Levels of youth crime are increasing rapidly in most cities around the world. what are the reasons for this, and suggest some solutions?

Nowadays, seems that juvenile delinquency is becoming more and more of a problem and

this

situation seems to be the case almost everywhere in the world.

Although

youth

crime

has been a concern since the 1700s, the change from what was basically a farming,

village based

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way of life to

an

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industrial city life in the 1800s did much to create fears among the general public about the activities of criminal gangs of

boys

and girls in London and elsewhere. By 1800 sensational stories of

crime

and violence filled the pages of the popular press with details of juvenile

crime

appearing in newspapers, broadsides and pamphlets. The activities of so-called ‘lads-men’ were regularly reported. These were criminal bosses who supposedly trained young

boys

to steal and

then

later sold on the stolen goods they received from them. (see Pickpockets and Ragamuffins) In 1880, there were 6,500

children

under 16 in adult prisons, of whom 900 were under 12. Evidence from the courts and newspaper articles during the

first

half of the 19th century suggests that juvenile

crime

was indeed perceived as a genuine problem. Young gangs of

boys

pickpocketing was a particular problem in cities where large crowds gathered.

This

evidence is

further

supported by the findings of social investigators at work during the 19th century. Journalist Henry Mayhew,

for example

, wrote extensively about the corrupting effects of poverty on the young. In London Labour and the London Poor, Mayhew described life in the capital’s ‘low-lodging houses’, where he found several young

boys

engaged in daily petty thefts, including one who recounted how he was regularly drunk at the age of 10. Mayhew

also

described the activities of ‘Mudlarks’:

boys

and girls aged between eight and 15, who plundered goods from barges moored on the River Thames. In the

18th

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century

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young

children

were not really viewed as serious criminals. Farmers whose apples had been taken may have complained to the

children

’s parents and the local constable might have given them a severe telling off or a clip on the ear but only the most difficult and persistent child offenders found themselves in court.

However

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in the late 18th and early19th

centuries

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juvenile

crime

was taken far more seriously. Warwickshire assizes 1874 ‘A return of all cases of

Children

under 14 years of age committed to the Prison during the past Quarter. January, February and March 1874’ . The chart shows the offence, the age and the punishment

given

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. You can see that for

children

ranged

9

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to 13 years old the punishments were severe for very minor offences (stealing pigeons, a coat or an umbrella). Several

children

were sent to prison briefly and

then

on to a reformatory for five years; some were whipped and one (aged 13) was sent for trial at the Assizes, where