Introduction;
Youth crime is generally thought as being a very recent and modern day phenomenon, however, this is widely untrue. Juvenile crime has been recorded ever since the early 17th Century and yet it has only been within the last 100 years that it has become such a significant issue with the general public (Goldson and Muncie, 2006). It is widely known that the present population are much more aware of youth crime and the implications it causes than ever before. This could be greatly due to the sudden rise in technology around the world, it is fast becoming known that video footage of crime could be posted onto the internet faster than a phone call can be made to the emergency services to report the incident. Which is a complete turn-around to what it was like 100 years ago, serious news was the only news that ever got reported. People never heard about a vast majority of crime occurring, where as now every instance of crime committed (near enough) gets instantly posted onto the internet for the whole of society to view (Carr and Wahidin, 2013). There are endless theories as to why crime occurs and about the correct approach to combat it, the main conflict being over whether to treat young people as a threat or as a victim, which is a debate that still continues to this day (Omaji, 2003). Over the years numerous strategies and intervention tactics have been implemented as an attempt to deal with this ever growing issue but as of yet none have been able to deal with the sheer number of cases that youth crime presents (Goldson, 2008). As a result of this, young people everywhere seem to be having their motives questioned due to the vast amount of stigma that surrounds the youths of today. They appear to be more independent and excluded from other age groups as they are vastly perceived by the older generations to be not