Anti-social behaviour, alcohol abuse and those ‘pampered brats’

‘Young people are our most valuable asset and also our single biggest headache,’ opined Brenda Power, a Sunday Times columnist recently, and while the youth will resent an alleged undue association with criminality, the sad fact is of anti-social and riotous behaviour escalating and evidence from urban centres suggests something approaching an epidemic, a matter of obvious public concern.

A Prime Time programme on RTÉ recently examined this worsening breakdown in public order and, given higher population levels, it is understandable that some cities exhibit the worst cases of riots, fighting and drunkenness, but examples were also given of serious disorder in small towns like Kilrush in County Clare though, indeed, there are many centres where it has become dangerous to walk home late at night.

West Cork has not escaped this trend and a two-day trial in Skibbereen, over a month ago, dealt with a local case of riotous behaviour which Judge James McNulty described as ‘being in the early stage of public order breakdown’. The court report, published in this paper, said that ‘more than one hundred young men in varying states of drunkenness were involved in a number of fights’ and the scenes were described as ‘like the wild west’, as ‘madness’ and equivalent to a ‘mass riot’.

The judge, mentioning about people afraid to speak to the gardaí and ‘afraid to tell the truth’, commented further that this was indicative of ‘public disorder’ and if all such went unchecked, someone would be killed and people ‘would be walking behind a hearse wondering about fast action by the courts’.

How true and yet, in a riotous situation involving more than a hundred young men, a couple of gardaí face an impossible task and consequently, there is almost an emergency situation apropos adequate policing levels in urban centres late at night. Given the proliferation of these incidents, however, the garda force has a problem in regard to a possible ‘early warning’ system and given that a fracas could break out in almost any West Cork, or County Cork, town on any night, how does one spread available resources?

Skibbereen, as just one town, has had a number of serious incidents since these fracas, so it appears Judge McNulty’s warnings have not been taken to heart and which greatly concerns the local population. The problem of rising levels of violence and anti-social behaviour nationally has been highlighted many times but, while in April, we were told of a 7 per cent drop in ‘serious crime’, the number of reported ‘assaults causing harm’ was still at the high level of 3,700, and that is only the ‘tip of the iceberg’. A huge number of assaults go unreported and, in the case of the Skibbereen fracas, for example, it was possible to prosecute only a small number of those involved.

Aside from calls for ‘tough action’, the introduction of more closed circuit cameras and a bigger garda presence, many sociologists and other commentators are questioning the reasons for this growing law and order breakdown among young people in particular, and what motivates them to fighting and veritable ‘gang warfare’? Right across the country, in practically every town and village, people share the same worry over the current lawlessness and anti-social behaviour, but if the problem is to be confronted, the issues must be tackled at base level, in the homes at the youngest ages and also in schools.

Children, quite simply, are being spoilt to the nth degree. They are brought up with the view that money does, actually ‘grow on trees’, are oblivious to the concept of saving and are financially irresponsible and reckless with their parents’ cars and credit cards. Brenda Power, in the Sunday Times, described them as the ‘spoilt, pampered, instantly gratified product of a generation of paranoid parents’ and are ‘binge-drinking, acquisitive, self-absorbed, promiscuous brats’. They have never, she adds, been denied pocket money or liberty to misbehave, ‘want the latest fashions at whatever cost, go through sexual partners like a dose of Epsom salts, drive with no regard for other road users and exploit their parents’ tendency to indulge their every whim.’

Harsh, one might ask but clearly not so! If one adds the alarming statistics about teenage and youth drinking and high dropout rates for secondary school students which, in the case of boys, is 30 per cent, worst in Europe, what emerges is a high level of personal irresponsibility, both in regard to career prospects and anti-social behaviour. Various surveys, from the ESRI and elsewhere, have probed the alcohol problem and an European School Survey Project, for example, showed that Irish youngsters start drinking at earlier ages and have the fourth highest incidence of drunkenness in Europe, with 25 per cent of those sampled having been drunk more than 20 times. Irish students were also among the worst vis-a-vis ‘binge-drinking’.

What of the schools situation and the difficulty of enforcing discipline? The Teachers Union of Ireland, in its December bulletin, contends that pupil disruption is the ‘single biggest concern of our second level members’ and they report that the job of teaching ‘is becoming increasingly difficult, hazardous, and in some cases, impossible’. The government has a ‘Task Force on Student Behaviour’, but the TUI doubts if this will lead anywhere and threatens that if the matter is not dealt with adequately, pupil disruption will be treated as a ‘condition of service issue’ by the union.

The TUI goes further and argues for a new law to provide a ‘clear and unambiguous legal right for teachers to discipline pupils’. This, it says, would require implementing a code of behaviour and send a ‘clear message to pupils and parents that they have responsibilities’ and the TUI notes that in Britain the government is bringing forward new legislation to ‘clarify the overall basis of teachers’ authority to discipline pupils’.

Who can blame teachers? The situation in UK schools is apparently worse than here and one British criminologist stressed the need to ‘change the culture of schools so they become centres of respect and civility’, but that is easier said than done. If one can inculcate principles of responsibility and respect at earliest ages there is some hope for avoiding ‘mindless thuggery’ and achieving a return to good and acceptable behaviour.

Alcohol abuse is a serious national problem and is reflected in week-end binge-drinking, in addicted young people, in late night violence on our streets, in drink driving leading to death and in the overcrowded accident and emergency hospital units. The consumption of alcohol increased by 50 per cent over ten recent years, with Ireland moving to second place in world rankings, and while many factors contribute to street violence and law and order breakdown, there is no doubt that drunkenness is a big element but far from being the only one.

Southern Star