feral youth

Increasing number of crimes made by youth has become difficult and concerning problem in Britain. And what the reasons for it? One of the main are drugs, alcohol and tobacco. They cause psychological problems and make youngt people be more aggressive and very impulsive. According to the Statistics, 'In 2001, about three fifths of boys and girls aged 11 to 15 reported that they had ever drunk alcohol, with around a quarter of both having had a drink in the last week.

A survey of young people in England in 2001 reported that a fifth of 11 to 15 year olds had taken illegal drugs in the previous year. Cannabis was the most commonly used drug, taken by 13 per cent of those surveyed.'

So as we can see the most popular age of trying new things is between 11 and 15. And even if these children tried alcohol and drugs once and they didn't like it, it is not the fact that they will not try it again. Another reason of rising crime among youth is poor parental supervision and low income in the family. Children from poor family where there is no enough money and where parents don't pay attention to their children are more likely to have a criminal careers in the future. Also parental conflicts and divorces might affect children's psyche. They observed physical and moral abuse in their families and would think that this is normal life and violence is permitted and these will be their way of life in the future. As it was written in the article: 'If Dad did put in an appearance, it was probably a disruptive and violent one.Dad was not there to provide security, order and love as he socialised his son into manhood. Dad imparted one lesson. If you want something - money, a woman, wheels - take it. Such an upbringing is guaranteed to ensure that its victim is full of rage and hate. When he was little, other people hit him. As he grows bigger, he hits them.'

And there a lot of such stories in different families! So To prevent crime one should look deeper to the problems, look at the causes of crime instead of doing his best to prevent it. "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime''. So what can be done to stop feral youth? In my opinion one of the main causes of crime among youth is also poor attainment at school and influence of media. So to reduce crimes something should be done with schools such as social skills trainings and trainings among teacher, organizing school activites, which will help children to understand norms of behaviour and think about the consequences of their actions. Also it is necessary to encourage parents to spend more time with their children, to look after them more careful and kindly. There are many different programs which are aimed to do that and help government in solving this problem.One of them is for example 'Youth Crime Action Plan'. Some of it's actions are:

• We have improved victim and community
  involvement in the youth justice system.
  There has been pioneering use of
  restorative justice and reparation. During
  2006-7 17,728 victims participated in
  restorative processes and 97% of the
  participating victims reported satisfaction.

• We have worked with the third sector to
  increase their involvement in delivering
  effective programmes for young offenders
  and providing them with support during
  the sentencing process. For instance we
  have set up agreements with the Prince’s
  Trust for employment and training
  opportunities, with the YMCA for
  accommodation and with Clubs for Young
  People for activities.

There are some others plan which aimed to do work at schools ('Connexions')

And all these programs really help to solve the problem of feral youth. I think we should all be concerned with that problem and try to help young generation to solve their problems and cope with difficulties in their families.