Juvenile Offenders In Australia

Despite their age and lack of maturity, juvenile offenders are often treated by the criminal justice system in the same manner as adults which can have negative effects on them in the long term. The focus of the detention of juvenile offenders is often weighted towards retribution and incarcerating offenders. Instead, it would be more beneficial to use rehabilitation as a means of preventing re-offending juveniles and helping put a stop to juvenile crime altogether. It is important to first understand why youths commit criminal offences and why they re-offend in the future.

Plenty of research has been done in order to better understand juvenile crime. In Australia approximately 85, 442 youths are processed by the criminal justice system every

Individual, social, family and community conditions, as well as interactions, influence juvenile’s behaviour and how they act in situations regarding crime (The National Academies Press, 2017). Some factors include children who are involved in abusive home lives, social isolation, poor education and low family income. It is widely recognised that the more risk factors, environmental and individual influence a child has, the higher their risk is of delinquent and criminal behaviour (ACS Distance Education, 2015). Research found that children from broken homes are nine times more likely to commit serious offences not only as juveniles but also later in their adult lives (Bloxham, 2017). This shows the need for the criminal justice system to address childhood crime when it occurs rather than when it becomes more serious as juveniles reach adulthood. As well as the family and social factors leading to criminality, social factors are also a major cause of the encouragement towards juveniles to commit crimes. Peer pressure, alcohol, drugs and social expectations can push juveniles into a life of crime as kids feel the need to fit in with social groups or commit petty crimes to impress their friends. Of course, there are many other minor reasons for a juvenile to commit a criminal offence which include some mental disorder like autism which can cause people to have difficulty distinguishing right from