Britain is becoming a nation afraid of its young people

London: Britain is becoming a nation afraid of its young people and this "paedophobia" is causing problems for children as they grow up, a report released yesterday said.

Britons were far less likely than their European counterparts to stop young people committing antisocial behaviour, because of fears of reprisals, being attacked, or verbal abuse, the study by the Institute of Policy Research (IPPR) found.

It said changes to family, local communities and the economy had combined to cause "deep inequalities" in the transition from childhood to adult life, meaning many young people were incapable of growing up safely or successfully.

A lack of adult supervision because of a breakdown in traditional communities where neighbours looked out for each other's children had increased the risk of youth crime and violence, it added.

"The debate about childhood in Britain is polarised between false opposites: that either children or adults are to blame," said Nick Pearce, IPPR director.

"Complex structural changes to our society, coupled with changes to how young people behave, have produced this situation."

Recent studies by the British Crime Survey have shown that people's fear of antisocial behaviour is rising and the issue has become a major political cause for Blair's government. In August he suggested that the state should intervene early to stop children of problem families growing up into troublemakers.

The IPPR said that 1.5 million Britons now thought about moving away from the area they lived in because of "young people hanging around". It said 1.7 million people avoided going out after dark because of their worries about antisocial behaviour which the vast majority blamed on a "lack of discipline".

Pearce said in the past adults in local communities had kept an eye on children's behaviour but now were too worried about the consequences.

The 200-page IPPR report said only 34 per cent of Britons would stop children from vandalising a bus shelter compared with 65 per cent of Germans, 52 per cent of Spaniards and 50 per cent of Italians.

"These days, adults tend to turn a blind eye or cross over on the other side of the road rather than intervene in the discipline of another person's child, often because they fear they might be attacked," Pearce said. "A rise in paedophobia will make matters worse."

 

the problem is a little more complex

the problem is probably way too politically incorrect for me to debate

i myself left britain about 11 years ago because the nation had slipped into a first world economy and third world society. i now live in australia and unfortunately see the same problems occurring here. i realised a while ago that educating people about the collapse of civillisation was a waste of my time, people mostly react in real time to events as they unfold, trying to explain to them what things will be like in ten years time is a concept lost on them. as for myself i simply ride the bow wave of destruction not because i want to but because i am forced to by my political masters but whatever they do i am determined not to pay for their mistakes!

my only advice for good people in britain is to leave the place

 

Grrr it's all the chavs. Not a single one of my mates have ever done anything violent or damaged anything when we're out, but we're always getting started on by chavs and keep seeing lots of crime and shit. Damn annoying

 

not sure what/who chavs are??

 

Everything is so bloody politically correct now in Britain, guarding ones tongue has become the norm. I've heard parents plead with their kids to do something...and I'm not talking teenagers here...little kids not yet at school, parents seem afraid of them. Now it's a case of "if you even dare look at us wrongly we'll report you to Social Services". Hah! had my kids ever threatened me with that I'd have dialled the number for them, then see where they were better off.

As kids, if we misbehaved, we fully expected a clip round the earhole from our neighbourhood cop and that was the end of it, next time we'd know better. Now it's a cradle to grave thing, wrapping in cottonwool and "we know our rights", and it isn't only the young, some older people are equally as bad.
I will step in in certain circumstances, but I'm careful because the "victim" once turned on me. Chavs, yeah, enough said.

 

Bring back national service.

 

we have certainly entered an era of 'must be seen to be doing the right thing' politics although t doesnt work as it constrains and is too narrow a concept.
The youth run wild cos its there culture and they know the police work to a budget and when the law has used that up during the month they leave the streets free for gangs to roam and cause havoc.
aaaaagggghhhh its an orwelian fantasy come true!!!

 

Must work real good for the outlaw youth in Britain specially when they know most people dont have and are not allowed to keep any guns at home .

 

it also seems (from what i notice) that the neighborhoods that can afford it (i.e. have more expensive housing primarily, older residents, etc) get alot more police attention than the areas that really need it like around council housing estates. my in-laws live in a fairly quiet community, there aren't muggings, there aren't b&e's, ONE time this past year, some little old lady had her car stolen from her as she was trying to get in. However, in that community the police walk the streets in the afternoon, ride up and down by bike in the mornings, and patrol at night.

