Teenage crime - How hard should the punishment be

Teenage crime: How hard should the punishment be?

Youth crime in the U. S. continues to rise. And so many Americans are calling for tougher punishments for those who break the law.

What do you think, is the right way to keep the young offenders away from crime?

Their parents could care better for them. They should not be left alone at home.

The should not watch criminal films very often.

It is not good for them, if they  live in a ghetto.

If they are already young offenders, they should not be punished like adults. Specialists should talk with them.

Nowadays more and more young people are sent to a boot camp for six months or more.

Do you know what a boot camp is?

The teenagers must work hard sixteen hours a day.

They learn rigid discipline.

The boot camp should give them a shock to keep them away from crime in the future.

The youngsters can choose between six months at the boot camp and probation or a longer sentence in a conventional jail.

The life in the boot camp:

First they are taken several miles through the swamp to an isolated camping hut by one of the ranch's staff. On their walk the teenagers are shown a rattle snake, alligator and a wild boar. So they won't try to escape.

After 3 days alone together in the bush the youngsters are allowed to mix with the others.

In the camp they must earn their privileges, for example when they work very hard they are allowed to watch TV. A very hard punishment is digging up roots in the Florida sun.

If they fail the camp's programme they could get a sentence of 15 years in an adult prison.

Boot camps are fashionable because people like the discipline, the uniforms, the haircuts, the marching and the yelling and the hollering.

But it's not the right way to keep the teenagers away from crime because you have got to change the insides and not the outsides.

At the end they go skiing for a week and then they are asked by their trainers:" Which was more fun? Stealing cars, doing drugs and robbing people or the last few days?" Most like

skiing better.

Some offences (Straftaten) for which children aged 10-13 found guilty or cautioned: