People have many ideas and stereotypes when asked what comes to mind when they think of criminals. Many people believe they come from disadvantaged communities, are young working class people, unemployed and from ethnic minorities. Disadvantaged communities can be explained as communities that are below average income and above average unemployed individuals (Robertson, 2011). It is also important to understand the term "young". Young men and women were often seen as similar. The Select Committee on Criminal Commitments and Sentencing of 1828 defined minors as between the ages of 0 and 17 (King, p.121). Trial procedures for young offenders were only established in the mid-nineteenth century, and the minimum age for holding an individual responsible for committing a crime was raised from 8 to 10 years in 1964 (Farrington, 1986:191). Since we also refer to “young people,” many individuals with a wide range of different backgrounds and experiences fit into this description. Gender, class and ethnicity are also factors that will influence this (Kirton, 2009:439). This essay will outline the arguments for and against whether it is really only young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who commit crimes. Young people are primarily believed to commit all or most crimes (Messerschmidt, 1993:1). Many people directly assume this without looking at the actual statistics. There are two main reasons that help influence many people's beliefs about who commits crimes. One of these is labeling theory. Labeling theory examines how social groups form and manage different explanations for deviant behavior (http://knowledge.sagepub.com/view/socialtheory/n161.xml). Labeling... middle of the paper... the electronic curve is changing. It shows that between twenty-five and thirty is the average age at which individuals tend to commit a crime. Only a quarter of adolescents commit crimes, so crimes are not committed primarily by young men (Farrington, 1986:235). It was also seen that people who commit crime may come from disadvantaged backgrounds, but not all do, and if there were records of people committing everyday crimes, people from disadvantaged backgrounds might not be seen as the majority of people who commit crimes. . Many assumptions can be made and misleading information may be represented due to media interpretation, but by looking at the statistics and evidence, it can be concluded that it is not only young people from disadvantaged backgrounds who commit crimes, but also adults, women and higher class individuals. classes.