What would your solution be to stopping children committing crime?

Why do you think that all of these kids are the children of benefit claimants? Also, if something that simple would work, it'd have been done decades ago.

I don't know what the real answer is but in the UK, a lot of areas have been economically abandoned thanks to Thatcherism, offshoring, outsourcing and technology. AI means that this is only going to get worse, not better. We'd better figure out something soon.

For the sake of providing an answer, I think a lot of these kids need both structure and things to do. At the very least, we could establish grants for local youth organisations so they could at least have something to do and supervision.

They are only getting a slap on the wrist and the problem isn't going away. Children don't understand right and wrong the same way adults do. Give them prison sentences twice the length of adult ones as standard

i think the OP was referring more to kids acting like gobshites rather than what i think you are talking about - the 'stealing a loaf of bread to survive'-type of crime

Let’s look at the solutions education- that takes decades and generations in order to have any visible success . Tallaght a prime example. It has taken years for some areas of Tallaght to have improved educational attainment. Yet West Tallaght is still struggling deprived high crime rate.

And the same patterns in rough estates seem to occur a number of families causing all the trouble. Eviction for persistent anti-social behaviour could be a last resort. But then it becomes a “a cause” for the less well intentioned to rally behind.

Unfortunately you can’t make the children docile, by doping them like the elderly in an old folks home.

Nor can you prevent certain families with low levels of parental responsibility from having more children medically. Maybe there should be an incentive financially (for those of certain socioeconomic backgrounds/ with criminal history in the family for having less children? Or even none. Therefore lessening chances of poor parenting, which is the main cause of wild directionless children.

China had a one child per family incentive and that worked. Obviously in Ireland the constitution would be a barrier to that.

Indeed. Some of the biggest scumbags are teenagers of wealthy parents who think they can do what they like because mammy and daddy are bigshots.

And how would jailing parents make children less likely to commit crime? Broken families are a massive factor in delinquency.

Plus you cannot jail someone's family members for a crime committed by a person. That's the stuff of North Korea - if you commit a crime they put your parents, grandparents and extended family into a labor camp.

Is that in the majority though? Wealthy parents with scumbag children are not only going to be rare, but oddballs.
Time and again in court appearances John Doe from XYZ deprived area, multiple previous convictions since a young teenager, And it continues Joe Doe grew up in single parent family, he left school early. There is normally the mention of drugs etc.

I mean think of the cost these sort of families are costing the state? And it is rare they “turn a corner” and become productive members of society.

Great Idea, Lets make already disillusioned and disenfranchised kids poorer and more susceptible to the people who pay on them. Better yet lets sterelise people who commit crimes ….would that be all crimes? Rape, Robbery, Shoplifting, Petty Theft,Fraud, Insider trading, Tax Evasion?

Parents are responsible. So, community service for the child and parent. Graffiti? Let them spend the day/week cleaning it. Vandalism? Make them sweep streets etc. Theft? Make them work it off - including any costs associated with bringing them to justice.

Maybe Singapore has the right idea. Beat them in school. That'll learn 'em.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-05/singapore-approves-caning-for-school-bullies/106645716

Sadly the Genie is out of the bottle, the lack of any real punishment has embolden criminals , knowing fully well that that can rack up as many convictions as they like, and as long as the game the system they will get off with a slap on the wrist.

The kids know this, their parents know this.

Which crime: Shoplifting, shoplifting, and harassing people, is generally done to move up the pecking order in the pack, or maybe a low boredom threshold need for excitement.

The emergence of the dark triads of personality, real criminality.

Intense awareness of the pecking order, wanting to belong, do a runner for a druggie, and they can afford a Northface jacket and belong, their parent can't afford to buy it for them.

Apparently, random attacks on another teenager, it's not random, they are triggered by seeing another teen who appears to have everything they do not, could be anything. The other teen is tall, sporty, from a well-off family, popular with girls, things they are not, so they internalise that and think they are evening it up by attacking the other teen.

Taking money from parents is not going to solve any of that.

Maybe it wont but we dont know for sure. The issue you describe is bad parenting.

That's only part of the answer, it's a mix of human biology and living in a capitalist consumerist society, maybe compulsory counselling, structured activities, changing the school holiday, the school's holiday the same length but only 6 to 8 weeks in the summer, the rest spread over the years.

In schools, instead of being taken out of class for extra support, a class of no more than 10 throughout school, so they would be getting tutoring instead of teaching, guaranteed apprenticeships or college with supports, or maybe a 50-in TV and the latest Xbox so they never go out.

Honesty about the genetic element in addictions and mental illness allows targeted interventions before issues develop.