abuse, spouse abuse and mental issues. The most common risk is being previously being abused earlier in life. A survey conducted in 2002 reported that thirty six percent of all female

Girls tend to have additional risk factors prior to entering the status offense system. The majority of girls that enter the juvenile justice system have significant health and family problems including instability, violence, trauma, and neglect (Watson & Edelman, 2013).

The United States criminal justice system, an outwardly fair organization of integrity and justice, is a perfect example of a seemingly equal situation, which turns out to be anything but for women. The policies imposed in the criminal justice system affect men and women in extremely dissimilar manners. I plan to examine how gender intersects with the understanding of crime and the criminal justice system. Gender plays a significant role in understanding who commits what types of crimes, why they do so, who is most often victimized, and how the criminal justice system responds to these victims and offenders. In order to understand the current state of women and the way in which gender relates to crime and criminal justice, it is first

Criminality is still assumed to be a masculine characteristic and women lawbreakers are therefore observed to be either ‘not women’ or ‘not criminals’ (Worrall 1990, p. 31). Female offenders are hallmarked for tireless and inescapable coverage if they fit into the rewarding newsworthy categories of violent or sexual. It is always important to note the reason for overrepresentation of women criminals in the media. “Women who commit serious offences are judged to have transgressed two sets of laws: criminal laws and the laws of nature” (Jewkes 2011, p. 125). Such women are hence “doubly deviant and doubly damned” (Lloyd, 1995). When women commit very serious crimes, such as murder, they attract

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.

Two of the main characters that was presented in the documentary “Girlhood” were Shanae who was arrested for murder at the age of 12, after stabbing a friend to death. Megan (16) who also committed a violent crime her mother was a drug-addled prostitute megan mother was in and out jail so megan mother wasn't really around in her childhood she also lived in 12 different foster homes. Being as though both of her parents wasn't present in her live it. They was locked up at the Waxter Juvenile Facility in Baltimore,Maryland. During the time Shanae was locked up for the years she was there longer than any girl in the facility.

Females are increasingly becoming more active in the juvenile justice system and this is said to be happening at alarming rates. It is important to learn more about why and how girls commit crimes so that we may also attempt intervention in an effective manner to prevent potential offenders and rehabilitate the girls who have already committed offenses. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has produced a report that includes a review of how these girls are getting into these situations, how states are dealing with this population of offenders, the national efforts that have taken place to attempt to address the needs of the adolescent female offender including training for individuals who work with these females and

With regards to female sentences, it can be seen on the one hand that the criminal justice system deals with female crimes more leniently than with male criminality, as referred to as the chivalry theory (Pollok, 1983). As many female offences are usually petty wrongdoings, such as shoplifting which makes up for nearly a half of all indictable convictions (Ministry of Justice, 2014), due to their gender, it is most likely that females are to be cautioned over receiving a prison sentence. However, this was not the case for Maxine Carr in 2003. A whirlwind of media interest surrounding Carr’s involvement, with the murders of two young girls from Soham, is argued to be the definitive reason as to why Carr received a prison sentence of three years, all for perverting the course of justice.

Social fear can contribute to the marginalisation of young people and impede their ability to interact in public spaces, and when youth tries to create spaces of their own, they get told to move on marginalising them further (Copeland 2008). The media plays into this by constructing youth as dangerous and disruptive, which in turn can create policies that seek to reduce risk by excluding youth from public places (Copeland 2008; Wilson Rose & Colvin 2010). However, public spaces are important for youth because it helps them feel safe, allows them to develop their identity, to feel a sense of belonging, and provides instructions on how to behave in society (Evens 2006; Wilson Rose & Colvin 2010; Copeland 2008). Additionally, Copeland (2008)

Since 1970, there has been an increasing and alarming rise 138 percent of violent crimes committed by women. Still, while the equivalent percentage compared to male violence is small 15 percent to 85 percent the fact that the numbers have elevated so drastically points to something changing in society.

Pitts (2005) argued that not enough thought have been undertaken by the New Labour, Pitts (2005) suggested that the Youth Justice strategy were a part of the Tories agenda, which the new labour government had reintroduce. However, the problem of the youth crime was contextualised, suggesting that New Labour made capital from the Conservative government’s failure to control wayward young people, perceived to be acting on the respectable fears of the British society (Pitts, 2005) The New Labour then commissioned to achieve better, tougher and faster in bringing young people who offend through the justice systems (Home Office, 1997 cited in Solomon, (2007).

Approximately 40% of criminal convictions in the year 2000 related to incarceration of women were on the basis of illegal drugs relation and 34% were for other non-violent crimes such as burglary, larceny, and fraud. 18% of women in prison have been convicted because of violent conduct, and 7% for public order offenses such as drunk driving, liquor law violations and vagrancy.

Statistics show that the number of female offenders in the legal system has been increasing steadily. The number of female offenders entering the American justice system is growing at a rate faster than males. Statistics from the United States in 2010 show the female offender population to be increasing by 2.7% each year, compared to the male population at a rate of 1.8% each year, with similar statistics being seen in other Western countries (West & Sabol, 2010). The continued increase has made understanding female offenders and their catalysts for committing crime more imperative.

Females are said to be very emotional and if they were troublemakers at a young age they are said to possess “masculine traits and characteristics” (Siegal & Walsh, 2015). Males tend to commit crimes like robbery, assault and burglary. This has changed in the last decade. The rate of offending has decreased for males by 27 percent and females about 15 percent. “Girls have increased their