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In these last months, the dramatic increase in juvenile crimes which are being reported on news and in the press, has produced heated debate among public opinion. Gangs of children, from the so-called baby - killers, to those who are found guilty of bribery, selling drugs and even committing rapes on their same friends, nourish the pages of everyday newspapers. Generally these episodes leave people astonished, but very few think about the consequences of this sad escalation. In an article which appeared in * The Sunday Times last 18 August * there was reported the case of a boy who, at the age of 12 has started this career of crime that begun shoplifting. Since then he has been in jail twice and has been disowned by his parents. So far, all seems to be * normal * had not the parents been asked to pay for their child's offence. According to the Audit Commission which proposed the compensation, forcing parents to compensate their children's victims should restore discipline and save a fortune. But will this decision be the best way to reduce juvenile crime? In this essay I will try and analyse why there is no sufficient evidence that the Audit Commission proposal will bring to a decrease in juvenile crime .
First of all it must be considered that using money compensation as a deterrent in order to reduce juvenile crime is a real mistake. The point is another. It is whether after compensation victims will be really satisfied with it. It could happen if the victim has not received too big a damage. But if the victim is a 10 year old girl raped by a friend of her same age, such as happened last week in Naples, there will never be adequate sum that could compensate the serious and perhaps permanent psychological damages she will certainly suffer from in the future. And this is what experts have always affirmed. How could such an episode be ever cancelled from the mind of that girl? Surely not by a sum of money. Victims need answers to their wondering * why it has happened * not money .
Another point which must be taken into account, and here we come to the second reason why parents should not be forced to pay for their children's offences, concerns the negative attitude that could spring from the Audit Commission proposal. While it rightly stressed that parents are responsible for their children's actions untill they are 18, there is no reference to the real role of prevention, selfcontrol and selfconsciousness parents must develop in their children. This means that parents, in first place, must learn not only to speak to their sons but mostly to speak with them. Children, in fact, must be trained to discuss about violent events as well as about the happy ones they experience. Adults, on the other hand, should strongly condemn wrong behaviors so that juvenile crime can be avoided. Adults, in first place, should be good models for children to be imitated so that they can develop a positive attitude towards life .
Finally, another reason why it is evidently pointless to force parents to pay for the consequences of their children's offences, concerns those crimes committed by young nomads. Is there any point, in fact, in making adult nomads pay for what they have ever taught to their children, since the Creation. This fact, as an example, shows that in order to reduce young crime, penal sanctions are not a remedy. In this last case, on the contrary, crime begets crime .
Instead, if a solution is to be found to solve the problem of the increasing rate of crime among youngs, then it must be discovered with them. It is for this reason that BICE International Bureau for helping infancy (Bureau International pour la cooperation et l'Enfance) has arranged a Conference which is taking place, these days, in Madrid. There, experiences made by adults, experts, doctors, parents, social services workers, are shared with children's in order to better understand their feelings, their behavior, their needs. So, what the conference is going to discuss, it must be done. This is the solution to the problem. There is no point in suggestions if facts do not follow. By committing crimes children want to draw attention on them not on their parents. It's never to late to understand it .
