To see this offender as a “criminal first” as opposed to a child?

[cofefefela]

I was robbed last week by some disgusting male who had been following me, he threatened to kill me, ignored me begging him not to etc. The absolute waste of oxygen’s movements could then be followed as some of my stolen electronics had tracking. This twat not only kept returning to the scene of the crime, he ended up robbing someone else there days later!

He has now been arrested. There’s CCTV footage of him committing the crime so he’s been charged and it’s gone to court. He’s had the audacity to plead not guilty and I found out he’s a youth defendant. There will be a trial next year, and my stolen property has not been recovered.

This has made me annoyed as he’ll likely end up with a slap on the wrist as he’s a “child”, although he had no problem committing such serious crimes repeatedly and showing zero remorse throughout. Aibu? I feel like he should be tried as an adult, he’s a danger to society.

AND should pull the plug on the benefits money at least

How to show you don’t understand ACE without saying that you don’t understand ACE.
Maybe watch this

I had my car stolen recently. The police were quite blasé in admitting they know who stole it. Describing him as a prolific car thief

I was not too worried about the car but the contents were to me priceless. Photograph albums of my children from birth. Things you cannot buy. As well as other stuff I was insured for (moving house)

It’s the fact that not only do they know who took my car, they said when they found the car that without forensic evidence they could not do anything

Did they try to find forensic evidence ….

No they said it wasn’t worth looking.

Not only did he leave his glasses, clothes and phone in the car and a whole host of other stuff from others who had been in the car. The police aren’t interested in stopping this guy until he does something that harms another person

Causing distress, depression, financially impacting someone as they are self employed and they can’t get to work, losing money on the increased insurance premiums, personal property destroyed and the chain reaction it causes apparently are not

I can understand the POV that this is a child and they shouldn’t be treated as an adult but I think the courts have the opportunity to cull this behaviour once and for all

Keeping this child off the streets for an extended period of time in a prison with others in that age group with with things like CBT therapy, and testing for any ND would have a bigger impact on the future than what the courts have the opportunity to hand out.

Personally I think the 3 strikes and you are out for a minimum 10 years would work well. Also for police to investigate the “little” crimes

Ultimately it would save money and time because there wouldn’t be the number of crimes that would be reported

In the meantime are you suggesting that even though he may harm or kill someone. We all have to live with it, because “what can you do” and “He’ll come a cropper one day”

Take him off the streets now.

I am old enough to know that those who do this sort of thing don’t always end up worse off in the long run

Crime for some seems to pay very well

Well do something about it then if you don't like it.

Yalta · Today 18:28

Not only did he leave his glasses, clothes and phone in the car and a whole host of other stuff from others who had been in the car. The police aren’t interested in stopping this guy until he does something that harms another person

Fucking Hell, but that's a pile of shite. When my motorbike was stolen from the garage, they came round and looked for clues, spoke to the neighbours etc. This was just over 3 years ago - they also managed to get our car dash cam back, which we hadn't even reported.

Have a look through this, if it wasn't too long ago and assuming that you told them about the stuff he'd left:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/Global/Migrated_Documents/advisernet/04340415-ew-a-guide-to-the-police-complaints-system-pdf-1.pdf

This!

All the bleeding hearts saying ah but he's a child...I wonder how you'd feel if you were his victim 🙄

It’s not necessarily that anybody is saying he’s not done anything wrong, he has. But he isn’t going to be in prison forever. You lock up a 17 year old for 10 years, purely prison, no rehabilitation efforts, the 27 year old that comes out is going to do far worse than steal.

At 17 there is absolutely still scope and time with the right skills and support to turn things around to try and ensure this is a person who never reoffends. 12 months of rehabilitation in a youth centre at 17 is going to be far better for society as a whole than 10 years in jail sleeping beside far worse and more hardened criminals.

As others have said, what OP wants is revenge. What ANY victim wants is revenge, their anger or fear fuels them and that is understandable, but that is why victims do not pick punishment.

For example, 7 yrs for an offence should be just that at age 15 or 35 and served in full, no time off for good behaviour, time added on for bad behaviour instead. But, children should be in strict borstal style institutions, not adults' Prison. Education/ trades/ MH services should be provided for both adults and children but no games rooms, gyms, leisure etc. It should be uncomfortable. No visitors, that's how drugs get in.
You want leisure, you want phones, visitors, you want leisure, keep out of trouble.
Prison works. It keeps them away from society, it's letting them out without then supervision or support, that is the problem. Housing, education, and jobs should all be sorted before release.
Paedophiles shouldn't ever be released, though. I'd seal the Prison doors and chuck occasional food through a hatch