In contrast, my hubby and I live in a decent area, but there are two council housing estates on either side of us (within less than a 5 minute walk). This area has a lot of theft (i've had two cars stolen this year - by teenagers no less), a lot of muggings, a lot of reported b&e's, and just a lot of yob hooliganism in general. However, I NEVER see police patroling the area we live in. Maybe once a week you might see a squad car. Of course, we hear the ghetto-bird out nearly every other night looking for someone; but there seems to be NO preventative action to stop the crimes from being committed in the first place, just the action to try to catch the criminals after mayhem has been wrought.
The last car I had stolen, by the way, occurred less than two months ago. It happened at 10:10 at night, and we'd only been home for 20 minutes. My husband saw the kids drive off in the car, and we called old bill IMMEDIATELY. They sent squad cars out, and got the ghetto-bird whirling in the air, and though the boys that nicked the car dumped it in a field only 8 mintues away from our flat, and then set it ablaze, they STILL never caught the kids. And there were eyewitnesses and everything. It just really boggles my mind.

 

Duh, yeah lets all get guns and kill people that'll solve the problems, lmfao.

 

britain is run on managed chaos theory

the owners of the country never have to deal with the multitude of problems they have created by a multitude of different ways. they simply don't live where these problems occur, and protect themselves with the law and various private security firms that have proliferated under the guidance of our illustrious leaders. go back 2-3 hundred years and these same leaders would have been tried for public mischief and high treason.

the problem for britain came when the merchant class of the country decided that they were going to take over. a merchant class has no allegiance to anyone or anything except money and their own interests. you will never read this or watch this opinion on television.

the greatest enemy to the merchants in control in britain is the love of knowledge and a contextual understanding of history. beer is the friend of the merchant class, as long as it continues to be flushed down the throat of your average brit the longer the country slips into decline in the hands of the idiot.

fortunately for me such speculations remain largely academic these days as i no longer live in the situation and have the good fortune of knowing when i am being lied to.

 

no better let them mug you and kill you right.

 

Erm well at least most aren't carrying guns now.. make guns legal and we'd all be dead

 

criminals well good luck .

 

Author(s):
Gary Mauser, Professor, Simon Fraser University
Email: mauser@sfu.ca
Telephone: (604) 291-3652


Executive Summary: Widely televised firearm murders in many countries during the 20th Century have spurred politicians to introduce restrictive gun laws. The politicians then promise that the new restrictions will reduce criminal violence and "create a safer society." It is time to pause and ask if gun laws actually do reduce criminal violence.

Gun laws must be demonstrated to cut violent crime or gun control is no more than a hollow promise. What makes gun control so compelling for many is the belief that violent crime is driven by the availability of guns and, more importantly, that criminal violence in general may be reduced by limiting access to firearms.

In this study, the author examines crime trends in Commonwealth countries that have recently introduced firearm regulations: i.e., Great Britain, Australia, and Canada. The widely ignored key to evaluating firearm regulations is to examine trends in total violent crime, not just firearms crime. Since firearms are only a small fraction of criminal violence, the public would not be safer if the new law could reduce firearm violence but had no effect on total criminal violence.

The United States provides a valuable point of comparison for assessing crime rates because the criminal justice system there differs so drastically from those in Europe and the Commonwealth. Not only are criminal penalties typically more severe in the United States, often much more severe, but also conviction and incarceration rates are usually much higer. Perhaps the most striking difference is that qualified citizens in the United States can carry concealed handguns for self-defence. During the past few decades, more than 25 states in the United States passed laws allowing responsible citizens to carry concealed handguns. In 2003, there are 35 states where citizens can get such a permit.

The upshot is that violent crime rates, and homicide rates in particular, have been falling in the United States. The drop in the American crime rate is even more impressive when compared with the rest of the world.

 

Well i refuse to have anything to do with guns, even if they were legal i wouldn't carry one. But the thought of a chav carrying a gun doesn't look pretty.

 

BOO!

Heh Heh, But seriously.

People all think ALL young people want trouble, when it's only a few bands of chavs. It seems like people are clumpling young people together as chavs. Therefor, people expect trouble.

 

wow .. please let's not get guns in England. It's so nice in England to sit on the balcony and listen at night and hear NOTHING ... except maybe an occasional car alarm or firework. Whereas in the are of NY I was from, you could sit outside and you'd hear gunshots in the distance EVERY night.

to think guns solve problems is extremely illogical. and the thought of a gun in the hand of a chav would scare the shit out of me ... it'd be worse than South L.A. in the 80's!

 

When I were a boy we used to get a helping of thick ear for lunch dinner and tea and be grateful forut!