youth crime essay

Read and understand the question – finding the vocabulary you need You should see that as you read this youth crime essay question that it does not simply ask you about crime and young p

youth crime essay

This is the next in my series of sample IELTS essay lessons The idea is that I don’t just give you

an essay, I talk to you about how to write it In this lesson, I show you a youth crime essay and focus on how to get the right vocabulary

Thinking about functional and not just topic vocabulary

There is a skill in reading IELTS essay questions One step is to see that you need to use

particular vocabulary to write the essay The next step is to see that not all the vocabulary you need is topic vocabulary That is what this lesson is really about – a large part of the vocabulary you need in your essays is not about the topic of the essay itself

Read and understand the question – finding the vocabulary you need

You should see that as you read this youth crime essay question that it does not simply ask you about crime and young people, it also asks you about: causes, solutions,

explanations and suggestions These are the areas where a good range of functional

vocabulary will help you

In recent years, there has been a considerable rise in crimes committed by young people in cities

What has caused this? What solutions can you suggest?

Topic vocabulary

One obvious area is topic vocabulary Here we have:

• young people

• cities

More functional vocabulary

What other language do you need? Sometimes it can be easy to forget this part

• Problem/solution vocabulary: the question asks you to discuss a problem

• Cause and effect vocabulary: you need to think about why it is happening

• Explanation vocabulary: you are asked to explain something

• Suggestion vocabulary: again, you are asked to make suggestions

The big idea – vary the vocabulary you use

Once you have identified what types of vocabulary you need, the next step is to understand that you want to vary the language you use That much is clear It is worth understanding that there are different ways to do this:

1 Changing the word itself

One obvious thing to do is just change the word you use For example, all these words are related and can be used to discuss causes:

• effect

• result

• lead to

2 Varying your word combinations

A slightly different idea is to keep the main word, but change the words you use with it This can be a sensible approach as keeping the same word is good for cohesion, while changing the combinations helps show off your range of vocab For example, all these phrases use “problem”

in different ways:

• a pressing problem

• an urgent problem

• deal with a problem

• a problematic situation

Look at my IELTS youth crime essay and see how I use this vocabulary

When I say “look at”, I really mean look I have highlighted the different functional language in different colours You should see these words are a huge part of the essay:

Close Me

The rise of crime among young people is an urgent problem in many cities that needs to be addressed However, in order to find a solution, it is first of all necessary to understand what has led to this happening In this essay, I first of all examine the reasons for the rise

in youth crime, then I suggest how this problem may be resolved

Perhaps the principal cause of this rise in youth crime is the increased use of drugs and alcohol among young people Many cities suffer from the phenomenon of binge drinking by

teenagers who lose control under the influence of alcohol and commit crimes For instance, it is

a common sight on the streets of Britain to see fights breaking out outside pubs and clubs Similarly, there is a clear connection between drug abuse among the young and crime It is still unfortunately the case that young people frequently see drugs as cool and become

addicted It is a common occurrence for these addicts to resort to petty theft in order to pay for their habit

There are a variety of potential ways of combatting this problem One possibility that is sometimes suggested is a much stricter system of penalties and punishments to deter young people from a life of crime That might work, but it would also be sensible

to improve the system of education so that young people were better informed about the dangers of drugs and alcohol This should have the effect of dealing with the

issues that cause youth crime in the first place

In conclusion, alcohol and drug abuse are among the primary reasons for the rise in young offenders and if the authorities wish to tackle youth crime, one approach would be to educate the young more effectively

Notes on vocabulary

Problem/solution

an urgent problem… to be addressed

find a solution

how this problem may be resolved

combatting this problem

dealing with the issues

to tackle youth crime

Cause and effect

has led to

the primary reasons for

the reasons for

the principal cause of

a clear connection between

have the effect of

issues that cause youth crime

the primary reasons for

Explanation

examine the reasons

Perhaps

Suggestions

then I suggest how

There are a variety of potential ways of

One possibility that is sometimes suggested is

it would also be sensible to

“Crime” words

I haven’t highlighted these in the essay, but you might want to look at: fights breaking out

binge drinking (not a crime really)

petty theft

life of crime

drug abuse

addicted

their habit

Download the essay

IELTS youth crime essay (1635)

An exercise and different ideas for the essay

There are of course different approaches to this essay I decided to focus on the link between crime and young people’s use of drugs and alcohol Two other ideas I didn’t include were

• poverty – does poverty lead to crime

• families – should families be more responsible in the way they bring up children

The exercise is just to write one paragraph about what causes crime among young people and

to try and use a variety of the cause and effect language in my essay It sometimes help to focus

on one thing at a time, so you need not write the whole essay