Nine is too old to be in the nursery. At primary school it was very noticeable that attitudes changed almost the instant we moved from class 3 (6-7) to class 4 (7-8). Children who had previously co-operated happily with teacher now resented having to be there.

Malcolm McLean, Bradford, UK

Let's see... raise children in father-less homes, put them through "state" schools, never attend church, provide bureaucratic government "support" programs and when the inevitable budget crunch comes, cancel the sports teams first. Yup this kind of thinking is spot on! Give me a break. The socialists are out of control.

Nick, Woodbridge, Virginia, USA

A clinically depressed, dysfunctional society in terminal meltdown. The descent into tribalism is becoming all too obvious. Your problems are now almost unsolvable within the democratic structure, certainly with NuLabour as government. This report simply reminds me of the reasons I emigrated some 35 years ago. I spent 10 years (1993-03) in UK, looked back for the election in 2005, and this allowed me to make the comparison. Clearly the situation has deteriorated significantly since. And with the Brown government front-runner to win the next General Election, there really seems no reason to remain in UK if you can generate other options. There just needs one risk-taker in a family to change direction for generations.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Nagano

The boys in the Bullington Club had male role models yet it didn't stop them from acting like yobs. Go to Prague or Dublin on any weekend and see how 'middle class' males behave, but watch out for the vomit.

Dave B, york, n yorks

If only teenage boys had role model fathers. Sadly many are emulating learned anger. aggression and depression from the generation before them.

My 14 yr old son is truly smart, courageous and blessed with leadership qualities. But he has been excluded several times despite close supervision by me and his father. He behaves well at home, we don't let him run the streets, he plays rugby.

But school is a confusing, often woolly place which dampens his attributes, and panders to gangs which terrorise ordinary kids who are caught between trying to behave, and feeling scared that they will be seen as geeks if they don't dispay yobbish behaviour. I am in favour of punishment to fit the crime, but there is a marked reluctance to take action. There is not enough sport, there are not enough role model male teachers.
Scratch the surface and examine the culture of boys aged 13-18 in this country-there is a startling picture, which includes violence, under achievement and so many drugs.

Dee, brighton, England

Perhaps the people who have children, ( I won't call them parents because they are not) should be forced to take responsibility for what they so easily produce but discard the minute they become a challenge. As for Teaching staff...completely forget it. These people are well paid for doing little; diiscipline is a thing of the past, besides which, teachers are there to educate, not correct society's ills. Male or female teachers have a different effect on male and female children. I worked with a male teacher of 6 year olds, who had the little girls soiling themselves and white with fear. He damaged the girls as much as he benefited the boys. He had to be moved. Male teachers should not be with young children, they are not the most sensitive of creatures. 9 and 10 year olds are a different matter. Perhaps if boys see no decent role models at home a male teacher as they get older may not be a bad idea. Parental bullying accounts for a lot too. Children copy their parents.

Judy , Liverpool, england

Teenage males have always required special training, discipline, whatever you want to call it and across all cultures.
AThis is no secret, no startling news from the antropological viewpoint. If their adolescent energy is not channeled and directed, the results are often diasterous; gangs, gang killings, killing of animals,(e.g. senseless and remorseless killing fo farm animals in Northern California).

Male energy can be noble or dross and destructive. It just depends on the values and disciplined instilled

S.Stone, Marina del Rey, CA USA

I'm shocked that the very first comment suggests that the government forbid private education and force all parents to send their children to the same miserable, broken system, as if a few good parents can turn around an entire society. Why punish good parents?

Yes, boys need role models and authority, which they should get from their fathers. However, the number of boys growing up without fathers is higher than ever. Why don't fathers stick around?

Why should they? The government has replaced the father as provider of food, housing, etc. A father is now "free" to abandon his family knowing that the family won't starve or freeze. Like boys, fathers face no responsibilities or moral authority.

When will the government say, "Fathers, it is YOUR responsibility to provide for your family, not ours." Never. Until then dads will be free to abandon the family and boys will grow up fatherless.

We have replaced fathers with socialism, and now we pay the price.

