The War on Youth

The article was published the 16th October in 2006 in the "New Statesman". The narrator, Alice O'Keeffe makes a very detailed picture of, how it is to be a young offender, and even just a citizen in Britain. Alice O'Keeffe is highly against how young offenders are treated by the entire system of justice. In her article she uses examples of boys down to the age of 11, who have been prosecuted. In the entire text, she uses mostly logos and pathos to explain the subject. She has used several interviews to prove her points and the style of the article is academic because she has a lot of information about the statistics. The text is formal with a lot of long sentences and use of correct grammar.

At the page 8, line 28 to line 31 she makes a good point that the offences the boys have made were quite unnecessarily to prosecute them for, from a more open minded perspective you would just let the boys know not to do so. With these examples she brings, she ridicules the system of justice, and it makes you think that the policemen should have more important things to do. The problem with these silly convictions is that the young men get criminal records which makes it harder for them to get a job when they grow older, and therefore it becomes a loss for the state in both ends because the boys may have contributed financially in the future, instead of being an expense when they may have problems finding a job later on. At page 9, line 39 to line 44 she uses logos to convince us about why it has become a bigger problem, with these minors being prosecuted, than it used to be. Even though the crime rates have fallen among the entire country, the rate which shows the children going through the system has grown with 25 000 compared to 1985. Barry Goldson, professor at Liverpool University, thinks that it is institutional problem and therefore it is not because of the young people have become more criminal, but it is about scarring them not to do crime. In the social studies, there are different ways to deal with crime. One of them is to frighten. It seems like it is what they prefer to do in England, the way it is done is to give long sentences and show no mercy towards the offender. Several studies have shown that it is not the most effective way to deal with crime. The most effective way to deal with crime is to make sure that as many as possible get an education, because statistics show that the higher educated you are, you will commit fewer crimes. It is because that the most common excuse for crime is the economically, and with an education you will be less likely to need money because you would have job. In this way you prevent instead of frightening, and it is also more financially attractive for the state because a better educated population will bring much more money in taxes.

Alice O'Keeffe mentions that one of the reasons why policemen's focus is at the children is that the children are easy to catch