The criminalization of youth

Bryony Gordon addressed the fact that it is very difficult being young in today's modern society because adults assume the worst and are less willing to forgive youthful mistakes because they have forgotten that a child isn't an adult. Money Quote:

If youths are behaving any worse than before — and, according to the penal reform charity Nacro, Britain's youth crime rates have dropped 27 per cent in the past 10 years — then it is grown-ups who are to blame for having the audacity to demand respect from teens while at the same time disrespecting them. That might make me want to commit an act of violence on the nearest person in authority, too. And has anybody ever questioned that kids might be carrying knives because they are scared of each other, thanks namely to the preposterous way in which they are presented in the media?

Comments

[Daphine]

We have begun the process of subtly criminalizing the status of youth. It’s as if we expect mothers to miraculously birth 17 year-olds. And then expect the 17 year-old youth to miraculously and immediately make significant contributions to society. It’s as if we think parents need no time to be parents or children need no time to be children!

Toddlers are entering prep-school for kindergartners! First graders are using day planners! Second graders are worrying about their resume, physical looks and status!

I'm quite certain if I were just beginning life, I'd be in jail before adolescence? My refusal to sit at a desk would have gotten me thrown out of kindergarten. My day planner would have incriminated me as a first grader devoid of any goal except exploration and reading. Demolition of my neighbor's screen door, with M-80s, would have ensured I spent second grade incommunicado as an "enemy combatant" or "terrorist"…

I do not understand all the factors which are causing this process to occur? But it seems totally ridiculous and a dangerous process. A process we should understand and reverse before we further harm our children and society.