Britain's Violent Youth

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1. According to TIME Magazine, 28 March 2008 (Time magazine highlights Britain's violent youth / Britain's Out-of-Control Kids) :

"Last year more than a fifth of Britons avoided going out at night rather than risk encounters with a .... form of terror: groups of children. Britons are frightened of their own young...

"Violent offenses by British under-18s rose 37% in the three years to 2006...

"In 2000, Euan Blair, the son of the Prime Minister, was arrested for being 'drunk and incapable.'

"Twenty-seven teenagers were murdered in London last year by youths wielding guns or knives...

2. In FAMILIES WITHOUT FATHERHOOD, Norman Dennis & George Erdos argue that the decline of the family has led to an increase in crime.

According to a study in 2000 by the OECD, British parents spend less time with their children compared to other nationalities, 'leaving them more open to influence from their peers and a commercially driven, celebrity-obsessed media'. (Britain's Out-of-Control Kids)

In family homes, in schools, and on the street, young British yobs are being allowed to get away with it?


3. Youth crime in places like SINGAPORE, MALTA and BHUTAN used to be extremely rare.

The introduction of nasty films, and other media, has changed all that.

Crime figures in Singapore, Malta and Bhutan, although still lower than in Britain, tended to rise at the same time as horrid media material was introduced.

"Four years ago, Bhutan, the fabled Himalayan Shangri-la, became the last nation on earth to introduce television. Suddenly a culture, barely changed in centuries, was bombarded by 46 cable channels. And all too soon came Bhutan's first crime wave - murder, fraud, drug offences."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,975769,00.html

4. Part of the problem is the incompetent UK criminal justice system.

In Stirling, in the UK, a man caught a 10-year-old throwing stones at windows. The man hauled the kid into his girlfriend's house to tell him off. The man, not the child, was fined £250 (Daily Record 7/12/00)

The Glasgow Herald reported, "The trial of 3 men accused of assault was haulted because a signature was missing from the charge sheet..."

3 trials involving drugs charges collapsed because of search warrant blunders...

In THE FAILURE OF BRITAIN'S POLICE, Dennis and Erdos report that in December 2002 there were 282 robberies of personal property in Lambeth.

This figure, for one borough for one month, exceeded all robberies, personal and business, for the whole of England and Wales in any year between the two world wars, with the exception of 1932 (342) and 1938 (287).

In 1971 there were 17 reported crimes for every police officer. There are now 44.

In 1921 there were 57,000 police officers dealing with 103,000 crimes - two to each officer.

But in 2002/2003 134,000 police officers had to deal with 5,899,000 crimes.

1921 - 103,000 crimes recorded
1955 - 500,000 crimes recorded
2003 - 5,899,000 crimes recorded

5. Think of an area where the streets are covered in discarded chewing gum, plastic bags and vomit; an area where young people commit acts of drunken vandalism. You can be pretty sure that there will be no police around. You can be pretty sure that in police HQ there will be too many middle managers and top managers sitting around drinking tea.

Now think of an area where there is a visible police presence; an area where you see your local friendly policemen on patrol.

Some of Scotland's most crime-ridden areas have seen crime rates fall by a fifth since old-fashioned police street patrols were introduced. (bobbies on the beat do cut crime)

In Glasgow, in 2007, serious assaults fell by 38 % in city-centre zones that were given extra police foot patrols at nights and weekends.

Edinburgh has seen a similar success.

Jackie Muller, secretary of the federation's Lothian and Borders branch, is quoted as saying: "My membership are telling me they would be able to give a better service to the public if they were out in the communities in which they serve."

According to The Scotsman newspaper, "much of the cost of upping front-line officer numbers in Glasgow will come from a reduction of middle-management officers, such as superintendents, at Strathclyde Police's headquarters in the city."

The Scottish Government, now run by the Scottish National Party, has said it will fund 500 additional officers, with another 500 being funded by cutting red tape and dissuading other staff from retiring.

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