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This article is taken from The Straits Times 27/08/2007, and it is about the rising number of crimes committed by teens in Britain, who show little care for human life. There were even cases where teens as young as 13 are being suspected, and this is proof of a rapid erosion of social morality in that culture.

Statistics also show that 40% of crime is committed by teenagers, and I find this rather shocking as it indicates that this current generation of teenagers have very little respect for human life. It has gotten to the point where citizens are afraid to go out at night out of fear of being yet another victim of violent teen crime.
This problem is largely attributed to a combination of a lenient judicial system, children from broken families, or a combination of both. This merely shows that there are major social problems, with drug and alcohol abuse also a large concern.

I find it disturbing that teens my age are behaving in this manner. In my opinion, they should be cracked down on. The authorities should send out a strong message, as the main reason teens act in this rowdy manner is that they hold the police in such contempt. If the law was to crack down harder on them, they would then fall in order.

However, we have to go beyond the surface and discover the underlying problem, and then seek to address it. This fact has already been stated by Mr Norman Brennan, director of non-profit organisation Victims of Crime Trust. "It's at a peak now. If nothing is done, we'll be at the point of no return." it is necessary that the situation is dealt with urgently, as these youth are going to be the future of Britain.

As mentioned earlier, many teens simply do not have the luxury of having kind and caring parents, or coming from a privileged background. I feel that more emphasis should then be placed on what the children learn at school. This could be through having civics and moral education like they do in Singapore.

Amidst all this furore, what many people often forget is that teenagers too are people, who often feel wronged, and so proceed to vent their anger on others. This does not apply to all, as there are some who subscribe to horde mentality, and will do things with a crowd they would not normally do alone.

It my opinion then, that these children should be taught from young moral values et al. There should also be more counselling services made available in some of these areas, and hopefully this will ensure that teenagers are well grounded morally, and thus reduce the amount of teen violence.