Delinquency Deterrence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Delinquency Deterrence - Essay Example Additionally, a juvenile cannot risk committing a crime with the knowledge of certain severe punishment on such crimes. Ideally, it is more effective to punish a juvenile upon committing a crime, as this will deter delinquency in the future, as they will have leant a lesson. Most importantly, the threat of punishment to juvenile delinquency allows officers to reach out to such criminals in their schools and allow the judges to commit them to severe penalties. The courts have indeed offered tougher punishment for crime thus instilling fear to potential juvenile criminals and hence driving crime down. Therefore, the certainty and severity of punishment deters juvenile delinquency. General deterrence refers to the impact of the threat of legal punishment on delinquency in the public. For example, the perception that there is certainty to the enforcement of traffic laws and violation attracts severe penalties is an example of general deterrence. In addition, a â€Å"Tow-Away Zone" sign is also an example of general deterrence (European Road Safety Observatory, 2007). Specific deterrence refers to the impact of the actual legal punishment on convicted law violators. Such deterrence emanates from life experiences with detection, prosecution, and punishment of legal violators. A good example is the experience of a stricter sentence on lesser crimes (European Road Safety Observatory, 2007). There are various situational crime prevention strategies. They include reducing the opportunities for criminals to commit crime, making the commitment of crime seem harder, less rewarding, and riskier. In addition, changing a criminal’s perception that they can get away with crime, improving surveillance, and deflecting potential offenders from potential crime areas are situational crime prevention strategies (University of Cambridge, 2012). As such, I believe that general deterrence and effective