[Margaret Pilkington]

OK...here are some answers for Eric......who thinks that we have all tossed our common sense and intellect out of the window and cites examples of punishment from the U.S.

The Youth Conditional Cautions bill was made law after the third unopposed reading in the Houses of Parliament.......it was part of the criminal Justice and Immigration Bill(schedule 9, section 48 for anyone who wants to check that what I am saying is true)

According to the report which I have read there were, last year,6,500 house burglaries and 6,300 robberies commited by the under 18's age group (the group which will be affected by this bill)......there were also 47,000 cases of theft and handling of stolen goods in this age group.......and these are the figures from the Home Office.
i do not know if this is a percentage rise in this kind of crime by this group of society.......the Home Office are not the most reliable in providing figures for crime.
(they recently provided figures regarding the incidence of knife crime, which when compared with the figures that the NHS provided, outlining the treatment of stab wounds, were underestimated by a large amount......maybe it was Stab a Friend week)

Another reason to suspect the veracity of Home Office figures is, they constantly change the way that the statistics are collected.

So Eric, perhaps my answer is only half an answer after all.

We have had over a decade of soft sentences for all crimes...not just those committed by feral youth....and although I can't provide you with the statistics that would satisfy you...my perception from reading the newspapers(local and national) is that crime is on the up.

Having ditched my common sense and intellect(as you delicately put it) I do not have the answer to the problem, but I am pretty sure that if your 82 year old mother had been mugged and robbed in her own home, you would find it a bit of an insult to have the juvenile perpetrator turn up to offer an apology......and offer to do a bit of painting for her. I think you would want him locked up...but hey maybe I am wrong.