While it has been well-documented that the public is concerned about youth offending (Maruna & King 2008; Pickett & Chiricos 2012; Piquero & Steinberg 2010), much research shows that the public favour preventative and rehabilitative measures for young people, and that they are more likely to support such measures for young offenders than for adults (see eg Piquero & Steinberg 2010; Piquero et al. 2010; Miller & Applegate 2015; see Gelb 2011a, 2011b on the Australian context). Such beliefs about what should be done about youth offending stem from beliefs about the causes of youth offending. As Vold (cited in Maruna and King 2009: 7) argues, ‘there is an obvious and logical interdependence between what is done about crime and what is assumed to be the reason for or explanation of criminality’.
With this as context, answer the following:
1. In the comments, how do members of the public implicitly theorise* youth offending? (In other words, what are the main theories of youth offending that are reflected in comments made by members of the public?)
2. How do these implicit theorisations accord with the literature on public opinion about youth offending? (In other words, how do the ways in which the public explain youth offending reflect or challenge what the academic literature shows about public opinion about youth crime generally)?
Attachments:
3279812_1_Assessment-1-Guidance.docx
3279812_2_Downloads.rar
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