Only young men from disadvantaged backgrounds commit crime

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People have many ideas and stereotype when they are asked what comes to mind when thinking about offenders. Many people would believe that they come from disadvantaged communities, are working-class young men, unemployed and from ethnic minorities. Disadvantaged communities can be explained as a community which lies below the average of income and above the average of unemployed individuals (Robertson, 2011). It is also important to understand the term 'young'. Young and juvenile were often seen as similar. The 1828 Select Committee on Criminal Commitments and Convictions defined juvenile between the ages of 0 to 17 (King, p.121). Trial procedures for young offenders were only established in the mid-nineteenth century and the minimum age for holding an individual responsible for committing a crime was raised from the age of 8 to 10 in 1964 (Farrington, 1986:191). As we are also looking at 'young' men, many individuals with a large range of differing backgrounds and experiences fall into this description. Gender, class and ethnicity are also factors which will influence this (Kirton, 2009:439). This essay will illustrate arguments for and against the statement of whether it really is only young men from disadvantaged backgrounds who commit crime.
It is mainly believed that young men commit all or most of the crimes (Messerschmidt, 1993:1). Many people directly assume this without looking at the actual statistics. There are two main reasons which help influence many people's beliefs about who commits crime. One of these is the labelling theory.
The labelling theory looks at the way social groups form and handle different explanations for deviant behaviour (http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/socialtheory/n161.xml). Labelling...

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...e-curve is changing. It shows that twenty-five to thirty is the average age where individuals tend to commit a crime. It is only a quarter of individuals that are in their teenage years that commit any offending, therefore, crimes are not mainly committed by young men (Farrington, 1986:235). It is also seen that individuals who commit a crime may come from disadvantaged backgrounds, yet not all of them do, and if there were records of people committing everyday offences, people from disadvantaged backgrounds may not be seen as the majority of people who commit crime. Many assumptions can be made and deceiving information can be portrayed due to media's interpretation,yet looking at the statistics and evidence, it can be concluded that it is not only young men from disadvantaged backgrounds who commit crime but also adults, women and individuals from higher classes.

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