• Question: 12% of britains crimes are commited by young people, and people become scared of us... but the other 88% of crimes that are committed are commited by adults, do you think its fair people think badly of teens when in reality we should be scared of them?

    Asked by ilovespacemonkeys to Gioia, Iain, Jo, Leo, Mariam on 23 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mariam Orme

      Mariam Orme answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      That’s a fantastic point! You’re absolutely right, with those statistics we should be worrying much more about adults than about teenagers!

    • Photo: Leo Garcia

      Leo Garcia answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      You make a good point – and it is often the case that adults will look for a group of people to treat as scapegoats – despite the evidence. The best advice I can give is for teenagers to always try to act in a well-behaved, considerate and respectful manner when they are around people who might have a negative opinion about them, based on stereotyping. Acting in a way which completely destroys the stereotype is a great way to change people’s minds!

    • Photo: Gioia Cherubini

      Gioia Cherubini answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      That’s an absolutely good point. I think that adults are more scared of children than themselves, because it was a long time ago when they were children and they have forgotten how they were. This means that they can’t understand the kids of today anymore 🙁
      …notice that I don’t consider myself an adult yet!

    • Photo: Joanna Watson

      Joanna Watson answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      I really don’t think it’s fair that teenagers get so much of the blame for crimes and bad things in society. There are some bad young people and they can be quite scary when they are in big groups, but for every bad young person there are loads of polite kind young people who volunteer for charities and do AMAZING things.

      Part of the problem is that as we get older, some people forget what it was like to be young and don’t understand why young people behave the way they do. If more adults made an effort to get to know young people and how great they can be (through things like I’m a Scientist maybe?) then it would be a lot better.

    • Photo: Iain Moal

      Iain Moal answered on 23 Jun 2010:

      No, it isn’t fair, and I recon the publics opinions don’t reflect the truth. I think the media has to take some of the blame for it too. I’ve felt the brunt of it in the past too. I remember going into a kitchen supplies shop to buy an oven thermometer, maybe 5 years ago. The old lady behind the counter took one look at me and her eyes opened wide with fear: teenagers aren’t know for caring about oven temperature, so I must have some sort of EVIL PLAN to rob the place or something! She was shaking when she handed over my change. Then there was the times when I went to the local co-op near my school, and the security guard would stare at me from the end of the isle. Add to that the number of times I was stopped by the police in my car when I was under 20.

      The way youths are treated with suspicion sometimes, I’m wouldn’t be surprised if some young people think ‘well, this is how society expects me to act, so I will’.

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