send them away to be punished not as punishment (Young Offenders - What Should The Law Do With Them?)

Member Name: rosiesmum

Product:	Young Offenders - What Should The Law Do With Them?
Date:	18/03/01 (29 review reads)
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How should the law deal with young offenders?

Oh boy here goes…………Rosies Mum is on her soap box now.

Youngsters nowadays who find themselves on the wrong side of the law don’t have to worry about it. If they get caught smashing a shop window they get taken to a police station, Mummy and Daddy are called or a Social worker if no parent can be contacted and then they get sent home.

A few weeks later if they are unlucky or are persistent offenders they are summoned to appear at the police station again to receive a caution about the smashed window. Where have we gone wrong I ask myself?

Kids today do not know where the boundaries are in our society, they should have them instilled from a very early age, but a lot have not been taught the rules through no fault of their own I might add. How can they play the game when they have not been taught the rules?

Prevention of teenage offending is better than curing it and this can be sought through education, warnings and obviously deterrents.
I think facing a victim is a good way of dealing with some teenagers, it nips it in the bud and quite often the teenager does not re-offend, but this doesn’t work for all of them.

Youngsters that persistently break the law should be dealt with harshly, that old saying ‘three strikes and you are out’ comes to mind here. If they were put in a special unit to be punished they might think twice before they re-offended. When I say a detention centre I mean a place where they are sent to be punished not sent to as punishment.
Don’t give them all the home comforts like televisions and pool tables, make them work every day, and if they play up, add a day to their sentence. Make life so hard for them so that when they do get out they will not want to go back. That would be good enough deterrent in my opinion.

Some people may disagree with this opinion, but wake up at two
in the morning to face two teenage kids in your home, it is very frightening, and these teenagers are still walking about threatening people, the law doesn’t have the power to punish them because they are under fourteen. Do you think that is right?

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