The problems with the yob society (Harton Moor, South Shields included)
“Family values” are not the magic cure on their own.
David Cameron makes much noise these days about strengthening the cohesiveness of the family unit, bemoaning the lack of a father figure in many families, and talks of social breakdown. There is of course a modicum of truth in his analysis, but as I have often commented it is easy to crticise when in opposition but much harder to propose alternative acceptable policies.
A multi-agency approach to the “yob culture” has an important role to play, but by far the largest contributor to the education of our youngsters in respect of obeying our laws, is the realisation that there are consequences to pay for transgressing the acceptable behaviour standards that the rest of us wish to apply. The increasing use of ASBO’s appears to be achieving little in the war against graffitti, bullying, noise pollution, drug taking, gang culture, petty vandalism, assaults, shoplifting, and a myriad of other small time crimes that set the youth on a path of lawlessness. Similarly the introduction of thousands of Community Support Officers by police forces in the UK is also looking like an ineffective tool:
“Figures have revealed that community support officers are solving just one crime every six years.
There are now nearly 14,000 PCSOs nationwide but in the West Midlands, which has 644 officers, Northumbria, which has 248, and Nottinghamshire (217) they had failed to detect a single offence in the past year.
The Home Office said detecting crime and handing out penalty notices were not the officers’ prime functions.”
So just what, exactly is their worth and value within the bigger picture of fighting crime? Where we call for greater numbers of police constables patrolling the streets of our estates we end up with 16 and 17 year old PCSO’s (in the Midlands) who have hardly achieved the necessary levels of “life experience” to be able to deal with a toddler throwing away it’s lolly stick!
Traditional family and social values will never be reinforced if we cannot enforce and police the standards that we wish to achieve, neither will the “message” be imbued into errant youngsters if we keep handing out ASBO’s like badges and fail to back up breaches of orders with any meaningful strength.
I carry on calling for short sharp rigorous six month prison sentences in tough regime units as a first rather than a last resort, for those who fail to abide by our reasonable attempts to get them to obey the law. Punishment and rehabilitation must go hand in hand, and the six months hard time in prison would be followed by a further twelve month probationary period of instruction and learning and community based reparations, on a strictly compulsory basis, which would require a return to prison for a further six months in the event of a breach.
Parents too ought to feel some real effects of their children’s crimes, if the idea is to make families cohesive, then they must face up to their responsibilities together. Some form of payment to society by the parents of those lawbreakers under the age of sixteen may help them to understand what responsibility and discipline in the home environment really amounts to.
With these two more robust measures in place we wouldn’t need to see borough councillors in places like Harton Moor, South Shields, appealing to the residents for help in gathering evidence against the yobs, and toiling to bring peace to troubled streets. The newer schools that the borough will see in the near future, alongside the promised improved and rebuilt leisure facilities will demonstrate that local politicians have a vested interest in “providing ” for the moral and social needs of our youngsters, but it has to be accepted that the role of politicians in these areas must be limited. Essentially this provision ought to come from parents. I’m sure that David Cameron is aware of this too.
