Jacqui Smith ought to know better. The latest attempt
to criminalise young people by "framing and shaming" them and
"filming and repeatedly stopping identified persistent offenders on
problem estates" owes more to the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
than it does to evidence based practice.
| Left to right: |
| The Child Catcher of Vulgaria, Jacqui Smith |
There have been a whole series of measures over the
past 10 or 11 years that have introduced Anti Social Behaviour Orders,
Acceptable Behaviour Agreements, Dispersal Orders, Public Order Offences and
such like. But what are the real reasons that "Youth Disorder" takes
place and what works?
The vast majority of anti social behaviour is very low
level and more than anything else reflects the fact that young people in many
areas are bored witless and have nowhere to go and very little to do with their
time. Why’s that? Because in many cases they are either out of work or under-occupied
in underfunded training schemes.
In the "good old days" when "everyone
knew their place" of course young people were always "seen but not
heard" and "given a clip round the ear by the local bobby" if
they were caught "scrumping apples" as Enid Blyton might say.
Everyone was "safe to walk the streets" and "you could leave
your door open".
And yet the reality is somewhat different:
"The whole City, My Lord is alarmed and uneasy … The
Citizens are no longer secure within their own walls, or safe even in passing
their streets, but are robbed insulted and abused." Daniel Defoe, address to the Lord Mayor of London 1730
"Children who have been brought up within these thirty
years, have nothing like the same reverence or submission to their parents…
This is the chief factor in the increase in crime." E Irving “The Last Days”: A discourse on the Evil Character
of these our Times 1828
"The Morals of our children are tenfold worse than
normally" Lord Ashley (1843)
"Insubordination to parental authority, leading to
insubordination to all authority is … very general." H. Worsley: Juvenile Depravity 1849
In
fact it’s probably been the case that
young people have fallen out with adult society for millennia. In fact even
when Adam and Eve were about there was violent youth crime. Cain slew Abel even
before the end of the book of Genesis!
Crime, particularly violent crime stalks the most downtrodden sections
of society, but in the main it’s crime within communities and often within
families. Domestic violence and drink related violence are serious issues that
impact massively on women and children in particular.
The increase in drug related crime, stabbings and shootings is alarming.
It’s not enough, either, to be complacent and say that really the figures are
getting better. The problem is that despite all the alleged joined up thinking
and positive activities aimed at young people that the government talks about,
thousands of young people are on the scrap heap. Drug use and alcohol misuse
are far more prevalent among unemployed young people than people in work. They
are sad attempts to blot out the daily grind and misery.
Youth Services are stretched and many drug and alcohol services rely on
charities to support young people. Vocational training provision is underfunded
and in many cases lacks imagination and variety. The school system works really
well for those who can cope with it, yet the people who can’t are seen as
problem children and in many cases are hived off into piecemeal alternative
education provision.
Tony Blair used to talk about being "tough on crime and tough on
the causes of crime". Yet there is very little evidence of the latter.
Essentially young people and the way they behave reflect the society they grow
up in and the opportunities available to them. For evidence of that you only
have to look at the collection of parasitic Hooray Henrys and Henriettas that
infest the posh bars and clubs in the West End. They reflect the opposite end
of society, but their decadence and waste show more than anything else the
sickness of their dying system.
A socialist society would invest massively in young people. Careers
Officers would have a great job, matching people up to real opportunities. For
thousands of young working class people that can’t come a day too soon. The
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang approach to young people inevitably leads to anger,
despair and ultimately to the blind explosions of anger that we saw in Brixton
and Toxteth in the 1980s and Meadow Well in the 1990s.
The Youth are the Future. Fight for Socialism!
