In 2007, we have seen the rise of young youths from deprived areas commiting heanus crimes from as young as 9. In my day,the worst kids could do in a playground was kick you in the stomach or tie your hair around a lamp post or call you names. Nowadays it is out with Samarai swords, machetes and hammers and battle axes. The other week we saw a bright young boy of 16 killed.With everything going for him, he was cut down in his prime. The good die young, it is a tragedy, a shocking reminder of what the situation is now. So are some of the youth in this country mindless vicious killers with nothing better to do or are there some issues that need addressing>? As we know, poverty in London and other parts of the UK still exist. With nothing to lose, anger inside, I would believe that their poverty destroyed what could have been normal kids with morals. Now we see gangs using these sorry souls who by their circumstance have become irristible fodder for notorious gangs that like to use them as weapons of mass community destruction. It is time we a society try and save our kids before it is too late.
There has always been poverty, the only difference today is the right of the child to do what it wants.
I blame the government and its failure to act on the consequences of poverty. If you blame the parents then it's just going to be an ongoing shitter.
I blame the tabloids. I don't think the youth of today are any worse than the youth of yesterday. Remember the Bulger killers? That was the youth of your day John. It's easy to pick up on single incidents and parade them through headlines. And your day? My, you're making me feel old....
poverty-stricken youth have been violent since the dawn of poverty. the youth of today is a modern construct, since many of those "youth" would have been the adult criminals, laborers and soldiers of yesteryear.
Always worth pointing out. Crime levels and anti-social behaviour always fluctuate within certain parameters, but overall human nature does not really change, and largely speaking there's about the same amount of crime, violence and anti-social behaviour that there ever has been. Try living in a densely populated city at any point in the past 400 years and you wouldn't notice much of a difference in terms of the occurence of brutality - if anything, we're a lot less likely to encounter heinous violence in this society at this time than at many points and in many places throughout history. This idea of a continually declining moral standard, of youth gone wild, the belief that things were much better when you were young is very largely a myth and a fantasy, and at heart it represents a deeply conservative outlook.
Non-violent crimes such as burglary or car theft have fallen but there has been a definite increase in assault, manslaughter and murder. This has a lot to do with the current trend of mugging, which has become something of an epidemic in the uk. As some of you already know, I myself was viciously attacked in December by a group of teenagers. I felt like they didn't actually want my money, and that they were more interested in the stranger walking through their "patch". I think there is territorial aspect that is being foolishly overlooked by the government. we all know places in our villages, towns and cities that are best avoided. Why is this the case? We're almost making it happen by letting them "own" certain areas. It's about time we got off our arses and gave these kids a good hiding. Dap hit the nail, it really is the day when the child can do what it wants. In my day I was frightened of getting a good right hook from an adult.
Some interesting statistics from the British Crime Survey: http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page63.asp Anecdotally, the perception of crime has increased noticeably over the past several years, recognition of 'chav culture' and 'hoodies' also feeds into this - but a lot of that is just purely perception, and a response to changing attitudes and cultures. The figures suggest this doesn't actually feed into an increase of actual violent assaults, the level seems to have been pretty constant for decades, within certain fluctuations, and a noticeable spike in the mid-nineties (economic recession time?). Similar kind of story with murder rates, pretty constant with a peak around Harold Shipman time! http://www.crimestatistics.org.uk/output/page40.asp
Tut, from now on I won't get my figures from BBC news online 2001! Nearly caused an unnecessary civil war for no reason at all then
Violent crime is obviously an issue, theres no argueing that. But the big question is what is the cause, or even causes? You cant blame the parents because they are only the way they are because of the conditions of their life. They did not choose poverty. I think its a mix of nature and nurture. Human nature does compells us to prove ourselves and being agressive, it is only natural. If people join gangs then they will either become racist or violent, often because of pear pressure. I would blame it on their enviroment and their upbringing which has affected their life by not having addequit care and attention from parents because they have to do so much. This means they often become bored and wander away from thier family 'groups'. They will often stray into gangs or even drugs which can change them mentaly and make their judgement irational.
I think there are two processes at work here, which obscure the fact that violent crime, even muggings, have remained fairly consistent and have certainly not increased in recent years. First, a study by Hall et al in 1978 showed how the media were responsible for creating a moral panic over the issue of muggings by black youths, making muggings front page stories and exacerbating public and political concern disproportionate to any significant change in crime statistics. The interplay between media coverage, political response and opinion polls dramatically escalated the notion that Britain was in the midst of a mugging crisis. Suddenly, it seemed, muggers were everywhere. Only they had always been there, now they were simply more visible. This, I'd say, might fuel a second process. Where more attention is given to a particular crime, and where people feel that more might be done about it, they may be more likely to report a crime. Thus whilst the numbers of crimes committed stay the same, the number reported might increase. This may account for some of the fluctuation though, as has already been said, the only significant difference in crime today as opposed to crime in the past, is that people are more aware of it....
When I asked my mum, do you think the youth of today are worse than before? She said they've always said that every generation is the worst-they said that about my generation. I believe she speaks great words! ha. Anyway, why is it always the 'youth' of today, what about the adults...we are all as bad as each other.
History repeating itself Still, I don't like the way we young people are clumped into one group and labeled 'spawn of satian.' It's only some of us, not all of us. If it was ALL of us, then there would be a national curfew....
Yeah, yeah, we've heard it all before, we're to blame for everything, you were all perfect as kids, blah blah blah... Hey, wait a minute, your generation fucked up the world, not ours. Take a good look at yourself before you start having a go at us.Your generation was no better.
oh a thread i actually have a proper opinion on hehe ... *gets excited* replying though when im actually outta my dressing gown and dressed and feel like i can think
Hell yeah, you tell 'im. Damn that uppity 24-year-old generation and their planet-destroying hijinks of the 1990s.
Some adults have spent a lifetime trying to make the world a better place for themselves and their children, to look out and see that it's still the same old same old is disheartening and will make them complain. "Why the hell did I bother", just let it go to pot anyway.
