Youth crime

Youth criminal justice act

The youth criminal justice act should definitely be changed. It should be focused towards rehabilitation purposes and not just putting young offenders behind bars. Now where do we draw the line between which should be sent in rehab or jail, because there are some crimes that i would still have jail being the answer such as murder or attempted murder, that kind of stuff. Now, studies have proven that if you lock up young children they are more likely to stay a criminal all their life, so before putting anyone in jail i would suggest that a psychologist check to see if it could be possible to put him in a rehabilitation center specialized in that situation.

Why or why not the proposed law will work for young offenders

I think the proposed law by the Harper government will not work, because as I said earlier, is has been proven that young people put in jail will have a tendency to stay criminals all their life. Now that doesn't mean we should just lock them up for life, I don't think it works that way. The Texas government also stated that it will cost more money making new prisons and keeping the prisoners inside than making new centers where youth crime offenders may go to be rehabilitated.

What leads to youth crime

In my opinion, the main reason children would grow up to be criminals is that their parents weren't there for their child or if the children were treated badly. It's hard to know wether or not a child is being treated badly by their parents because in most cases they are told that if they say anything it will be worse. What they don't know is that if they do say it to another adult, that adult might take the child somewhere that deals with those situations therefor not having to see his/her parents alone. Another reason could be influence by friends. If a gang pushes you to commit a crime, like stealing or vandalism and saying that he's a loser if he doesn't do it. In a situation like that, the child who commits the crime might get involved with the gang and grow up doing that kind of stuff even if he knows it's illegal.

Community

What is community?

A community is a group of people that share the same goals and ideas with laws to prevent anyone from doing harm to others. You don't have to like everyone in the community to be part of it, anyone can be part of any community they want, that is if they feel the same way about opinions or thoughts.

What does it mean to be in a community?

To me, being in community is being where you belong, a nice place to live where everyone supports each other. It is also a place where you can engage yourself and feel safe. You also have to obey to the laws that rule the community in which you live.

What does it mean to be a citizen?

Being a citizen involves having responsibilities and rights. It is the same for every citizen, therefor everyone should respect one another's rights. Some responsibilities could be going to vote when comes the time for elections, or going to work like an honest citizen.

Tuition hikes

What do i think of the proposed tuition hike?

I don't think it is all bad. If they are asking for a bigger tuition fee, there must be some explanations behind it. I mean, if they are investing in new technology and to help the students learn, then that is fine with me. If the money is used to give teachers a bigger salary or even give the owners or other high placed people more money in their pockets, then that's just stealing. I would suggest that if the tuition hikes do happen for parents to inform themselves on how the extra money will be used by the university. It is even a bigger problem if the students arleady have debts during university and now have to pay even more for no benefits on their learning.

Will it have a serious impact on my education?

It might have an impact on my education, but not a major one. I'm one of those lucky students that will get financial help from my parents because they can, but mostly because my dad will be proud to have at least one of his kids go to university. I have no doubts that i will have to pay part of my university, but not all of it.

What type of effect will tuition hikes have on society in general?

I think that it will distance even more the social classes in society. The students who come from the lower class will be concerned alot more if the tuition hikes occur than those who come from higher income families. It will also create inequalities between programs that have a lower percentage of placement after university from the ones that are almost certain to get a job to pay back the debts they owe from their education. It will also make it harder for students that come from lower income families to get out of that social class because they might not want to go to university and get a higher value job with a better salary and overall income. In my opinion, it will have a significant effect on society in general.

Young people and community service

·     Why is there a lack of participation?
 I think young people these days don't get involved in the community as much as the other generations did simply because of the way we were raised. We were always told we could do whatever  we wanted, we were praised and cherished for almost everything we did even if it wasn't something meaningful. A problem with this is that they developped a very high self-confidence about their emotions and they are the priority when it comes to talking decisions, they are always right and will always have what they want. They were born in a community where there is alot of competition and everything is based on performance, not based on helping others since that would mean they are not the main concern. In my opinion, it's not that young people don't want to help by doing community service, it's that they don't think it's going to change something for the world. It might not change the world, that's true, but it will change the life of the people around them and that's exactly what they don't know.

Which is better? Volunteering or service learning?
For me, service learning is a better way of doing volunteering. It is in someway volunteering but it has another meaning to it and is more apealing for the new generation. They can see the effect of it, because it is organized by a school and is meant to help them understand the importance of knowing the place you live in and acknowledge the fact that people could really use their help. Although, I'm not saying that if a student decides to do volunteering it's not going to be worth it for the community, it's only going to have to be on their free time and some students don't have the time to do it because they need to work in order to have their basic needs.

What is the best way to encourage people to get involved?

      The best way would be to not force them to do it, because when you force them(especially if you decide the place where they will work) they will not be interested and will either not go or be more of a nuisance where they work instead of helping others. If you let them decide where they can go and if they want to do it or not, they will feel that it's their choice and not urs, wich is what matters most for the new generation. They always come first.