CRIMINOLOGY 101

Youth and Crime in Society



Criminological Theory

Introduction

Criminology is a field that is very rich in academic imagination. To a level, this variety of theorizing reflects the discipline's irresponsibility and its incapability as of yet to develop a single standard which is so empirically better than its competitors that it earns the devotion of most scholars (Bandura, 1979). Criminology, however, is prepared in a different way. There are many theories or “schools of thought.” To be truthful and precise, criminologists do not agree on why crime occur, thus making it a drawback of the field. But the richness in thinking within the criminology also is a demonstration of the difficulty of its subject matter (Bandura, 1979).

Like lot of social behaviors, crime is wide-ranging and it is potentially formed by a variety of factors that operate within and outside the individuals, which exist on the macro level and even on the micro level, and that have effects across various points in the life cycle of any person. Revealing that what exactly causes crime is thus an overwhelming task that benefits from various efforts to view the origins from many angles. The reason of this degree is to confine the range of thoughts on crime factor and that now lies within criminology.

Research Problem

Main research question and problem that has been explored in this essay is why do youth involve in crimes. Main focus is to explore the involvement of youth in most common criminal offences and what social factors contribute to the involvement of youth in crime from theoretical perspectives.

Youth Involvement in Crime

In 2010, nearly 180,000 young people were involved in a Criminal Code offense (excluding traffic offenses). The rate of youth crime amounted to 6885 per 100,000 youth in 2006 and increased by 8% in last few years. However, it was 6% lower than the rate observed a decade earlier and 25% below its peak in 1991. About 6 in 10 young people, involved in an offense in 2010, were not charged and had their case dealt with outside the justice system. The use of impeachment from the place (youth accused of crime) has decreased significantly since after the formation Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) in 2003 (Newburn, 2009). Since the introduction of the YCJA, the proportion of youth accused of crime with abandoned cases without charges has increased for almost all crimes, especially for youth involved in crime of fraud, possession of stolen property and violation conditions of bail. However, the indictment by the police remained the most commonly used measure for offenses associated with the most severe penalties, while the offenses lesser penalties still less likely to lead to an indictment (Colvin, 2007).

The violent crime rate among youth increased 12% over the past decade. Rising rates of violent crime committed by young people is largely due to higher rates of assault - the most common type of violent crime for which young people were arrested. About 5% of the criminal practices by young people involve the ...