Comment & Analysis: Should we be criminalising our young?

Criminalising young people is in no-one's interest, and giving young people criminal convictions will increase their chances of living a life of crime as they are less likely to be able to get a job if they have a criminal record.

Copyright: Dwayne Hards.

A vast majority of Sussex and Essex police officers know that unnecessarily criminalising people, especially when they're young, will do more harm than good. This is why these forces' officers only criminalise young people as a last resort. In actual fact, most UK police forces do the same as Essex Police and Sussex Police.

Criminalising young people for having fun or showing off to their gs (friends) is not going to be in the public interest if the "crime" they have committed was minor; therefore, magistrates' courts would likely dismiss the case or give offenders a low-level consequence if it ever got that far — which is highly unlikely.

In the United Kingdom, our police officers and courts use their discretion as to whether criminalising someone is in the public interest. If criminalising someone is not in the public interest, then the case will likely be dropped.

The law should be used as a deterrent for those wishing to commit violent and serious crimes, not to scaremonger our young and innocent people who mind their own business.