Last updated 11:44, Thursday, 28 August 2008

EX Youth Justice Board chairman Prof Rod Morgan says too many young people are being criminalised with police cautions and on-the-spot fines for trivial offences.

There is certainly some cause for concern about the way lesser crimes are recorded and dealt with by the police, who are under pressure from box ticking bureaucrats.

Are we being too hard on vandals and graffiti kids? Actually I would argue we have been far too soft.

Out of little offences bigger crimes often grow. By treating these supposedly minor offences as trivial it sends out the message that really it doesn’t matter that much if you take a marker pen to the bus shelter or rip up a few flowers in the park.

In general I think the police do deal tolerantly with young nuisance offenders, pouring illicit booze down drains and taking them home to parents who, in many instances, don’t give a damn.

So kids think it’s okay to vandalise their own towns and villages. To smash up their own back yards. They clearly have no respect for anything. And where do they get these attitudes from?

I think we need a tougher line with unruly kids – and an even tougher sanction on parents who must know their offspring are drinking and up to no good and either turn a blind eye or tacitly encourage it.