John, Atlanta, USA

You don't have to agree, John Prior. You live in Norfolk. I've lived all over the world including many years in London. You also need to form your opinions with the aid of hard science rather than sociology

Andrew Edwards, I know many people who didn't pay a penny for their degrees owning to their straitened circumstances. I have also known many foreign students in the UK who came from real poverty - as opposed to the relative poverty of the UK - and who worked, payed their fees, their rent etc. studied and got their degrees. It was they who gave me the contempt I have for those layabout UK students who between bouts in the pub spent their time protesting everything and anything.

We need to stop confusing reasons with excuses. There are too many people with influence open to and, in consequence, being duped by, the excuses of the feeble minded and the manipulative. Stop listening and they will stop making them and, perhaps, turn their lives around.

Lawrence, Liverpool, England

I think you put your finger on it early in the article when you say their is no discipline in the home, school or street. But why?

Is there any correlation between the marginalisation of men over 2 decades and the indiscipline of teenage boys today? In the past men would chastise boys who were running amok on trains or buses, now most of us turn away.

Boys are also growing up feeling unloved as many fathers and virtually all teachers avoid physical contact for obvious reasons.

As a society we have cotton balled an entire generation of kids as society has been engulfed by fear which has been fanned and fueled by politicians, police and press to suit their own agendas. We are now suffering the consequences.

The new leader of the Labour party in Holyrood today has called for an end to this cotton balling. I don't know if she realises it yet but to do that we must reverse the fear campaign and allow parents to feel it is safe for their kids to take to the streets again.

Brian Hill, London, UK

Boys are pack animals, we all are. We join groups be they political parties, work, sports clubs etc etc. Male teen pack behaviour is stronger than most and needs to be led. If "good" (ie prosocial) leaders, scouts, teachers etc, don't take command of the gang then the bad leaders will. Drug gangs give kids responsible tasks and the opportunity to gain status by knifing people. Currently "good" society herds kids around on street corners and tells them they're a nuisance.

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England

Excellent article! I realize that there is much criticism of the old British public school discipline system, but the fact remains that it for the most part seems to have produced educated, committed, respectful, patriotic men who behaved admirably throughout their lives to each other, to women, and to society at large. In the US as well, the majority of men educated up until about the mid-20th century can read and spell, have reasonable values, and can generally be counted upon to be reasonable citizens. All schools should bring back classroom disclipline (with corporal punishment if necessary to enforce it), encourage the raising of sights, provide plenty of sports (get them tired every day), and reintroduce Latin, Greek, and the memorization of poetry (help the growing brain to develop order and structure).

Jeanne, Paris, France

I am a male prep school teacher and former public school housemaster. A school must have shared values and an all pervasive ethos. Some years back state school teachers in part of England refused to use the sex education pack provided because it held up marriage as the ideal. The teachers said they were afraid of offending pupils whose parents were not married!!! Those are probably the pupils who know best how difficult it is to have a mother who plays two or three roles on her own -- and try as she may, cannot become a male role model for her sons! As a society we have to drum in the understanding that getting girls pregnant and walking off, leaving them on 'benefits' benefits no one.

Joseph Feld, London, England

I am really shocked that Mr. Vale advocates smashing the part of the British educational system that works best. He claims this will improve the state schools. Set aside for a moment that it is the right and duty of parents to educate their children as best they can. Did Mr. Vale’s solution work the last time it was tried? The grammar schools were “elitist” so the labor party smashed them in the name of equality. (Yes most closed under Thatcher, but it was labor’s plan that she didn’t have the courage to stop) Did that help education in Britain? Learn from the past! What England needs is the universal private education. It needs more private schools and a plethora of ways to finance the education of every child so that each receives an education suitable to their talents and that will enable them to participate in an advanced democratic society. Build on the sure foundation of Britain’s world famous independent schools, don’t destroy that which works!

Stephen W Houghton, New York, USA

What hasn't helped young males is the view propagated by many of those who hold positions of power in key areas of influence (such as education and the media) that men are often surplus to requirements. The constant denigration and marginalisation of men in the classroom, the media and in the home has partly resulted in large numbers of teenage boys having no positive male role model in their lives. Why there's been so much bile directed towards men I don't know - perhaps it was 'revenge' for many years of male oppression - but the tactic has backfired disastrously.

Of course there are men who abdicate their responsibilities, and every decent man has to live them down, but removing men from the equation altogether is most definitely not the answer. There's no easy solution, but we must find a way for more teenage boys to have a man in their life they can look up to and respect, because after a certain age it's too late and many young men will be lost to mainstream society forever.

