Youth

In 1997, the government lowered the age children were presumed to know the difference between right and wrong from 14 to 10. A report for the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies says too many children are prosecuted and criminalised. The report recommends a new sentencing framework, including a residential training order of up to two years - or five years in the case of grave crimes. It calls for the phasing out of prison custody for 15 and 16-year-olds and new facilities for 17-year-olds. Nearly 1.4 million children played truant from school last year. One in five of all pupils in England missed days without permission, with truants in secondary schools absent foran average of seven days. In 1996-97, 965,400 pupils truanted. Last autumn and spring, 1,399,167 did so. Just 1% of secondary school pupils accounted for more than a third of all unauthorised absence in their schools.

Do you think they're linked?

Is this the joined-up thinking we were promised in 1997? Has Labour met your expectations?

We constantly hear that "yob anti-social behaviour" tops lists of safety concerns.What, however, are its root causes?

Teaching students about resolving issues in a non-violent way should be more widespread. Leadership has to come from the highest level. If Tony Blair solves problems throughwar, why should youth on Friday night act anydifferent? Alcohol lies at the heart of this issue. As a nation, we can’t keep drinking to get drunk with the aid of cheap drinks and expect non-violent citycentres. Finally, we have to stop defining young people as a problem. All this "hoodie" rhetoric obscures the fact that youth are our future, notsomething to be scared of. We should invest in them.Whether it's more all-ages music events or more recreation facilities for evenings and weekends, we need to engage young people when planning youth projects, asking them what they want.