CRIME RESEARCH

Crime research

Abstract

In the recent past, crime among the young people has been on the increase. This has led to the development by governments of policies to deal with this issue in the criminal justice system. These policies have not achieved a lot due to their disregard of some of the factors that have contributed to this trend. This paper looks at the policies that have been pursued by governments in the last 14 years in order to address the social causes of crime amongst the young people, and how effective these policies have been in dealing with this issue (Newburn, 2002).

Crime research

Introduction

Crime among the young people has been one of the major issues that the criminal justice has had to deal with. For very many years, crime among this group and how to deal with it has been one of the major problems facing the civilised society (Wilcox & Hoyle, 2004). Of the same importance is the fact that this should be achieved justly and effectively within a structure of human rights principles. This is due to the fact that it is in the criminal justice system that these principles are not always observed and abuses or infringement of human rights can take place especially when dealing with young offenders. In the efforts to ensure that the rights are protected and that crime is dealt with, criminal justice systems across the world have undergone tremendous changes. With the increase in the rate of juvenile offenders, governments have come up with policies to curb this issue and make the society a safer place for everyone. These policies in the last fourteen years are the focus of this paper (Newburn, 2002).

Background information

The changes in handling crime among juvenile offenders from the perspective of its cause in the recent past began with the fight against drug abuse. One of the policies that have been introduced in the criminal justice system is the criminalisation of drug abuse. This policy has resulted in increased utilisation of harsh disciplinary measures imposed on those accused of drug-related crimes and remarkable rises in incarceration rates . However, these policies have had little effect on elimination or reduction of illegal drug trading and use. They might also have led to negative consequences for community and social health. As a result, the criminal justice system has showed to be an unsuccessful arena in the management and control of many aspects of the drug business and the issue of drug abuse. Basically as a result of the drug policy, the rate of incarcerations globally is at all times higher than ever before (Utting, Vennard & Scott, 2002).

Such policies like the drug policy was aimed at reducing crime especially among the young people based on the conviction that drugs are the primary cause of crime among this group. Criminalisation of drug abuse and possession of drugs together with compulsory sentencing and long prison terms for low-level drug offences has been the basic cause of ...