To Be Or Not To Be A Criminal: A View On Young Offenders And Young Victims Of Crimes

Everyday we hear about news on crimes committed almost everywhere in the world. What is not anymore surprising to hear is that most of the persistent offenders and victims of crimes are young people. No matter how not surprising it can be, it has been a growing public concern. This work aims to understand why these young people are the most common offenders and victims of crimes, the factors which pushed them to commit crimes, and gender differences of the offenders and victims. Furthermore, a view on the reasons why the Black youth has the greater tendency of committing and being victimized by crimes will also be discussed. An individual who is 17 years old or younger is classified as a young offender or victim of crime. It has been observed that the presence of certain risk factors in a young individual’s life most likely increases his vulnerability in committing crimes. Such particular factors include personal, family, social, educational and mental health factors. When we speak of personal factors, these involve alienation and lack of social commitment. Family factors are poor parental supervision and discipline, low family income or social isolation, family conflict and parental criminality. Social factors are hanging around in public places, availability of illegal drugs, opportunity for crime and peer involvement in problem behavior. Educational factors include lack of commitment to school, disruptive behavior, low achievement and school disorganization. In regard to mental health factors, these are aggressive and anti-social behavior, emotional disorders and severe mental illnesses. You can read also King v Cogdon Additionally, it was also studied that young people in care are the most disadvantaged and socially excluded population. Hence, their low educational attainment increases their chances of being unemployed, becoming homeless and more likely to engage in anti-social behavior and crime. Furthermore, the young people have the greater tendency of committing and becoming offenders of crimes should there be proof of evidence of the availability of multiple risk factors in their lives. As much as young people commit crime disproportionately, they also suffer from it. Analysis on the experiences of young people showed that they are generally at greater risk of all types of violence than older people. Violent offences are predominantly committed against young people, and more often against men than women. It has been observed that males are more delinquent and victimized than females. Such difference in gender and youth crime is affected by the seriousness of the crime being committed. A study by Carrington and Moyer (1998) states that females are less likely to commit crimes involving the use of weapon which most of the time result to major injury or death to the victim. Furthermore, females are much less inclined in targeting a private residence to commit crimes probably because males are more likely to be involved in break and enter offences. The males, having the greater chances of being violent, are therefore more delinquent in committing crimes. Hence, such tendency also pushes them to commit crimes against male victims whom they think will have the lesser opportunity of fighting back, or should they fight back, such offenders will take the risk in placing great injury or killing their victims. Young chronic offenders may be defined as a group of individual who are responsible for the most severe crimes and are most likely to continue such criminal activity until they reached adulthood. Family and environment play vital role whether or not youth become chronic offenders. Chronic juvenile delinquents display a huge amount of anti-social behavior whether or not they belong to the same social class or racial group. Hence, the vulnerability of youth in committing crimes does not depend solely in a particular class or racial or ethnic group. As long as the same factors exist in the youth’s life, the greater the tendency of them becoming juvenile delinquents. It has been learned that these young chronic offenders have history of lying, stealing, or doing poorly in school when they are still of tender age. Such behavior patterns will not be outgrown as easily as it may appear. In regard to the issue why there are more black youth offenders in the society as well as juvenile delinquents from the lower class who commit crimes, it is fair to note that racial and social status should not only be the determining factor why these people have been tagged as chronic crime offenders. Geographical factors as well as the number of population of blacks and other races in a particular place are vital elements in the determination of the weight of crimes being committed. It would be too racist to establish the black youth as chronic crime offenders. Economic deprivation may be an issue in committing crimes but belonging in the lower class does not necessarily mean that most youth belonging in this social bracket have the most tendency of becoming offenders.