Stephen, Glasgow,

Growing up in a London suburb in the 50s and 60s, we also faced street violence though not quite on the same scale as today. All boys felt much safer being a member of a gang, and a few carried knives. In one infamous incident, a group armed themselves with sticks and bats in order to smash up a pub and its staff who had insulted the girlfriend of one gang member. Several were subsequently sent to 'Bortsal' for a year, a punishment that stained their lives thereafter. For other boys, however, school provided a tremendous outlet for youthful aggression. At my grammar school, we had daily sporting activities, followed by after-school games as well as weekend rugby and soccer games. We had little time for anything else. Much has changed since. Incidentally, TV was full of images of senseless killing in terms of innane cowboys and indians films. So, what's the real reason for an increase in violence? And other problems? Too many people sharing the same space. Overpopulation, in a word.

Colin, Bangkok, Thailand

As others have said the solutions may not be simple. The causes may also not be simple. But one thing that is very simple is to predict the path of this phenomenon. Thirty years ago the crime of demanding money with menaces was trivialised by being labelled the jolly street sport of mugging. The alternative was to tackle it. When a senior police officer in S. London mentioned the ethnicity of most offfenders he was not supported, but critisiced by the early PC brigade. He was right. Robbing pensioners in the street was seen as contemptible by the indigenous petty criminals. It was swept under the carpet for a decade or so until it spread to more traditional youth. Then it could be tackled without fear of being judgemental. The same thing is happening with knife crime. How many need to die before the spineless home office takes off the blinkers? If that policemen had been listened to years ago this may not now be happening. Yes, that is a simple statement, the truth often is.

D.L. Stephens, York, England

The problem we have is people making excuses for all things. Harriet has no idea what life is really like. Lawrence hits the nail on the head. People are responsible and should be held to account and if they are immigrants or other foreigners, put on the first boat. Harriet dear we have stopped national service, we have stopped capital punishment and corporal punishment in schools. We now have a country where the main point in life is the price of property. Now the middle and upper classes are running out of places to run to. The liberal naive fools will soon be having knifes at their throats and live in fear like the working people. Maybe things will now change.

Fred, Dubai, Dubai

It's always about the family uinit. Unless a child grows up with a mother and father, that child will most likely face serious social challenges. Boys require a father figure to look up to and to control them.

Unfortunately, the British social benefit system has led to the unintended result that a father is not necessary among poor families.

Jimmy T, Johannesburg, South Africa

Boys are not girls, we should stop treating them as if they are the same. Boys learn differently. Boys require competition, rigor, discipline in order to grow up effectively.

Without any of that, you end up with gangs, jihadis and a thousand years of culture going down the toilet. To what end? To prevent anyone from being 'offended'? Tell that to the generation of British (and American!) youth that has been failed by wishy-washy 'educators'.

Ethan, Tampa, FL, USA

Some of the views in this article try to portray young males as victims, eg, they join gangs because they are afraid. This is absurb. The truth of the matter was expressed by the 13 year old in the 3rd paragraph of the article--they join gangs for the social power it gives them. To be more accurate, because they are not forced to meet goals and conform to social norms and because they are not punished when they do not conform to social norms, they become under achievers and are seduced by the social power and instant and easy gratification they get from lawlessness. EVERYONE knows this; I do not understand why we are even bothering to discuss the issue. For as long as the Left control the education system, the problem will never be solved and our society will continue to decline.

Barry, Canberra, Australia

I agree there is something lacking for young boys these days; I see the same sorts of problems in younger cousins. However -
"young men who, as Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said, “put a knife in their pockets as routinely as they pull on their trainers in the morning”.

Don't get distracted by irrelevancies - the problem is violence, lawlessness, and lack of discipline, not knives or any other weapon.

I am literally never without a knife in my pocket - a rather large one, at that - unless I'm in a courthouse or airport. I use it dozens of times a day for mundane tasks, but make no mistake, it is certainly a weapon. Almost everyone I know carries one as well, and we're all well behaved, law abiding college students.

