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“If you'd been in the Spar supermarket in London's Piccadilly just before midnight on Saturday eight days ago, you'd have seen a gang of some 17 boys aged between 13 and 16 walk in, steal what they wanted and begin to walk out - with nobody saying a thing. Only one eyewitness, a 21-year-old student, challenged them; how could they do this? What were they thinking? What was their morality? And got pelted with food for her pains.

A few minutes later she caught a bus. Eight of the same group got on - and took a mobile from a man and a handbag from a woman as part of a whirlwind robbery before jumping back off. Again, she says, nobody said anything or tried to prevent them. Or made eye contact. Silence ruled. Only her boyfriend went to report the crime to the driver.

Grant (she wrote to The Observer and I've talked to her) is outraged as much at the collective silence as she is at the behaviour of the boys. 'Sitting there quiet and not being involved may keep you out of trouble,' she protests, 'but what have you done for society and your next-door neighbour, besides allowing a situation to progress and people to walk all over you, your courage and pride?'

The echoes of Richard Whelan's stabbing on a north London bus, and subsequent bleeding to death with only a couple of passengers attempting to help, are all too vivid. You don't want to get involved; the potential dangers are too great and the rewards too paltry. But, while each individual's decision may be rational, the collective consequence of our silence is a vacuum encouraging the disaffected to become ever more lawless.”

Will Hutton, The Observer, Sunday January 15, 2006

Most of us don’t want to stand by

Most of us don’t want to stand by when someone is in difficulty or when we see a group of youths vandalising a bus shelter. But partly through fear and partly because of the anxiety that any intervention may make the situation worse or may even be unlawful, the public are now reluctant to get involved even in low level disorder.

To do nothing is so damaging not only because of the message it sends to our young people; just as damaging is the effect our impotence has on our self confidence as citizens and our own sense of worth.

British people the least confident about responding to antisocial behaviour

A recent survey conducted across 6 European countries commissioned by ADT Europe working with the Jill Dando Institute of Crime Science at University College, London, confirms that antisocial behaviour is perceived as a growing problem in Great Britain, France and Germany with Britain and France perceived as having the biggest problem. 80% of respondents across Europe say antisocial behaviour is an issue for them. 48% say they would not challenge a group of 14 year old boys vandalising a bus shelter and only 14% say they would feel confident about challenging them. British respondents were the least confident with 62% saying they would probably not or definitely not intervene. 87% of respondents in Britain consider parents are responsible for controlling antisocial behaviour, 76% consider the police responsible with only 30% seeing this as a community responsibility. Professor Gloria Laycock, Director of the Jill Dando Institute, commenting on the findings of this research observes “Given that there is a general consensus that the better way to deal with (low level) crime and disorder is through social control rather than the criminal justice system, there is a pressing need for further work to follow up this result.”