Criminology Youth Justice UK - Essay Example

There are many grounds on which a person or a group can be socially excluded including individual’s educational status, childhood relationships, social class and even age (Agulnik, 2002). Social exclusion concept applies to the minority members of the community such a, the youth, people with disability, and the elderly. Social exclusion of the youth is one of the major examples of social exclusion, and it refers to a situation where the youths are at a social disadvantage in accessing some of the resources within a community or state (Bryne, 2005).

The youths are the future of a nation and should be involved in every aspect of the community and be integrated in the most important undertaking in the society. Social exclusion of the youth occurs when the youths are being blocked from accessing these social amenities, facilities, rights and opportunities enjoyed by the other members of that community or society (Sellers, 2012). The major form of social exclusion experienced by the youth is being sidelined when employment opportunities are being offered.

This is actually the main reason for the riots that took place in the UK in 2011 (Strathdee, 2013). The participants were the youths who felt that they were being sidelined in the society, most of them were not gainfully employed. Social exclusion of the youths also, for instance, might be perpetrated when the elderly deny the youths the right to democratic participation e.g. by raising the voting years to a certain minimum that blocks a huge lot of the youth out of the democratic process. It may also occur when the elderly people, out of fear or stereotypical beliefs, refuse to employ the youths.

The youths cannot social exclude themselves; that cannot be termed as social exclusion. The force of exclusion must be coming from without (Smith, 2013). In this sense, it is mostly the elderly business owners and the government policies that exclude the youths from fully enjoying their rights, fully participating in the society and being handed employment opportunities. Many social commentators have pointed out that the rate of criminal activities in a society is directly proportional to the level of social exclusion of the youths (Akers and Jensen, 2011).

Recent research conducted by the Justice department has shown that many of the offenders are the youths. It has also shown a substantial increase in the youths in the criminal justice system. Material deprivation is an obvious motive to engage in criminal activities (Thurnberry, 2004). The youths have social needs just like other age groups in the society. Furthermore, most youths have a class that they want to maintain and many other fantasies from their childhood. When they do not get the resources to fulfill these needs then they take shortcuts which are often illegal.

They might start pick pocketing, or succumb to social pressure and commit sex offences or bullying other youths (Hawkins, 1996). There are several theories that have been advanced by criminologists and psychologists to explain youth delinquency. The rational choice theory was advanced by criminologists and is the best theory that explains why a youth is likely to engage in crimes. It states that the causes of a crime emanate from the individual offender and not necessarily the environment. According to this theory people will more likely to commit a crime when it is rational for them to commit it.

It states that prospective criminals do a cost-benefit analysis and if the benefits outweigh the costs then they commit the crimes.