The Institute for Public Policy Research found that of Europeans, Britons would be the least likely to step in if they saw a group of 14-year-old boys vandalising a bus shelter. Only 34 per cent said they would intervene, compared with 65 per cent of Germans, 52 per cent of Spanish and 50 per cent of Italians. Those who said that they would turn a blind eye feared being attacked or verbally abused.

Its report, Freedom’s Orphans: Raising Youth in a Changing World, said that lack of adult supervision was a key cause of youth crime and recommended forcing teenagers to take part in after-school activities. Parents who did not ensure that secondary school children took part in at least two hours of such activities a week should be fined, it said.

Researchers compared the lives of thousands of children and discovered that young people who participated in structured after-school activities, such as sport, drama or outdoor groups, were less likely to get into trouble.

Nick Pearce, the director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), which issued the 200-page report, said: “In the past, parents tended to look out for children in a community, deciding what behaviour was appropriate, how it should be dealt with and supporting each other in doing so. In closer-knit communities, adults supervised their neighbours’ children.

“These days, adults tend to turn a blind eye or cross the road rather than intervene in the discipline of another person’s child, often because they fear they might be attacked.”

The report also shows that last year more than 1.5 million Britons thought about moving house and 1.7 million avoided going out after dark because of loitering young people.

Last year, Britons were three times more likely to cite young people on the streets as a problem than they were to complain about noisy neighbours, up from 1.75 times in 1992.

Britons are more likely than other Europeans to say that young people are predominantly responsible for antisocial behaviour and are also more likely to cite “lack of discipline” as the root cause: 79 per cent of Britons thought poor parenting was responsible for antisocial behaviour, compared with 69 per cent of Spaniards, 62 per cent of Italians and 58 per cent of French.

Thirty-nine per cent of Britons who would refuse to intervene if a group of teenagers were vandalising a bus stop said they feared they would be physically attacked, 14 per cent thought they might be targeted for reprisals and 12 per cent feared being verbally abused.

According to research, only one in four young people has access to “structured” youth activities.

There are 11,095 youth clubs in England providing for 1.2 million children aged 11-16 but 4.6 million youngsters in that age group in England.

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