Youth and Crime

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The Criminal Justice system is suppose to be a process that helps people receive a sentence which is appropriate for their offence, however this is not the cause for youth. Youth require a qualitatively different response that adult offenders (Minaker & Hogeveen 2009), this is specifically seen in the case of special populations such as criminalized girls and aboriginal youth. A first major concern with a special population is girls and their interaction with the criminal justice system. The adult system is androcentric, meaning that it is based on male behaviour. Specifically because of this many prisons system are not skilled on how to properly handle female offenders, let alone young female offenders. According to Minaker and Hogeveen there are three main differences of young female that need to be taken into consideration, biological differences, the masculinization of female deviance and the gender-role socialization. Biologically, females were destined to bear children and because of this they were not as intelligent as men, because of this the criminalized women is deemed to be unnatural. With the masculinization of deviance, which according to Minaker and Hogeveen argues that, females have become more like men. Finally in relation to gender roles the argument is that without a steady male role in girls lives they do not get the proper socialization they need. When specifically focusing on young girls, their pathways into the criminal justice system need to be addressed and rehabilitated. The three main differences also need to be taken into consideration when sentencing and handling young female offenders. However because of all these considerations majority of officials do not know how to properly handle young girls n... ... middle of paper ... ...porated into the youth system. The only way to learn is to attempt to run different programs in the hopes of having a positive outcome. A key aspect to the betterment of our system is too asked the youth what they specifically want. According to Minaker and Hogeveen youth have stated that it is not one problem but multiple factors, these factors need to be addressed and alternatives need to be found. If the system continues not to listen to the youth there is no hopes for it to have a positive outcome on their lives. The youth criminal justice system needs to shift away from a gendered, all ages approach to a gender specific approach (male or female) and separate systems for the youth and adult offenders. We need to deal with the youth solely not for a solution but through intelligent programming that looks to transform the youth and help them from re-offending.

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