Juvenile Criminals

Juvenile Criminals

Lea Bechara

Lebanese American University

        Abstract

This paper explores the issue of young offenders whose number is increasing everyday. Most of them are repressed directly and sent to prison. These youngsters are not given the chance to change their lifestyle and be independent from this law-breaking life. This oppression is unnecessary because they are often suffering from psychological problems or are not aware of the consequences of their crimes. Thus, choosing a wrong sanction, such as prison, is not a proper way to take care of these juveniles who should be rather sent to reeducation programs considering their young age. Although jail is a harsh place which no teenager wishes to go to, it will not stop offenders from committing crimes again due to the exposure to violent behaviors from other prisoners. While rehabilitation is not always a success, the youngsters at least achieve a lot of work in this center and acquire an education that will develop their capabilities and culture. Hence, society should encourage juvenile courts and reeducation programs.

Juvenile Criminals

The famous Clint Eastwood once said, “Crimes against children are the most heinous crime. That, for me, would be a reason for capital punishment because children are innocent and need the guidance of an adult society”. It is all over the news, on billboards, everywhere people go, crimes committed by juveniles are increasing. Nowadays the issue of juvenile criminals is raising some serious problems: society doesn’t know how to deal with them, how to make them stop, and which proper solution to refer to. On one hand some people think that those young men and women should be taken care of, while others are convinced that those teenagers are a lost case. The crimes committed by juvenile criminals raise specific problems in terms of both the social environment pressures on them and appropriate sanction of such acts. So when the criminal is a minor, the government in question must essentially take his or her age into consideration before repressing the young offender. People frequently think that young criminals must be sent to adult courts and pass through adult sanctions, but this is not a correct attempt to solve the delinquency problem. Youngsters’ crimes can be decreased because teenagers are more flexible than adults thus making it easier to prevent them from committing such acts again.

However, to reduce these crimes, society must understand the causes of these actions in order to help juvenile criminals. Those young people are exposed to a lot of issues that can sometimes be the cause of their crimes: family issues, poverty, harmful environment, and peer pressure… Before even considering punishing them, these teenagers must work on their issues (whatever problems they have) so that they can try overtaking those difficulties and moving on. Punishing the young offenders, who are most probably capable of change, is not always the best solution since repressing them might aggravate their case. This is why a rehabilitation center is what is best for these troubled young persons. This center helps them surpass their problems and it encourages them to stay away from living a criminal’s life.

Directly repressing young offenders is not a proper way stop their crimes. These teenagers must learn how to solve their personal issues and punishing them is not going to help them. In order for them to put an end at their law breaking lifestyle they must find a solution to the reasons that are pushing them to act so. That way, they will able to have a different perspective at what they are doing and thus ending their delinquency life. Juvenile criminals, most of the time, suffer from psychological problems. These issues are not only the source of their behaviors, but they are frequently due to their environment. For instance, they may suffer from family issues, poverty, or even a harmful background. In all these cases, the youngsters are most probably either neglected or abused. Children who have been abused or neglected will show consequences in their reactions that will lead them to juvenile delinquency. A maltreated child is more likely to grow up as a young criminal because of his or her exposure to violent attitudes from his or her early years. “Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them”, said the great American novelist James Baldwin. If a child has been living in an aggressive atmosphere and been raised according to brutal morals, it is comprehensible that he or she will grow up to be a juvenile offender. Children are always looking up to adults and want to behave exactly like them, thinking that this is the right way to act. Thus, if a young boy or girl has abusive parents it is quite normal that he or she will have offensive reactions and will probably become a juvenile offender. According to Forst and Blomquist (as cited in Grisso & Scott, 1997), “In juveniles, the ‘condition’ that required treatment was caused by poor parental guidance, care and supervision as well as social harms associated with poverty”. So the way parents educate their youngster is a very important element so is his or he childhood because they determinate the rest of his or her life. The problems that a teenager may face due to the environment (family issues, poverty…) are one of the most important causes that lead him or her to commit crimes. Family issues are not the only psychological problems teenagers are now facing. Many juvenile criminals are sometimes bullied to do such acts and cannot do anything about it. Indeed, peer pressure plays a major part in the process of youngster’s crimes. Teenagers usually want to be part of a group and in some cases they go through a harassment pushing them to commit felonies. For instance, in most colleges, students wish to join a fraternity and sorority house, but these fraternities have some kind of ritual, which new students must succeed if they want to be approved. This ritual consists on doing a series of steps and most of the time those steps are delinquent acts: breaking and entering a house, stealing an object, damaging a public space… But if the student refuses to do such acts he or she will be suppressed and obliged to do those criminal actions. According to Coleman (as cited in Grisso & Scott, 1997), youngsters are influenced by their entourage and might end up committing felony acts due to the pressure of the people that they are frequenting because young people are always in search of peer approval, which affects their decisions and leads them to making bad choices. Sometimes, teenagers want to imitate their friends’ harmful behaviors, probably because of their low self-esteem, lack of confidence, and weak character. In this case, they become easily controlled and manipulated to execute a crime. In conclusion, juvenile criminals suffer from psychological problems that affect their lives and their way of living. They are multiple and affect the youngsters one different levels: family issues, poverty, harmful environment, and peer pressure…  These issues are the main causes of their criminal acts.