who's to blame for the gangs of youths hanging about on the streets?

Question

I know its not pleasant to walk past them and I know they commit minor crimes and vandalism, but instead of policing them shouldn't something be done about their parents who don't care if their kids are walking the streets at night, or shouldn't we set up youth centres for them so they've got somewhere to hang around?

SAR13 - sorry if I didnt make myself clear - I'm not talking about the ones playing football - I'm talking about the ones smoking, drinking, trying to get people to buy them alcohol, and staying out til 11 at night at the age of 9 or 10

Answer 1

Well i hav 3 boys all impressionable ages where we lived its the norm 2 carry weapons dnt get me wrong the youths were all good mannered and respectful to anyone in our area but when it came to gangs and their issues it was different, having 3 boys i weren't about to sit back and wait for them to get involved. It was crazy but where i came from there was a big community respect we all looked out for each other, only a handful of parents who didn't give a s**t about their kids spoilt it for the rest of us. Parents and council governors are to blame, parents because there are certain ones who shouldn't have even had kids and cant control them and the councils because there's never enough funding for projects to stop them being bored. Gone are the days where kids could walk the street with their mates and get in little bits a trouble like we used to, now they cant go here or there in case there stabbed. Society is really hard for kids these days in general. The parents have to spend more money on keeping them in the house to stop them being bored, there's only so much time they wanna spend wit their parents!!! Councils are now having to spend government funding on probation and youth offending scheme's cause they wouldn't shell out the money in the first place on trying to stop them being bored, one thing leads to another bored at the age of 13 is totally diff to being bored at 18 diff circumstances to deal with and diff attitudes start to reveal themselves, you start hanging about with diff people and sometimes its hard to leave the crowd u were with from 13 when u dont want to be left out and their starting to do really bad things, where do you go? I moved my kids to another country where we live is about 10 yrs behind England and by the time their oldenough they won't have to deal with what pressures they would have been under where we lived.

Answer 2

Well, I'm personally blaming a fellow Scot. Can't remember her name, but her precious son was too good to be given six of the belt some long long years ago. She took the case to the European Court of Human Rights, the school belt was subsequently banned in Britain - oh, and now you can barely draw a dirty look at a child before you're up in court for alleged 'abuse'. Children have all the rights, and no responsibility. Parents are also to blame, because they do not seem to exercise any kind of control. Children should know three things before they start primary school: what is right, what is wrong - and what the difference is between the two.

Answer 3

It`s what happens when there is a breakdown in the role of the male and retard slags have loads of kids and throw them out the house so they can get brown babies. There is a simple answer to this problem stop rewarding people for doing the wrong thing i.e married couples jump housing que not single mums the effects of left wing policies are here to see by all. I am a realist so i understand what sounds nice is often bull poop I think parents should get heavy fines for there children behaving badly maybe then they would care what they were up to. I also agree tho that schools could be used maybe play dvd`s etc so instead of hanging on streets they have somewhere to go the cost of this would be met by the savings due to less crime and stopping future drug addicts. The trouble is bad parents don`t have great kids you may get the odd exception but retards breed retards

Answer 4

yes i agree - a short while ago we moved to a brand new development of houses priced from 120k up to 500k - it was all lovely until a family moved in with 6 kids - the parents were renting the house, and thankfully have now been booted out - when they moved into our street the crimewave went up 25%, the kids aged from 2 to 15 were not allowed in the house during the day AT ALL because their mother would be sleeping ,and the dad would scream and shout at them and throw things including the baby buggy at the kids if they came home before at least 8pm - usually 11pm so they would wonder round the area bored and hungry and then started their crimewave of vandalising the builders equipment and the baby play park as well as ripping wing mirrors of cars uprooting trees and all sorts including vandalism to some homes that were being built, emptying builders skips into the road, setting fire to the contents of the skips- the parents didnt give a sh**, even up to the point that the 3 older kids hadnt been to school for months and were carrying knives around with them - there is only so much the police can do - and if they can do anything its usually thrown out by CPS who decide the fate of a case not the police. eventually the residents here put up a fight and now they have gone suddenly everything is back to how it should be.

