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Senem Aslan
Youth Delinquency in the Context of Social Exclusion
Youth is the period when personality is formed and individual becomes socialized from
the individual aspect this period which holds a place between childhood and adulthood
is the period of psycho-biological social shaping and development that will shape whole
life. In this period, education and training process has important functions for shaping of
he individual. If a society has no certain and healthy youth policy, social disturbance may
occur in this society every time (Armağan, 2004: 6).
Youth is influential in building significant elements of the change in society. Therefore,
their development is a subject on which emphasis should be laid. It should be ensured
that the potentials possessed by youth are used in positively directing the welfare and
development of society and in fighting gainst the social and individual problems (drug
dependence, unemployment, insufficient education, exclusion and crime, etc.) that the
young people will encounter in this period. Understanding youth and establishing healthy
communication with them are quite significant for helping them to develop efficient solu-
tions to the problems they face and precluding inclination to negative attitudes by youth.
Committing crime and the social and individual reasons underlying the crime are among
the youth problems. Turning into criminals in youth following childhood period or per-
forming risky behaviours is a social problem which should be addressed within the fra-
mework of different variables. According to Demirbaş psycho-social reasons of youth
delinquency should be examined more closely and an emphasis should be put on the
mechanisms that will be efficient for turning into crime by youth such as family, family
relations, status of school and profession (Demirbaş, 2001: 154-5).
Realizing criminal behaviour in age interval 15-25 substantially by individuals has incre-
ased the importance of youth delinquency in criminology (Walklate, 2003: 23). Soyaslan
who attracts attention to age factor in delinquency, described young persons as age
group 15-25 by remarking that age has an impact on facilitating other factors arisen from
individuality and the environment (Soyaslan,1998: 80).
The research conducted related to turning into criminal behaviour by youth reveals the
serious social problems among the youth who commit crime extensively or have commit-
ted a serious offence to the presence of those who face serious difficulties in their family
and school life. That is to say, explaining the crimes committed by such youth or juvenile
through the inadequencies based on psychological, social or other reasons apart from
normality of juvenile delinquency seems more consistent (Toprak, 2014: 321). It is impos-
sible to clarify the inclination to criminal behaviour by youth within the framework of their
primary characteristic properties solely. Deliberating on the factors that become efficient
for doing criminal behaviour by youth matters for understanding youth delinquency and
fighting against delinquency.
