Comparative youth justice - Essay Example

Despite their naivety, initially children were treated and punished in the same way as their adult counterparts irrespective of their crime but gradually the criminal justice system was introduced to reforms that ensured an alternate protocol to deal with child crime. Tracing the history of youth justice system, In 1933, The Children and Young Persons Act (1933, Sec. 44(1)) was introduced which said, ‘Every court in dealing with a child or young person who is brought before it, either as an offender or otherwise, shall have regard to the welfare of the child or young person and shall in a proper case take steps for removing him from undesirable surroundings, and for securing that proper provision is made for his education and training’.

Since then there have been amendments and changes to this act. Later acts, for example, The Children and Young Persons Act of 1969 (1969, Sec. 43 (1)) gave a more of a welfare spin to youth justice but the question arises that should the young ones be punished for their crimes (which they might have committed in adolescence and immaturity)? People have different perspectives over this, some say that they should be forgiven and sent to rehabilitation centres while others are of a view that they should be punished so they learn their lesson and never repeat the mistake again.

Surprisingly, it has been observed that first timers who have been punished for their crime tend to become second time offenders. This might be associated to the severity of the punishment that consequently makes the young so revengeful of the society. The next logical inquisitions that pop up include, is custody/punishment an expensive way of making bad people worse? Does the locking up of children work? Statistics show that around 2203 children are in custody in England and Wales and most of them are imprisoned for non-violent offences so does it add up to be logical to imprison a child for a non-violent crime when they can be rehabilitated in the community?

Locking someone in prison is usually for individuals who are harm to community. The premise of taking a child into custody is a thought that suggests that they are a hazard to society. Children tend to wallow, all their lives in a complex that they were not worthy enough to be forgiven and given another chance. These disturbing thoughts make them so hateful of the society that they begin to think that no matter what they do, they will land up in a prison anyway. According to Morse (2010, Sec. 6), in his report to the ministry of justice, such thoughts make it easier for these children to go back to crime thus they end up being second time offenders.

Although all of them do have a potential to have a good life again but once they get into a prison such is the urge of reoffending that they are likely to be engaged the cycle of getting in and out of prison for life. According to Wark (2010), some young offenders were interviewed during a research and it came out that those children have now become worst than before. A child who was given a custodial sentence at the age of 12 for robbing off people to buy drugs, is now a maniac to society, he was expelled thrice from school after that then became a rebel.

He began fighting on streets, spitting at teachers, threw chairs at fellow students and started smoking, he has become an angry rebellious child who is not acceptable anywhere and the already highlighted non-acceptance has