Caught an interesting article on CNN lately. According to it, youth sex offenses have increased 40% and a new APA study blames a highly sexualized and violent culture. The peanut glallery argues that the increase is due to nothing more than better reporting and recognition of the given problem. You can read the article here.

Questions for debate:

1.)What is the most credible reason for the increase in number of youth offenders?

Bonus questions:

2.)What would be the most effective form of treatment for youth offenders?

3.)Should treatment be carried out in residentail treatment centers run by the state? Or should they be in privately run "treatment homes" in neighborhoods? If you answered forthe latter, would you feel comfortable having a treatment home next to your home?

Questions for debate:

1.) What is the most credible reason for the increase in number of youth offenders?

Dereliction of duty. It's a collusion of two dynamics involving elements of our capitalist society combined with parental negligence. Which came first? Who knows. The more parents distance themselves from inculcating any type of a moral standard in their children the more society will fill that void in an effort to make a profit or vice-versa.

Bonus questions:

2.) What would be the most effective form of treatment for youth offenders?

The most effective form would be better parenting. I realize there must be a role that government is to play though I am not too enthusiastic for multiple reasons about the state taking on this role.

3.) Should treatment be carried out in residentail treatment centers run by the state? Or should they be in privately run "treatment homes" in neighborhoods? If you answered forthe latter, would you feel comfortable having a treatment home next to your home?

Short of insisting that the parents play a more meaningful role, the next best thing would be to provide an environment as close to the "family ideal" as possible. I guess this would look more like treatment homes in neighborhoods. And no, I would not feel comfortable with one next to my own home due to the fact that I will soon have 3 children under the age of 7 (our 3rd is due in July ).

1.)What is the most credible reason for the increase in number of youth offenders?

I don't know if it's the main reason, but I'd say that, off the back of feminism, society's attitudes towards some of the behaviours of young men has hardened. Things that were given a pass in past years as being high-spirited, or under the catch all of "boys will be boys", are now rightly seen as plain wrong and as breaking existing law.

And the defence of "she was asking for it" has shifted to the point where (almost), unless the She in question specifically said "do X" in front of witnesses, it is no defence at all. Ok, I know that's not universally true, but it's more true now than in 1950 or 1980.

Then there's the "peanut gallery" view that differences in the public is now more willing to report sexual offences because there's less shame attached to being a victim of many (but not all) such offences, and the police and prosecutors are more willing to pursue such cases.

I appear to be in the "peanut gallery" on this one, because I think the idea that somehow people are intrinsically worse today than they were 20 or 50 or 231 years ago is utter nonsense. They're no better, certainly, but they're no worse either.

Morals have changed, and not universally for the worse, but the changes are only in the direction they were always going to change given the decisions that were taken 20, 50 or 231 years ago that they seemed like a good idea at the time.

2.)What would be the most effective form of treatment for youth offenders?

As with every other type of offender - it depends. Anything with any violence involved makes me think that any sort of punishment that doesn't include formal jail time is not appropriate

3.)Should treatment be carried out in residentail treatment centers run by the state? Or should they be in privately run "treatment homes" in neighborhoods? If you answered for the latter, would you feel comfortable having a treatment home next to your home?

I don't hold with private sector participation in the correctional system at all but on the wider point - depending on the type of treatment being carried out in the treatment home, and the type of prisoners being treated there, then treatment homes are not a terrible idea, and

This "peanut gallery" view reminds me of similar coversations in Christian religious circles when the topic of "end-of-times" theology comes up. Many will claim there is an increase in wars, rumours of wars, natural disasters, and the like. Usually someone will chime in and say "no, it's because we are better at logging such calamities and are more aware of what is going on in the world." Who's to say?



I too agree that people are not any worse than those of previous eras. Are you pre-emptively claiming that believing so is nonsense or are you responding to an implication you saw in the OP or in my commentary? I am confused about what prompted you to make that point clear.

IMO, the main difference between folks (or our youth more specifically) now and then is the degree of liberty afforded them. The "mainstream" teenagers of a hundred yrs ago probably rarely entertained the kind of sexual indulgences (legally or otherwise) as compared to our youth now. That is not to say that they necessarily had a better moral compass but rather the societal norms of that era combined with the fear of parental retribution prevented them from "going there." Fear can control quite a bit.