BRG wrote:

Best yob repelent though would be to lock up all the do-gooders and revert
back to the old fashioned discipline that parents, school teachers, police
and neighbours used to be able to instill without fear of recrimination.

In this case we're talking, largely, about parents who do not know, or
do not care, what their kids are doing. The first problem is easier to
fix; the police need to catch a few of them and take them home, and
their parents will sort them out. The second problem is harder, because
the parents do not give a ****; in fact they're giving the kids a tenner
for drink to get them out of the house. In which case there is, of
course, an argument to get the kids taken into care.

And yes, innocent teenagers and small babies do come past the house, so
I would not want a device blaring away all the time, only when there is
a problem. Actually I think the majority of people (overall) in this age
group are generally decent, however peer pressure is a big deal. In a
group of 20 misbehaving 14 year olds, you'll find that there's one or
two bad eggs (who love trouble and don't care about the cops or anything
else, and do it for the attention and "respect" they get), and the rest
of them all feel that they can carry on the same way when they're there.
As soon as they are shown that they are in the wrong, perhaps by being
taken home to their parents, or spending a few hours in a cell, they'll
soon stop.

To me the big problem is the police. Not necessarily the officers
themselves, but the circumstances they have to work in. They're
reluctant to move in and start lifting people when there's trouble,
preferring a weird policy of trying to win hearts and minds instead. I
would not mind this if it actually worked. Then you've paper work,
police resources, and time and so on. I reckon that a lot of the cops
start out wanting to take action, but find themselves slowed down or
frustrated by the legal system they're operating within.

And I'm *NOT* advocating pure physical abuse that leaves huge welts, bruises
etc, or the young child a physical or mental wreck -- before the aforsaid
do-gooders throw their inane comments about how children should be left to
run riot because giving them a well deserved clip on their bums or legs
degrades *their* human rights!!

I am inclined to agree with this to an extent. I don't think physical
violence is necessary, but the point needs to get across that what
they're doing is wrong and won't be tolerated. I'm sure that if parents
were held legally liable for problems caused by their kids, to the point
of punitive fines being levied, you'd start getting somewhere.

It seems to me - perhaps I'm completely wrong - that we only have this
sort of chav culture in the UK and Ireland. I have never seen or heard
anything equivalent to it elsewhere in Europe. Am I wrong - is this a
general problem everywhere, or something specific to here ?