Some people say that when children under 18 are committing a crime they should be punished while others believe they should be educated To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement Give your own opinion

Across the globe, there has been an increased number of crimes committed by minors. A group of people feel that the children who commit crimes must be put before the law while some people opine that they should be given proper education to prevent the same crime again. Indeed, to my mind, there is now convincing evidence that children who involve in anti-social activities must be rewarded both with prison sentences and education. In this essay, I shall examine to what extent prison and education help the society as well as the respective children.

Firstly, the punishments in the form of prison to young people who offend promotes the social security to a great extent. This is because, in a society, awarding an imprisonment to offenders minimizes the fear of safety and security to citizens, as most young minds would not commit crimes by knowing the consequences later. For example, in the People’s Republic of China, since the legislation allows juveniles to be punished even with a death sentence by considering the nature of the crime, the crime rate of minors is considerably less. Therefore, for a safer environment, it is inevitable to punish the juveniles for the crimes.

Secondly, providing education to juvenile offenders than punishing discourages them to repeat the crimes again. This can be seen from the fact that, if the minors who do not have the requisite knowledge and maturity to act as per the law are educated with moral lessons and ethics to lead a better life in the society, they can be refined in a right path in their lives. For example, in India, legislation put young criminals in a reformatory cell which teaches lessons to obey the laws and positive thinking abilities, and this substantially reduces the criminal activities by juveniles in India according to a recent statistics produced by Indian Crime Investigation Bureau. Therefore, young minds are provided with proper guidance to avoid committing the crimes the second time.

In conclusion, there are undeniable evidences that both imprisonment and education aid for the safer society to live in. Given the strength of these evidences, in the future, more legislation needs to be put in place to limit child offenders.