Take a look at the bullying and street violence in general - why is it that people can seemingly get away with victimizing whoever they like? Where are the police? Here we disbanded ours entirely years ago, and no one misses them

Tim, Shoey, PA

This article really made sense! I've recently moved to Sweden where their system offers millitary service to all boys and optional to girls. This is the structure and dicipline that boys need. It works!

Sophie, Stockholm, Sweden

Hold on here since when have schools been the main cause of this!!!
Let's retrace our steps before ranting about the failings of schools and the need for sports.
Maybe we should look at the society we live in at a base level where you can live next door to someone and never talk to them all the whilst they live there, where no c'community' exists.
Brought up in a small village - nearly everyone knew each other and each others kids.
Child abduction would have been imposible without someone questioning the person because they knew the child and the parents.
If you got drunk in the park - your parents would know before you got home or would find out and pick you up giving you a rollicking in front of your mates, don't worry it would also happen to them.
It was a society where everyone was aware of each other and there was social balance of sorts and it was not a done thing to upset the balance lest you wanted to lose respect in the comunity.
No school exists that can teach you this

N Morgan, York, UK

The youths of which you speak face no meaningful consequence ( i.e. to them) at school for their bad behaviour. A ten minute 'talkshop' with an harassed and overworked teacher is a gift to the insolent miscreant who has learnt the acceptable responses from Kindergarten and simply applies them year after year.
And why not? No thing of meaningful consequence will happen to him! He knows that he will be given another ten chances before he is given the three day holiday ( i.e. suspension) for which he can hardly wait! Now, that's a meaningful consequence!
When his education ends, he may try to enter a work force for which he is singularly ill-equipped. Employers will not give him ten chances.
Let it be known that any education system that operates in this fashion has nothing to do with education but everytihng to do with betraying its charges!

Eric, Hounslow, Middlesex

These gangs are literally urban terrorists. They are a huge problem in the United States. They love Rap music that glorifies homicides, racial strife, the mistreatment of women, hatred for the police, dogfighting and cruelty against animals. Criminal rights activists blame the police if they have to shoot a gang member. The Army is needed to defeat these gangs. I feel sorry for many of them but there is no excuse for killing an innocent person or animal.

Brien Comerford, Glenview, United States

This is a disturbing article, addressing several areas of concern.

There is no doubt that some children are used through gang manipulation by adult criminals as lookouts, for intimidation and in organised drug and property crime. This is to exploit their deemed legal exemption from ‘adult’ types of crime.

It makes no sense that the law deals with individual abusers of the young in one field with the greatest possible severity which is indefinitely retrospective, when group abuse in the field of social behaviour escapes almost entirely.

The grooming of large cohorts of children as possible future criminals should be dealt with in the same way as other deviation and requires as a matter of urgency investigative research and evidence-based new legislation.

dr venables preller, Warminster, UK

Question 1; "What are the reasons behind the spate of murders by feral gangs of youths?"

Answer: Lack of discipline at an early age with an out of proportion emphasis on the 'rights' of young people over law abiding hard working adults that make their existence possible.

Question 2: And can we as a society do anything about it?

Bring back discipline at an early age and deny the 'rights' of criminals over law abiding hard working adults- until they are law abiding hard working adults.

Not exactly rocket science is it?

Jez, Leeds,

Over the past thirty years we have created a society where many of us work long hours and where, in families, both partners must now work full-time just to survive.

This mean less time to spend on raising children. But it also means less, or no, time to devote to being part of community groups and taking an interest in where you live. No time to get involved with or take an interest in politics and current affairs. No desire to educate and improve yourself in the way that many people used to years.

People are just too exhausted. In the few free hours they have available they want escapism in the form of trash TV and alcohol.

It's desperate and, with house prices and the cost of living, nothing will change in the near future.

Robert, Manchester, UK

Well there are so many flaws in the logic it is hard to know where to begin. Are sports the answer? Not for kids who are arts-inclined. Is more authority the answer, military regimented line-up discipline? Well maybe but that does not foster creativity and can itself go to extremes. Are teachers nearly all cowards? Are female teachers all incompetent? Are parents all flawed?
Oh wait, there's another culprit- knives.

Harriet Sergeant casts a pretty wide net of who to blame without actually landing it on herself, who of course is an exemplary parent given that she writes advice and all about how the rest of us need her pearls of wisdom.

Methinks that if a nine year old resents all female teachers there is a gender bias there that could be addressed, not endorsed.

