Youth Crime: The Children of Our Future

4/4/2017

NATHAN GRECH

Vol 11, Issue 6

Older generations always seem to comment on the differences between the youth of today and when they were young. Musical tastes contrasted with artists of a bygone era, cyclical fashion trends that arouse nostalgia, and the classic recklessness and rebellion that each new generation apparently continues to descend into.

On this last point, however, many Victorians of any age would agree that something seriously concerning is happening if our headlines are dominated by Victorian youth who invade homes, assault people and commit crimes with no visible remorse for their actions.

Amidst all the anger, fear and hostility surrounding the compromised safety of the community, lies the complex task of ensuring youth offenders understand the gravity of their actions, and are re-educated and re-enter society as lawful individuals to avoid becoming connected with the criminal justice system for the rest of their adult lives.

But how do we make this a reality? How can we get the message through to the cognitively immature and developing brains of these youth that committing crimes has no benefit on anyone’s lives whatsoever? Sure, some young people make mistakes and some may lack the maturity to behave in alliance with lawful societal norms. But breaking into homes, or stealing cars, or assaulting others? These are situations where disciplinary actions and the onus of taking responsibility for one’s actions need to mix with education to achieve any lasting benefits.

Arguably, no one except the offenders themselves know why they behave the way they do. Who knows, some youth might actually just be rebelling from their sheltered cosy upbringing, or seeking attention by adopting an attitude incongruous to their family values. Alternatively, some of these youth might truly be angry at the world for whatever less-than-ideal circumstances they’re in, or the dysfunctional, emotionally traumatic upbringing they've had.

Whatever their circumstances, this behaviour is still unlawful, and the state must find a multi-faceted approach to tackle the issue, to prevent future crime levels from increasing. Additionally, it seems evident that current youth offenders need a combination of discipline, behavioural re-education, and reintegration back into society as morally principled and, importantly, valued members of society. This way they actually have a purpose, can contribute in the community, and are ideally able to go into their future with as minimal interaction with the criminal justice system as possible.

Law-abiding citizens can choose to continue to blame, label, and lambast these youth until they’re blue in the face for the divide and problems being caused.

Frankly, plenty of that has already been done. And it’s achieved very little.

Now, Victorians need law- and policy-makers to find a way to transform the behaviour and attitudes of these youth in a disciplinary, preventative rather than reactive, manner. Otherwise, will we simply have to wait for that one exemplary case where a victim (or offender for that matter) is stabbed, king-hit or assaulted to death, and have the event capitalised by the media for publicity, before reform occurs? Or will we start implementing preventative measures to halt the crime rates here, in an attempt to reverse the damage done?

Obviously, I’m not suggesting these propositions are guaranteed or are even the most likely ways to resolve the issues with efficiency or certainty. I also acknowledge there may be more cost- or resource-effective options available other than what I have mentioned. In any case, however, the point outstanding remains: if children – criminals or otherwise – really are our future, the choices our current society makes to deter and guide them towards positive outcomes will affect Victoria’s future and safety for years to come.

Nathan Grech is a first-year JD student

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10 Comments

Hindsight is 20/20

4/3/2017 05:48:50 am

You talk about preventative rather than reactive solutions and I couldn't agree more. Starting about 15 years ago our politicians decided it would be a good idea to import tens of thousands of Africans from broken families and war torn societies such as Sudan and Somalia and dump them into low socioeconomic suburbs at the fringes of Melbourne and Sydney. Some people thought this might not be such a good idea and that it had the potential to cause problems further down the track but of course they weren't listened to.

The crime wave we are witnessing in Melbourne today is driven almost exclusively by these same people or their children. This fact is conspicuosly absent in your article. Yes crime is committed by people of all races, but the statistics don't lie; African youth are greatly disproprotionately represented in crime rates today. There has been an explosion in carjackings which were previously almost unheard of in Melbourne and aggravated home invasions have doubled.

So here is my preventative strategy going forward. Stop importing populations from broken societies, broken families, and alien cultures, dumping them into shitholes like Dandenong and Sunshine, and pretending it will be anything other than a huge headache 10-20 years intio the future.

As a matter of simple causation, if this advice had been followed 15 years ago, our current problem would not exist.

Ella

4/9/2017 07:25:40 pm

The solution isn't simply to not take in refugees- its a good thing that we have taken in people fleeing persecution. The issue is the lack of funding and commitment to helping these people once they are here.

Like you said, many have come from war torn, violent places. With that comes a lot of mental illness, people whose education has been heavily disrupted, language barriers etc

One of the big problems I see is even domestic violence where women who have fled with their husbands have since been subject to intense violence here and have nowhere to go

We can't bring people here and expect them to quickly learn english and find a job, we need to invest more into providing support for people that is multifaceted. It's not enough to provide kids with a place in the local school, a lot of them don't even know how to learn because they left school as a child!

