Opportunity key to curbing youth crime

Going around the Labour Conference, our media team ‘knocked on many doors’ looking for answers to difficult questions regarding youth crime.

From our interviews, the consensus was that all young people deserve the chance to thrive in their youth. Even though sometimes their actions may result in punishment, the punishment should take the young person’s future into consideration.

It must also take into account their potential to change. Otherwise, the inability to move on with their life can make them feel they have no alternative but to stay in crime.

Following the London riots, which only involved a minority of young people, it has become apparent how important it is that we be given opportunities we’re sometimes denied because of the light young people have been painted in.

At the conference, we found that many politicians believed earlier intervention was the way forward; to nurture negativity away from young people involved in crime then transpose this into a positive ideal, to change.