I recommend parents be allowed to parent like Sergeant does, for it works for her, but that instead of us all marching that way, fund parents better to spend more time with their kids.

Beverley Smith, Calgary , Canada

People desire to be treated with admiration. Admiration requires money and/ or power, especially if you are a young male.

Those of school age have no legal means to acquire either.

Naturally, they resort to illegal means.

d ambers, london,

Militarise the State Schools. Impose Structure and Discipline and stop the feminisation of boys which is generating an uncontrolled backlash.

Middle Class Theorists have no experience of physical violence and inarticulate thuggery but they are the focus of the contemptuous revolt of the helots because they leave them to founder in a deep fetid pit without a ladder out

TomTom, Leeds, England

How can anyone who has chosen to abrogate their own responsibility to wards the community by sending their children to private schools possibly have a valid comment to make on this subject? It is only by becoming a stakeholder in the community that we can hope to influence it. The continuing dessertion of state schools by the "middle classes" ensures that there is no real political pressure to reform the system. By withdrawing your children from the state system you are effectively undermining the community through failing to participate and improve it. We have heard all the arguments for private education before such as we want to give our children the best start in life etc. It is inherently selfish attitudes like this that lead to a society where social mobility is effectively hampered and creates an environment that allows the lowest common denominator to flourish. In the long term this will create a more divided society and lead to increased social instability and violence.

Peter McG, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

Simple. You want discipline and virtuous behaviour from citizens? Then govern in the same way.
This is not a cheap shot. The average Brit has less experience exposed to foreign culture than almost any other country I know. The media in its pursuit of either the First Amendment of the US consitution or by following 'give them what they want' has fallen into entropy on the value front. It's obvious. Gangs represent exactly this membership and honour that young people need to aspire to. I am not sure exhausting people through sport or religion is the way either. We have the best legal system in the world and rank highly with the stupidest mass culture. How do you think Germany rehabiliated Nazism - football? It developed a system of government that responded intelligently to principles and scientific facts. Issues of civil order are always reflected in a mirror of global and cultural obligation. We, as a nation, still believe we have a sovereign right to colonial values. You got it.

M C Hunt, kl working, Malaysia

What's all this we business ? We can do nothing, if THEY don't enforce the law. They they being our highly paid members of parliament who sit in that expensive building supposedly to make laws to protect the people of Britain. Having made the laws it is then the responsibility of the police to enforce the law and it is also the duty of the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that criminals are treated like criminals. So, lets have less of this WE.

WE can do nothing, and if WE do try to do something either WE get stabbed or half killed or WE get arrested by the police for protecting our property

Phil de Buquet, Newport, England

It's just natural -- boys have energy and all humans have the urge to fit into the group and compete with the opposing group, and it's better to do so with bats and balls than with knives and guns.

And no, eliminating the successful schools in the hope that somehow this will help the unsuccessful ones is hardly the right direction to go!

J, Atlanta, USA

Different times and environments breed different situations. My childhood, fifty-five years ago, was spent in a small backwater community in the rural south of the USA. At the age of five years I was presented with a very small pocket knife as symbol that my parents entrusted me to do nothing foolish with it. Whittling small items, cutting fruit, prising out the occasional splinter were allowed -- almost nothing else. Even our schools permitted level-headed young lads to keep them pocketed in the classroom. When I demonstrated responsibility with that, I was allowed to move up the ladder to owning an air rifle, only for shooting paper targets and the occasional rodent foolish enough to be caught out in daylight, then at age 14 to a .22 rifle. All were rites of passage to responsible adulthood. Granted, much of this would have been incomprehensible in an urban environment, but some facets of responsible manhood came early to those blessed with worthy role models.

Dennis Eagan, Colorado Springs, USA

I find W. Graham Vale, Linlithgow's comment extraordinary: in effect, 'private schools work better so let's scrap them'. Thereby bringing every facet of British education down to the incredibly low denominator of most state education. Private schools work because they allow sensible discipline and aren't afraid to subject their pupils to a more rigorous and slightly harsher way of life - including plenty of sports. Better that state education looks in humility at the private system and emulates it - rather than trying to excuse its dismal results by claiming that the difference in quality is all about motivated parents. And for all of you who say 'children don't need harsher discipline, they need more respect - just look where that philosophy has got us since its incorporation into educational practice.

