Juvenile delinquency is a problem that almost every country faces, and Singapore is not an exception. Of all the crime committed, juvenile delinquency is one that we are able to prevent and needs the most attention. These youths are committing crime though they are only adolescents and are still not mature enough to decide what is right or wrong.
According to the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports, the statistic collected shows that there has been a decrease in the number of juveniles arrested from 2006 to 2007. But the number of juveniles newly placed on probation has increased. Generally, there has been a downward trend in juvenile delinquency. However, we cannot be complacent and should try to help these troubled youths.
So what are the causes of juvenile delinquency?
I feel that one of the main causes is that parents are spending too little time with their children. In this increasingly competitive world, rising inflation and rising standards of living, it is no longer possible for only one parent to work and provide for the family. Thus, most of the middle income families and the lower income families have working parents, and their children are left to the maids, their relatives or childcare centers to be taken care of. When these children are troubled, they have no one to turn to as sometimes, their maid, relatives, or teachers at the childcare centers are not people they are able to confide in. The only other avenue would be their friends, who would understand them. However, if the child befriends bad company, then he would be greatly influenced and might resort to crime to relieve stress or to forget their problems. Turning to crime might also be a call for attention by these youths to their parents.
Another reason would be the increasing availability of information and the media. Youths are influenced greatly by what they see in the media and what information they get online from websites. Nowadays, violence is seen as cool and this ‘coolness’ has been portrayed in movies such as Kill Bill. In Kill Bill, violence is portrayed to be heroic and ‘cool’. It also promotes the use of violence to solve problems. However, these are not values that the youths should have. They might learn from what they see in movies and use it in real life.
What has the the government done to help these juvenile delinquents?
Currently, there is the community-based rehabilitation and institutional rehabilitation programmes for these juvenile delinquents. The community-based rehabilitation consists of the guidance programme, probation and statutory supervision. This form of rehabilitation gives the juveniles a chance to make amends and resolve against re-offending. Institutional rehabilitation might result in the juvenile being admitted into a Home or Approved Home Order for up to 3 years to undergo institutional rehabilitation.
I feel that more should be done to help these juveniles. Parents should increase their awareness of juvenile delinquency and help to prevent it from happening. This would be a better strategy. Parents should be encouraged to spend more time with their children instead of asking maids, relatives and childcare centers to take care of their children. As long as the parents give the children enough attention, they would be less likely to resort to crime due to influence by bad company and using it as an act to seek attention and care from their parents. The problem of juvenile delinquency should be solved at the root, in order to see significant decrease in the number of juvenile delinquency cases.