No, he absolutely should not be sent to an adult prison, and won't anyway because of the laws around it, and for very good reason. For starters he hasn't the mental capacity of an adult yet, so how can you expect him to be treated like one?
He will end up in a YOI (young offenders institution) and the focus in there will be to rehabilitate him to prevent re-offending as an adult in future once he's released. Rehabilitation is in adult prisons, but not everyone gets the benefit of it, purely because of its natural surroundings. In a YOI he will have a better chance of not re-offending, which is its primary aim. It's all well and good thinking let's lock him up, he needs to be punished etc, but seriously what are the benefits of it? He needs help to put him on the right path.
The whole adult prison system is debated. There is solid evidence which shows a lot of people who go to adult prisons end up re-offending ,then they go back in again and it's a never ending circle. After all, what do the general population see prisons as? It's seen as a form of punishment. The focus isn't on rehabilitation as much as YOI's and because of this there aren't enough prisoners taking part in it.
I know it's frustrating and can make people angry, but this is the reasoning behind it. YOI's focus on education, rehabilitation and behaviour techniques to improve their behaviour. This is better for the individual and will benefit society as a whole.

Prison works.

Your version of prison 100% doesn't work.

But you can't put 14 years old boys in a man's prison. But you can lock him up for 6 years in a young offenders institution for carrying a knife, not give him community service, a social worker and access to sooo many treats like outward bound courses, the chance to sail around the world, talks by bad boy celebrities made good that the little shits get and the kids who stay clean, fight the guy with the knife unarmed don't get too...do you think I might be speaking from experience and have a nice scar on my left hand to prove?

Yep, one local 14 year old girl who's rapidly working her way through the system (first it was a bit of fare-dodging on trains, then stealing alcohol from supermarkets, now it's assaulting police officers...) has a father who is doing time for trying to hide a murderer. Her mother is a piece of work too, she's on the local pubwatch list.

While the offender remains in prison it definitely works. They cannot continue their crime spree while locked up.

IMO, "old enough to do the crime, old enough to do the time". If you are old enough to commit crime, you have to face the consequences. The age of the criminal has no effect on the victim of the crime. Someone killed by a 14 year old is no less dead than someone killed by a 22 year old.

I think he should be in a man's prison.
No entertainment, no treats, no rewards, no visitors.

YANBU.

That’s not at all a good idea, no matter what someone has done. Do you know anything about human psychology? Locking someone up and treating them the way you suggest will create a far worse criminal. It also puts prison guards in extreme danger; keeping them entertained and calm is the hardest part of that job. Looking after a bunch of prisoners being slowing driven mad by conditions outs guards at huge risk, creates worse criminals and then we’re stuck with people we cannot reintegrate into society.

What is the point? What would be your goal in locking people up in those conditions? What happens when their sentence is up? More victims, back into prison, more taxpayer costs, more unemployable people to support. It’s idiotic.

It's not about having a licence to kill - its about having appropriate and just sentencing. That means you must take into account certain history and circumstances age and development and understanding/ awareness included. It's also as you rightly state about publuc safety which means ensuring you're not positioning young people to be more likely to reoffend as others have said on this thread adult sentencing can do. I would love to change the law to increase the age of criminal culpability.

You have to draw a line somewhere though... if you push it back then people will argue the difference between 16yo and 17 yo... to me the cleanest way to do that I'd that if someone is legally a child they should be treated as a child. The intervention work should then be tailored to their age and the nature of their crime to discourage reoffending. You can't say a minor without full brain development is an adult and should be tried as if they're a 40 yo man.

Having been in similar shoes I understand why you're thinking this but your logic is flawed as has repeatedly pointed out.

Is it a "lesser" sentence or just a more appropriate one given his age, circumstances and developmental stage?

I've worked with many young offenders some who've done horrific things and who have turned their life around - are now working, clean, dealt with the trauma that led them there in the first place and some even volunteer to try and help others learn to be better. Noone can say someone is a lost cause and we should just give up on a child and throw away the key because what they've done is harmful. They do deserve a chance to try and be better which is why appropriate sentencing is so important. A net benefit to society is that they stop offending and are rehabilitated rather than have a rough sentence and come out with awful connections and do even worse.

What happened to you ( just as what happened to me) was unfair. It sucks. And it sucks that you're left dealing with the fallout from it. But it's the reality and i hope you do get the counselling and support you need to feel more confident leaving the house. For a long time I didn't feel I would but i did get back to myself.

I think he should be in a man's prison.

Do you really? Because I think we are all aware what would likely happen to a 14 yo boy locked up with adult male offenders. Unless sexual assault is the punishment for robbery, or you are a psychopath yourself, that seems like hyperbole.

A civilised country doesn't treat offenders as non-human. How you are treated when you are at the mercy of the state is important. Some of you honestly sound like you would have been cheering on the gulags.

If he's 18 when it goes to trial he could end up in an adult prison

If I had a son of 18 I'd prefer him to go to an adult men's prison rather than a Young Offenders

if they dont admit guilt how can they be rehabilitated-im with you op

an look at bloody venables kills as a child still offending