Roddy Campbell, Christchurch, New Zealand

I am a female Head of Year at an exclusive boys' school in Australia. The boys play sport or train at least every other day and have a strong loyalty to their school. Their response to female teachers (who make up 20% of the staffroom) is not noticeably different from responses to males: they expect staff to be highly skilled, dedicated, in control, well-read and well-spoken. They want staff (regardless of gender) to be the boss, even though they sometimes enjoy pushing the limits. Discipline is strong but fair. Expectations are high but not ridiculously so. Our results are outstanding, not just because of excellent teaching and facilities but also because of parental expectations. It's a complex mix of school and home ethos, expectations, an all-boys environment, sport, praise, discipline and a desire on many fronts to raise good men. No easy answers and we make mistakes; but overall we seem to have a good blend that works.

Anne , Melbourne, Australia

School sports have a part to play but far more important is pulling children up for bad behaviour & disobedience. Of course we must be kind and cooperative & not Stalinist, but I am aghast at the wimpish way so many parents behave - particularly mother and boys. They're asking for those kids to be trouble in later life. How often have you heard along the lines of "Do this, please, Henry! . I said do it, please! Oh, why are you being so naughty? Oh, dear, he's a real rascal". DUH??? Henry goes off smirking, Mum looks stupid and weak. Likewise, try to say a pleasant "Don't do that" or "please be quiet" to a bratty kid who is butting in or playing up and mum often gets outraged. I'm talking about middle class children here as well as the delightfully termed "underclass" who are in fact often immigrants from politer cultures who DO try and keep their children in line. IIt's really vital to make rules and expect respect from an early age and come down hard on kids who defy you.

JA, London,

You are quite right that boys naturally form "gangs". That term, however, can denote many different things. A gang is not necessarily a bad thing. A group of friends (aka, a gang) can play sports. They can go bicycling, hiking, boating, or exploring. And, they can visit museums, parks, or other places of interest.

The problem is that we fail to channel the natural tendency (to go with friends) to constructive ends. As one result, the different "gangs" in a neighborhood start to compete with each other, and the competition becomes physical.

Lord Baden-Powell noticed this a hundred years ago, and provided a solution. He found that if the adults in a community would provide some leadership, that the gangs of boys (he called them "patrols") can be induced to constructive activities. They could have fun, explore their world, and compete with each other in constructive ways.

Scouting uses the natural tendency of boys to form gangs, in constructive ways. It works.

Steve, Fort Lauderdale, Florida (US)

One interesting remark "when my boy was 9 year old he became resentful of his female teachers............" How and why did this happen at 9 years old? There is a need for both male and female teachers in our society.

Helen, Montpellier, France

As long as Britain remains in the Dickins era you will have hooliganism, high violent criminality and people who are not interested in working for small change. Britain needs to catch up with the rest of Eurpe regading how they treat their population.

Magalane Heart, Oslo,

Richard Rohr, the American Franciscan, has written several books explaining that all traditional societies had initiation rites to induct boys into manhood. (Girls did not need this, they learnt to be women gradually from their mothers). Boys need at some point to break away from their mothers to become men. This initiation involved hardship and endurance - often spending months in the wilderness. BUT it was vital that they were instructed & mentored by men - the elders.
This mentoring & necessary discipline is now absent & we have put nothing in its place. There are no accepted religious or moral boundaries - these are 'old fashioned' and the result of 'bigotry'. Instead we have a fatuous belief in a perfectible society if only we cram political correctness and 'human rights' down everyone's throats.

Dave, Wrexham,

great article, however, you could say more about the sexualisation of the young especially with the newspapers and the internet heavily reliant on porn. While this is not an excuse when young men are heavily bombarded by sex images and they cant get rid of the energy by sports or other energetic activity they will fight.

Magical Tipster, birmingham, uk

Perhaps time to consider grasping the nettle and doing away with private education so that all schools could enjoy the influence of talented and interested parents. This might result in the increase of time spent on school sports activities. Instead of which parents who govern our country, run great companies write articles for the Sunday Times and who might make a difference in state school governance are able to opt out.

