What a load of guff!!

Heaven forbid that we should offend the sensibilities of these gangs! Whilst they do exactly that to the decent people in society who just want to get on with their lives.

What's more, some PC halfwit in their ivory tower at the Youth Justice Board will have been paid handsomely for coming up with this rubbish.

If the term could "worsen levels of offending" then these young people are obviously already offending. As opposed to the term instigating offending.

Instead of pandering to these gangs and pussyfooting around them for fear of upsetting them we should be cracking down hard. Not only on the perpetrators but also on their parents for allowing them to run amok. If a dog goes on the rampage and injures people not only is the dog destroyed but its owner finds themselves in court!

I'm sure the author of this half-baked "report" has a rampant gang problem in the area where they live, don't they?!

Graham, Leeds,

I agree. Not every group of three or more youths meet with the sole intention of behaving in an anti-social manner - although the larger the group, the greater the chance that high-spirits and boisterousness will spill over into something we would all prefer not to see.
The word 'gang' carries a lot of baggage with it. If we too frequently refer to a group as 'a gang' - because of what we assume they have got up to in the past - there is the danger that they hear it merely as an indication of how we expect them to behave in the future.
I have a teenage son and I confess to discouraging too many of his 'friends' from descending on my home. One or two of his best friends is acceptable, but more than that is too big an invasion of my sanctuary. They need to go somewhere else. The problem is, I suspect all the other parents are saying the same. They have no choice but to hang around in groups.
The local authority wash their hands of the problem. What happened to Youth Clubs?

Mike Court, Huddersfield,

This is a joke, right? A bunch of people have been funded by the taxpayer to come up with this? Oh I can see it now - "Right lads, let's stop this anti-social loutish criminal behaviour, find ourselves some cellos and get on 'Pop Idol'. If you want to do some investigative journalism, why don;t you find out who was on this 'advisory body' and what they've ever done that qualifies them to give advice on the social problems affecting young people.

Terry, Oxford,