What Have Young People Done So Wrong?

No matter which newspaper or magazine you read these days, you are likely to see some reference to young people and crime or violence. Today’s generation of teenagers are often wrongly accused of being anti-social because of a small minority of young people who choose to take the wrong decisions with regards to their actions when out on the streets.

It seems somewhat unfair that a lot of people should feel the need to cross the street to avoid a young person because they are anxious about what might happen should they choose to walk past them, when young people who do actually commit crimes are in the minority.

If we look at crime statistics published in 2006 for example, it was found that 75% of young people had not committed a crime within the last 12 months, and of these, only 23% of the offenders had committed more than one crime.

It was also shown in this report that males were much more likely to have committed a crime than females, with 60% of offenders being male compared to the 40% who were female.

Only 7% of all young people were classified as frequent offenders, with only 4% of young people having carried a knife in the past 12 months. This means that nine out of ten young people never commit crimes, and are perfectly safe to be with.

Taking these statistics into account, should our country be blaming young people for the violence which occurs daily? Is it any wonder that the younger generation might pick up a few bad habits if we consider the atrocities that the adult generation are showing to them?

Of course young people aren’t perfect, and of course there are young people who need to be disciplined, but while there are frequent television shows endorsing murder and knife crime, along with so many news broadcasts showing crimes being committed by the adults who are supposed to be setting an example to young people, is it any wonder that the country has a problem?

It is my opinion that if we are to see a change in the way our young people behave, we should lead by example. Being young, our children are at the most impressionable stage of their lives, meaning that they will be perfectly willing to copy what they see if they see that there are positive consequences to the actions being shown to them. Encouragement could be anything from watching a television programme in which a murderer ‘gets away with it’ to simply hearing their friends and peers gain attention when they commit a crime or partake in anti-social behaviour.

If we wish to change the world, we need to take the steps to make sure it can happen.

Our children are the future, and if that future is going to be bright, we need to make sure that they know the difference between right and wrong.

Don’t let our youth be stereotyped any longer. Set an example and make a difference!