To the Editor,
I am writing today to draw attention to Youth Crime, and I'm not meaning 16 and 17 year olds. I’m talking about 10, 11 and 12 year olds.
My nephew who is 12 years old, is currently on 7 different bail agreements, a couple of which are breaches of bail for not being home when SAPol have performed curfew checks. Well, he is never at home. Why? Because his mother is an alcoholic who swings between neglect and outright abuse.
Already I can feel most reading this nodding their heads as it causes reminiscing on your own childhoods. All of these 8-12 year olds who don't want to be home drift together and end up congregating at a central location, be it a skate park, shopping centre, or train station. Within these groups, one or two will undoubtedly have older brothers, who willingly supply a provision of cigarettes, alcohol, weed, etc, and if not initiate, definitely encourage or romanticise bad, anti-social and criminal behaviour.
Children of substance dependent parents long for somewhere to just be that isn't home, and it is of ever more appeal if they can find connections that fill that hole inside of us that is the longing to belong to something bigger than just ourselves, that is to some degree inherent in all human psyches.
These young angry men are gravitating towards each other and their anti-social tendencies are exponentially extrapolated to outright criminal behaviour extremely fast. And this is furthermore perpetuated by further thinking, creating a desire to lead a life as a community member NOT pariah; while offering real support programs to the parents.
An outreach program needn't be fancy. Run from their school, using the facilities after hours to encourage attendance at class prior, and with the aid of donations an amazing program could be successfully run.
Imagine, then what could be achieved using the AUD$90,000 per annum it costs to house these juveniles in prisoners, as well as other court incurred costs that could potentially be redirected. There would be an abundance of funding available to really make inroads with helping parents address their own issues. This could result in making home a welcome and safe place.
Give these kids somewhere to just be. Make it safe, positive and even productive. No one is “just an addict”, so address parental dependencies on drugs and alcohol. Let's make our “criminal generation” the one that breaks the cycle of anti-social behavior and criminal offending stemming from an under addressed but fixable root cause.
Yours Sincerely,
CC
To the Editor,
I am writing today to draw attention to Youth Crime, and I'm not meaning 16 and 17 year olds. I’m talking about 10, 11 and 12 year olds.
My nephew who is 12 years old, is currently on 7 different bail agreements, a couple of which are breaches of bail for not being home when SAPol have performed curfew checks. Well, he is never at home. Why? Because his mother is an alcoholic who swings between neglect and outright abuse.
Already I can feel most reading this nodding their heads as it causes reminiscing on your own childhoods. All of these 8-12 year olds who don't want to be home drift together and end up congregating at a central location, be it a skate park, shopping centre, or train station. Within these groups, one or two will undoubtedly have older brothers, who willingly supply a provision of cigarettes, alcohol, weed, etc, and if not initiate, definitely encourage or romanticise bad, anti-social and criminal behaviour.
Children of substance dependent parents long for somewhere to just be that isn't home, and it is of ever more appeal if they can find connections that fill that hole inside of us that is the longing to belong to something bigger than just ourselves, that is to some degree inherent in all human psyches.
These young angry men are gravitating towards each other and their anti-social tendencies are exponentially extrapolated to outright criminal behaviour extremely fast. And this is furthermore perpetuated by further thinking, creating a desire to lead a life as a community member NOT pariah; while offering real support programs to the parents.
An outreach program needn't be fancy. Run from their school, using the facilities after hours to encourage attendance at class prior, and with the aid of donations an amazing program could be successfully run.
Imagine, then what could be achieved using the AUD$90,000 per annum it costs to house these juveniles in prisoners, as well as other court incurred costs that could potentially be redirected. There would be an abundance of funding available to really make inroads with helping parents address their own issues. This could result in making home a welcome and safe place.
Give these kids somewhere to just be. Make it safe, positive and even productive. No one is “just an addict”, so address parental dependencies on drugs and alcohol. Let's make our “criminal generation” the one that breaks the cycle of anti-social behavior and criminal offending stemming from an under addressed but fixable root cause.
Yours Sincerely,
CC
