ABSTRACT
The controversy in recent years about whether people are born criminals or made criminals is likely to undergo significant changes in the years to come. As we eagerly await scientific advances, both criminology and psychology are going to delve further into the nature of human conduct. Future investigations may uncover more about how environmental influences and inborn tendencies play off each other and, with it, a better insight into causative elements leading to criminality.
The most powerful evidence, which has been piling up over time, shows that most criminals have experienced wonders of various hardships. Early childhood experiences such as traumas, poverty, illiteracy, and being surrounded by violent experiences profoundly affect perceptual decision-making and behavioural predispositions in an individual. Though it may be argued that it is ultimately the individual’s choices that determine what one does, it must be kept in mind that these choices are almost always made within the very narrow context of a limited, past-crafted set of experiences. As society comes to better understand these factors, there may be a change in how offenders are viewed—away from a strictly punitive model and toward one that takes their circumstances and backgrounds into account.
This changing view would have profound implications for criminal justice policy. Instead of the punishment aspect, the growing tendency of legal systems is towards rehabilitation and reintegration. This may also focus on crime causes so that interventions could impart the skills and emotional preparedness required for breaking the cycle of offending behaviour. Restorative justice schemes, education, and mental health treatment could become a central feature of reforming society’s response toward disgraced behaviour.
Proactive crime prevention strategies prevent crimes from occurring in the first instance. Such strategies are growing in popularity. Investing in early intervention programs, accessibility to quality education, and supporting these vulnerable youths could prevent some individuals from becoming criminals. If individuals are given stable environments, good role models, and avenues of personal development, they are less likely to employ crime as a survival or expression vehicle.
As our understanding of human behaviour evolves, the justice system can become increasingly like this: a system that blames individuals for what they do but also attempts to understand the socio-economic and psychological factors contributing to crime. In the years to come, using scientific studies in policymaking can lead to a justice system that is fairer and better at preventing recidivism.
Through developing a supportive, educational, and rehabilitative-oriented society, we can move toward long-term solutions instead of short-term punishments. The future of a responsible and humane justice system can result in a safer society as well as more humane crime control.
Keywords: criminality, Restorative justice, recidivism, rehabilitative
INTRODUCTION
It has been a long history since the 1800s when, at that time, a juvenile delinquent was at the receiving end and, if anything, the destination was bad and no less bleak for a juvenile than an adult. The society made no exceptions for these types of cases; children were treated as harshly and savagely as adult criminals. A youth could be sent to a hard prison, made to work painfully hard or be treated just as brutally and without any sense of decency as any adult criminal. There was no knowledge and no pity for the children; there was no conception that the character and mind of a child were being formed. To them, it was just an act of criminality and no sympathetic attitude towards the law.
But in the background, something was happening. Soon, late in the 19th century, the stirrings of reform were heard; more and more people began to openly question the wisdom of having children subjected to the same harsh regime as adults. Every day, it was becoming clearer that youth were facing special problems, a lot of which were out of their control- poverty, abuse, neglect, and social neglect. Society started questioning: What if young people needed help rather than punishment?
That new perspective was, indeed, a turnaround in the whole way young offenders were to be seen under the law. By the late 1800s, cries for the enactment of juvenile protection laws were beginning to grow louder. Such laws were said to provide for the needs of an independent system of justice for children, with rehabilitative rather than punitive objectives. For the first time in a law context, the term juvenile was used to create a clear legal distinction for those who committed an unlawful act below the age of 18. There it was, the dawning of a realization in society that children were not mini-men children needed a justice system that allowed for their potential to flourish rather than one that punished them for mistakes.
And it did not stop there. When the next realization set in, whenever society began to look a little deeper into the causes of juvenile delinquency, the gaze switched from the deed that had been done to the circumstances leading to its being done. It followed that far too many of these so-called delinquents came from bad conditions, broken homes, and a society that failed them all too often. Abuse and neglect, poverty and lack of opportunities fed into their choices. This insight triggered a radical change in approach toward juvenile delinquency, focusing on the reasons for such behaviour.
This shift was parallel to a cook thinking about each ingredient before making it. The process includes the chef realizing that the quality of the ingredients in question determines the quality of the dish. Society came to realize that the key to making any change was to try and find out what caused the child to behave in that manner. The new juvenile justice system would punish the child for the crime but more for understanding why the child behaved like that in the environment, family life, and peer pressure leading him to aggravate the behaviour. In shifting from punishment to rehabilitation, society offered a chance for young offenders to learn from what they had done wrong.