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The increase in youth crime has aroused the public attention. Concern about juvenile’s behaviour is not new. Public believe that youth crime is serious and out of control. The media headlines focusing on the increases in child offending has reinforced this view (Maxwell et al., 2000). The statistics show that there has been a steady increase in the number of young people offending from 33,500 in 1988/1989 to 43,504 in 1997/1998 (Maxwell, Morris, & Victoria University of Wellington, 2000). Over 22 per cent of all the offences are attributed to young people in 1996 (Triggs, 1998). Youth offending has increased over the past 12 years, but less so in the past five years. There are stable figures in the number of youth crime since 1996 (Maxwell et al., 2000). Therefore, the claim of increase in youth crime does not match the experience of those who working with young offenders. They believe youth crime is getting better and no worse than before. Although youth violence declined slightly in the late 1990s, adolescents are frequently exposed to drug-related crime, violence and delinquency. This research essay focuses on the significant areas of New Zealand society in which may affect juvenile delinquent behaviour over the past 12 years, such as family environment, social factors and media effect.
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