W. Graham Vale, Linlithgow, UK

Well,in our province,Guangdong,China,we have about 90 mins a week for sports at school.I don't think the time given for sports has anything to do with Teens-crimes!It's a matter of value-education.If your society focus more on teaching teens what "LIFE" is and what responsibilities they have for others,things will be much better!"LIFE" is "Love It,Find Enjoyment".When a boy realizes this,he will try his best to discover,to enjoy life,and to be a better man.This is my opinion.And Adults,please don't think that this case has nothng to do with you.In fact,everyone can help,and should help.

aaron, Guangdong, China

There is nothing free about a university education. This is part of the problem, as stated many people fail to look at the long term outcomes, It costs over £30,000 to go to university now. When a child is 14 they are already starting to be put off higher education by the figures alone, society is far from blameless when it comes to the lack of goals that gang members set themselves. Perhaps it is time we took away some of the obstacles on the journey to the 'good life' and helped these children on their way.

Andrew Edwards, Cheltenham,

An interesting article which falls back on the "lets give them more sport" theme as if to exhaust them is the answer. Well there is just as much bullying in school sports as anything else and always has been. What young people need is loving parents who teach them about self respect and respect for others, inspiring teachers, and exposure to the arts and culture as well as sports.

Geoffrey, Belfast,

Sorry Lawrence, can't agree. Young people of different backgrounds and origins can get on without the need to stab each other.

Harriet is on the right track. Boys are getting lost because nobody is showing them how to discharge their energy in constructive ways. Young men are the most dynamic force in any society. But if they lose their way, that force will become destructive. Gangs are a poor substitute for real families; caricatures of the organisation boys need, but cannot find. They display the positives that we want to see in young men - teamwork, loyalty, a sense of personal honour - but distorted into dangerous forms, where hurting others is seen as a sign of excellence.

So what to do? Restore what has been lost. Responsible dads at the head of families, discipline and authority at home and in schools, healthy and constructive outlets for the energy of the young. And booting all forms of male-bashing in our culture firmly into touch. Let these boys know we value them.

paul parmenter, Norfolk, UK

Good article and I agree with it. Ask a child....would you like some discipline and most will say no. Yet instinctively they seek it. Parents apparently don't discipline, schools are not allowed to, society at large is scared to and with good reason. Despite protestations , the young respect those who impose and demand something of them. Not getting this from family and school, they seek it from the ..gang. The gang has no problem with imposing discipline and respect for it's hierarchy. Unfortunately the gangs do not have good moral values. The gangs do offer a structure, a kind of refuge and support that protects the member. As others have been saying this week , at it's most basic it is a breakdown of family and refusal of parents to parent.

Jane Prior, Whiteway,

Part of the problem for boys is that female teachers want "Order,"Sweetness, Peace and Love" in the classroom, and girls know how to give it to them. Boys are noisey, rambunctious, and distracting especially when they are bored, and female teachers do not like it one bit.

The new PC,"Kindler Gentler" attitudes professed by current educational systems, where everyone is susposed to get a cookie, neglects the fact that boys need good direction and discipline, and intelligent role models who will encourage them to aspire to a higher plain of living, and competition where not everyone gets or deserves a cookie!

jim johnson, framingham, ma

I think this was a very good article and i agree with many of the points, especially the idea of poor performance and behavioral problems being linked to little or no sports in our schools (also a major factor in why their fat children everywhere).
I remember at school during my GCSE years that i got one 50 min period of PE a week and this time time had to include the time to change into your PE kit and back again- so 30 mins a week really!
Can some one explain why Wednesday afternoon sports was scrapped??

David, Godalming, Surrey

The answer to the question posed at the top of the article is simple. It's an answer that will not go away as a growing number of people repeat it again and again. For biological reasons, mixing diverse peoples creates a gang culture. Some races have very high levels of aggression and impulsivity, and are not good at planning ahead, in consequence of which latter point, they do not envisage the long-term consequences of their actions. There is no evidence to show that all peoples function well in the nuclear family; some may be better suited to tribal communities. The general anti-social behaviour we all suffer daily is surely a result of poor or no parenting. As for 'we' whoever 'we' are, relegating people to so called ghettoes of violence and despair, ghettoes are made by the people that live in them, violence is the choice of the violent, and despair in a country with full employment, free school and university education, free health-care etc., well - that's garbage.

Lawrence, Liverpool, England