parents should be responsible for their children - and its down to them to know what the kids are up to instead of being lazy for the sake of a few hours peace and quiet at home, although it should be helped with communities pulling together to combat crime - and working together to make the areas better places to be. Police can only do so much, their hands are tied most of the time and the reoffenders know that. Teachers can only do what they can in school and its only when a victim retaliates in frustration that THEY end up the offender and the victim is the yob who sits laughing in the face of the law. SEND THEM TO BOOT CAMP - or make offenders join the army at the earliest opportunity, that would make them behave and change their ways

Nowadays in the UK there is the ASBO order and the dispertion order being brought in to many areas to combat youths all accumilating in large groups - it does work to a certain extent -providing the parents who's children have the asbo keep the children in tow

Answer 5

I don't believe for one second that the councils are doing enough to help support communities. After all the council tax we have to pay, and all the other stealth taxes (soon they'll be taxing our farts by the gallon) etc, how can they not provide any youth/teen clubs for the kids who end up standing around the streets? Why not open a place that is a safe club to hang out, with proper security (as far as enforcing who is in charge there) with pool tables, games rooms, library, etc, so I can send my future kids if they want to go out of n evening?

Alright, I can say that parents are also to blame but doesn't that come down to what after school activities and hobbies our children have? I went to ballet school twice a week as a teenager, plus gymnastics and I used to play squash (raquet ball) with my dad as well. We used to make use of our swimming pool, and do physical activities all the time.
I want my 2 year old son to be able to enjoy football, or whatever sport or hobby he chooses, and if he doesn't seem interested I will research until I find something that he will like - ie playing the guitar (for which he has already started on mine with...)

So it goes to show that with a little interest in your children, they will learn to have an interest in something worthwhile. We can avoid this by taking an active part in our childrens lives and teach them.

By letting them hang around in big groups on the streets, we have not got control of our children and this is why we have got into this problem. We have to help ourselves to erradicate this issue.

Youth centres are a very good idea. I'm all for them.

Answer 6

It´s a split responsibility. Of course parents should control their kids and not let them watch so much TV or play desensitizing games, or hang around in the streets with kids who are gonna teach them bad things.
But we mustn´t forget that the kids themselves are responsible for what they do. Nowadays there is a "if you´re under 18 you´ve got a right to do whatever you want"· approach to these issues.To a lesser extent, but they´re also to blame for the problems we have in our streets. If those kids were either at school or at church things would be completely different

Answer 7

A variety of reasons which require a variety of answers
Some of vthem are justb plain bored...we ought to have more YouthClubs, etc.
Some of thejm are following the crowd...theyt need better examples.
Yes, Parents should take more responsibility....if they were held responsible for the action of their too-yopung-to-charge offspring they would soon find that they could 'do something with them;' (and not in any violent sense.)
To some degree our whole society is guilty for its materialistic attitude.
The comment "There is no such thing as society" was a monstrous slur...and is still reverberating.
There would nbeed to be a whole varietry of youth centres. The old fashioned (1960's) Coffee bars would be a start, too

Answer 8

Parents do not spend enough time with their children and a lot of the time it is not really the parents' choice, but an economic necessity. Most gang members will tell you they joined because it is a family to them. I teach in a heavily gang-populated area. Most of the gang members I teach tell me they have no other way to make it. The gang is their family. "Dad" is in prison or out of the picture and "Mom" is working all the time to make ends meet. Somewhere along the line they lose touch with the family and the gang gladly takes them in.

Answer 9

I am a worker on a church bus that picks up kids that live in the ghetto, and these kids are good kids and I agree that we shouldnt just police them. They live hard lives and it was the same for there parents its a fight to stay alive and a hustle to make ends meet. I don't think there is much we can do, the streets are these kids homes and they don't trust just anybody.

Answer 10

What you on about kids have always hung about on the streets messing about and getting up to know good its what kids do,what do you want parents to lock them up in their rooms with nice books,we are a nation being fed on crap to avoid real issues.My 11year old son who was playing football on common ground was threatened with an asbo,lets pick on the kids of the working and lower payed classes because their easy targets.But nothing was done to the man who was taking pictures of him in a bedroom window which by the way is illegal.