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Prevention and Rehabilitation?
Crime has been on the increase. Unlike in the past, where criminals were mainly adults,
the correctional department is handling even cases that involve the minors. With adults, it is a
different case because their mental capacity is developed to understand what the law. However,
on the part of an underage offender, it is important that such a person's reasoning is of a low
grade. As such, this means that some of the mistakes could be as a result of environmental
factors such as peer pressure. When you look at the case of Alonza, it is evident that his mistake
was because of pressure from his hosts. What this infers is that the crime was not intentional. In
such case, this proves that the society needs to look at some of these forces that compel the
minors into crime. Reasonably, when the society prevents children from the factors that drive
them into crime, then it becomes effective in handling crime.
Jail environment exposes minors to extreme cases of crime. While in prison, underage
convicts tend to accept the prison way of life. In the video, Alonzo indicates that he came to
embrace the prison culture because he was in it and he could not avoid (“PBS.org” n.p).
Evidently, some criminal acts which minors commit are because of external forces. As such, it
means that when these children are incarcerated, they will come back and face the same factors
that pushed them in crime (Nagin et al. 633). Considerably, the argument, in this case, is that the
society should focus on isolating some of the impetuses that make minors to engage in crime.
