buffalobill90 said:
And I'm sure that if you had to spend more than a decade of your life in prison you would appreciate how hard it is.

hedkandi1984_21 said:
It's a pity life in the UK doesn't really mean life. They'll be out in 16-18 years. They should lock them up and throw away the key!!!!


link [news.bbc.co.uk]

thatscottishguy said:
yeah spending 18 years in your own room thats probably better than their own, playing playstation and not having to pay for rent or food is really going to be hard on them. i stand by my last post

666satan666 said:
Yes your all correct life SHOULD be life BUT .....

I've heard/listened to SO many Emo/GOth types who are intent on 'the world hates them, so
they are going to kill themselves' .....

666satan666 said:
Yes your all correct life SHOULD be life BUT .....

I've heard/listened to SO many Emo/GOth types who are intent on 'the world hates them, so they are going to kill themselves' .....

rockdave said:
well if their music wasnt so depressing they wouldnt have that stereotype

psy said:
My son is a goth and half of the time he can't walk down the street alone without getting hassled! He despises Chavs but on a positive note he's in a band and going to music college in a year or two, so at least he has a future unlike many chavs who settle for a life on benefits. Or should i say they do where i live anyway

buffalobill90 said:
And how often can 'chavs' walk down the street without being looked like they're scum? Or getting stopped by the police? Maybe if they weren't discriminated against so much, young people would be less quick to reject society's values and form their own culture.

Remember that a lot of criminals are also victims, of neglect, discrimination and poverty. They are a symptom these diseases which society refuses to treat, instead looking for a scapegoat.

psy said:
True but to be honest many of them bring it on themselves. Maybe if they didn't hang around outside shops all day bothering people or being a general pain in the arse then maybe society wouldn't discriminate against them. I agree a lot of criminals etc are victims of neglect, poverty and discrimination - but i was also a victim of neglect, abuse and poverty as a child but didn't feel the need to go out and terrorize the local neighbourhood! or pick on people who dressed differently to myself.

We all know the difference between right and wrong and there's only so long you can blame your circumstances or past for your behaviour. It jusn't doesn't wash with me i'm afraid! i've lived amongst it for years in one of the worst areas of Leeds so i know what i'm talking about, thankfully a few months ago i was lucky enough to move to a nicer area where my son can be himself and visit the local shop without getting threatened etc. I will add though not "all" chavs should be tarred with the same brush as some of them are decent kids, but on the whole most do cause trouble in one form or another.

crazychica said:
Well for one thing, in many areas there's very little else to actually do at night, especially if you're under 18.

As well as that, most teen criminals are drawn in by the allure of "bad ass" friends but will have grown out of it by their 20s. There are some children, however, with an initial tendency to rule-breaking. If exposed to poverty, neglect or bad parenting, this tendency grows as they get older and they do not grow out of it. So we have two problems, poverty and bad parenting mixed with a mentality that law-breakers are cool. As I've said before, these kids were probably crowd-followers who didn't really stop to think, they just did it and yes it's wrong and yes it does bring down the area but if society would sort out these problems, they wouldn't be such a problem. I'm going to put a Grafton quote in here "People who are content don't commit crimes."

Quote:
Combining the Dunedin data with other longitudinal studies, Moffit found that both boys and girl who went on to become "lifelong" ctiminals were likely to have shown some kind of early-onset neurological impairment or difficult temperament early in life - as young as 3 years of age. These children tended to have low IQ, poor language skills and especially a diagnosis of ADHD. These problems are more common in boys than in girls, as is teen crime in general. This is also true of conduct disorder - a psychiatric disorder characterised by violence, cruelty to people and animals, and a tendency to break the rules.

Quote:
These children, Moffit says, have biological predispositions to behavior problems which - if paired with the harsh enviroment of bad parenting, poverty or abuse - puts them at high risk of becoming lifelong violent criminals.

crazychica said:
Then maybe society should care. Not all kids who're hanging around are going to terrorise people, so stop buying into the media hype. Bad news sells so they print bad news. It's not a lack of morals or discipline that's the problem, the problem is that, since WW2 ended, it's become "cooler and cooler" to have bada** friends. How do you do that? By committing petty crime, of course.

Now, here's the much bigger problem


So it's not an excuse. These kids gather others around them and encourage those others to do as they do. If they were taken care of properly, crime in general would not be such a problem.

Stuff I quoted is from New Scientist, Vol 198, No 2651, p 39.