The African Cup is an amazing soccer tournament that helps to foster a sense of community among disenfranchised youth, and I'd like to see more effort invested into programs that are similar rather than an overly simplistic solution like 'throw them in jail' or 'deport them' or 'dont take refugees at all'

Olympia W

4/3/2017 10:50:16 pm

Dear Hindsight,

I'm curious as to which populations you believe are being "imported" today? It seems most of the social/ cultural groups you are concerned about are locked up in detention centres or being deported.
Those communities that have made homes in the outer suburbs, in which higher crime rates exist, are a product- I would argue- of the lack of resources directed towards education and infrastructure, not their country of origin.
There are many suburbs in both Melbourne and Sydney that are predominantly white, that still exhibit the same predilection towards crime because they are POOR. Criminality is not inherently linked to nationality, but socioeconomic status.
I find your suggestion that "if this advice had been followed 15 years ago, our current problem would not exist." a weak assertion in light of the fact that Parkville- our own safe little inner city suburb- is one of the top 10 burglary hotspots in Melbourne.
see https://www.racv.com.au/in-your-home/home-advice/burglary-statistics.html
You acknowledge that crime is "committed by all races" but you follow this up with "statistics don't lie"- those statistics only demonstrate that young people living in under-resourced outer suburbs are more likely to commit crimes.
You have confused correlation with causation. Just because there are African communities in those outer suburbs, does not mean that if these people had never been brought over to Australia, that we would have reduced crime rates.

Anon

4/4/2017 03:16:20 am

Dear Olympia,

The first step in identifying a solution is to acknowledge there is a problem. As part of a virtue signalling relativist worldview you can attempt to shift the focus towards burglary rates in Parkville or crime in poor white communities. However, the South Sudanese community knows full well there is a growing problem with violent crime amongst their young men. It's why their leaders are at the forefront of efforts to eliminate it.

You can engage in mental gymnastics to deny there is a problem, but this sort of approach only allows the problem to fester and ultimately hurts the very group you seek to protect.

The author is arguing that a holistic approach is required to prevent youths falling into this destructive cycle. Such an approach can only be successful if you acknowledge group X and crime Y have a different underlying set of causes to group A and crime B.

Olympia

4/4/2017 05:48:26 am

Dear Anon,

I couldn't agree more- if at any point I denied there was a specific problem I didn't articulate myself clearly.
What I take issue with is NOT the authors holistic approach, my comment was a response to the comment 'hindsight 20/20' who was not suggesting a holistic approach.
THAT comment suggests that the cause of these problems is the African communities and that by not having them here these problems would go away.
Which is why I used my Parkville example, to demonstrate that crime is not inherently linked with those communities.
I recognise that there are many different reasons that people engage in criminal behaviour, I suggested that one of the key factors was not Nationality but socioeconomic status. I would also suggest that you could place any social group in that same geographic area, with the same lack of resources and access to education and you would get the same results in terms of criminal activity.
Which as you said would benefit from a holistic approach.

A man's home is his Castle Doctrine

4/5/2017 07:42:40 pm

I think there are many Australians, and Melbournians in particular, suddenly realising why Americans are so attached to their guns.

And I think there are many suddenly realising why, our wise authorities having failed us, it might be useful if we were still allowed access to our own.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/i-feared-for-my-children-caroline-springs-locals-mobilising-or-moving-out-as-youth-crime-takes-toll-20170405-gveaih.html

Lol

4/5/2017 08:21:47 pm

Shit there are some good trolls on this website

lol I trol u

4/5/2017 11:52:58 pm

A troll post doesn't mean 'something I disagree with or find objectionable'.

The argument for private citizens to have access to firearms for self defence is a perfectly reasonable one if the police force are failing in their job to protect private citizens and their property, and if our politicians are creating conditions that put their safety in jeopardy.

4/5/2017 10:40:34 pm

It's not so much access to firearms, but that the elites won't even allow you to defend your property and place onerous conditions on self-defence. Instead we are expected to call the police, and hope they arrive in time. If they don't then the victim (if they are alive) can pursue the perpetrator (if they are caught) through the cumbersome legal process and victims of crime provisions, only to discover the accused has no assets.

Victoria Police haven't released their average response times since at least 2011 either, suggesting they don't want the public to know how long they take to arrive.

Moreover, the police (including Victoria Police) actively campaign against people having a) the right to defend their property b) any expansion on the right to defend themeselves, and c) having access to non-lethal means of defence such as capsicum spray.

Statists will defend this arguing that people shouldn't take the law into their own hands and should only have a narrow right to self-defence. However, this is a shallow argument that those of us who live outside the inner-north see straight through.

P.S. The Second Amendment doesn't exist to support Castle Doctrine, rather it is an individual right facilitating citizens possessing the means to (violently) resist tyranny.

hippity hoppity get off my property

4/5/2017 11:26:52 pm

If the police and our venerable politicians can't pull their finger out then it might be time for a rethink.

The safety of our neighbourhoods and the cohesion of our society is likely to continue to be sacrificed on the altar of multiculturalism for the foreseeable future, which makes the matter all the more pressing.

Youth Crime: The Children of Our Future

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