Tomorrow evening I have a meeting with the youth justice worker who is dealing with the lovely little scrote who tried to steal my bikes.

Apparently they would like to give me a say in how he is dealt with – I am guessing tarring and feathering is out (shame – maybe I should put that in things I’d like to try from the past thread).

So what would the STW collective recommend? Maybe I should offer all suggestions tomorrow and see which ones are considered.

In a benevolent moment I wondered if it was best to send him off with some trail builders for the day so he can see what bikes mean to people and how much more rewarding they are than kicking about the streets being a nuisance

One thing the police were very keen on when I was burgled a few years back was to stress how it made me feel. Stress, upset, not feeling safe in my home, that sort of thing. Maybe that would help, get them to realise it affects people far more deeply than simply property loss / insurance.

If this is the first time then rehabilitate him but if he has done more than once then sterilise him so none of his gene is passed on. If he continues even after that then bury him alive in a box in the wood with straw tube for feeding and breathing … after that think of Henry VIII punishment.

Sentence him to have to attend the Conservative party conference.

Fixed wheel in a workstand, get it wound up to speed then shove the little scrotes fingers into the chain dragging it into the sprocket, repeat till chain snaps or he has no digits left. If you get reoffending with prison sentences, can’t see how they expect these to work, they know if they turn up, utter the right words they get away with it. Probably no help, but I just think it’s another pile of social worker bullshit.

TBH mate, any party conference would do you in,

Challenge him to build a full length chain from 1 1/8 half link pieces.

Give him a day, lock the room, leave him a chain tool and a vice.

See what happens.

Or ask what his reasons for theft were and construct a hypothetical scenario designed to incite empathy and regret?

Ive tried to reply to this several times and deleted my post before sending each attempt for risk of sounding like a Daily Mail editorial

He chose a life of crime, how bothered is he that people get a bit upset when their home is violated by a scumbag and does he really give a toss how much anybody’s bike is worth to them if he can get £30 for it down the old Dog and Duck? More to the point wheres the deterrent if having your collar felt leads to a touchy feely meeting with your youth justice worker instead of a good stretch in Sing Sing?

Sorry

EDIT – I agree with all the posts made above whilst I was busy repeatedly composing and deleting my own

so he can see what bikes mean to people and how much more rewarding they are than kicking about the streets being a nuisance

Do you know the motive for the attempted theft ? Occasionally skint youngsters will steal a bike for their own personal use rather than just to sell it. In which case pointing out how rewarding owning a bike can be might not be the best strategy.

Put a lenght of hosepipe up his bum.
put a piece of rusty barbed wire up the hosepipe
remove hosepipe.

Like chewkw says, if it is his first time whether that be first time caught or first time being a thieving ned then get him to do some trailbuilding followed by an afternoons riding/skills coaching to perhaps show him a way out of his current lifestyle, if he has loads of previous then break a finger for every conviction, if he’s been a really bad boy he’ll need help to wipe his own arse and feed himself for a few weeks which should teach him to never steal another persons property, if, after all that he gets caught again then start with a broken wrist and continue as before , if he still chooses to live as a parasite then fingers/arms/ perhaps kneecaps, continue till he’s in a total body cast.

Now i’ll try not to sound like a Guardian editorial iamsporticus 🙂

There’s a lot of people with a record whose criminality is a distant, disparate memory. A “life of crime” is not living as a criminal.

Lovely little scrote will have some support and will then be returned. Repeat?

Front of a human centipede for 1st offence,then move down the chain for futher offences.

There’s a lot of people with a record whose criminality is a distant, disparate memory.

Yep, a lot of boys in their early teens have a lack of respect for other people’s property, thieving is very common among boys at that age, most will grow out of it, although some might not.

Strip the branches off any trees along the side of biking trails and use the remaining trunks to impale thieves on…oh, how we’d laugh as we ride past them. Their stench would help improve our Stava times too! 😈

EDIT: I nearly got charged with some firearms offences when I was 15/16…it was the my local Youth Justice Team that stopped it going to court, they argued that I’d struggle to find a job if I’d been charged. I think my dad owning a local business may have helped my case, but I still take my hat off to them.

Really really depends
Having done Restorative justice with yoofs you get all sorts from the kids who done wrong once, the ones whose parents dont GAS and shout at you [ Ie I blame the parents], Kids who dont really GAS and are doing the bare minimum to avoid a stiffer sentence to kids going through tough times and making some shit decisions.

Personally I would try and find out which category they fit into and take some advice and guidance from the worker and act accordingly.

I saw victims do everything from bizarre Christian acts of forgiveness to being have to be removed for threatening them.
Overall if I knew which worked best I could have a massive impact on recidivism [ what a word that you can rarely use] levels in kids.

Dont expect an epiphany from them , that make take years to happen.

Ultimately its your call on whether you want to offer some attempt at redemption or just get cross at them.

Despite my bleeding heart credentials and desire to reform and rehabilitate its fair to say the majority were **** and what the victim said had little impact.

There are some nicely appropriate punishments up there, ^, I’m particularly impressed with the hose/barbed wire one; very inventive! 😆

It’s not his first offence. He actually told the police he had seen myself and my sons leave so knew there was no one else in the building and said that him and his mate had intention to get my bikes. Not clever as they could have only got him for criminal damage to the door but now he has been charged with attempted burglary.

Initially he wouldn’t cooperate with the youth justice team so his slim chance of a second caution was lost entirely. But I can’t see what is going to be that effective they say his background is pretty harsh. I don’t say that as an excuse for his behaviour but if someone has come from a bad situation wait no positive parental guidance is there any chance of any ‘punishment’ actually making a difference

I guess as junkyard has already said there is very little hope of that

cuddles

There are some nicely appropriate punishments up there, ^, I’m particularly impressed with the hose/barbed wire one; very inventive!

Keyboard warrior.

As above, I suspect that any involvement from the would be thief will be carried out purely as a way of being seen to co-operate with the justice system and minimise punishment.

My teenage son will accept a punishment but I tend not to expect him to show a huge amount of remorse during the process so I think the OP’s going to be spending some time with a sullen teen who won’t make eye contact and communicates in monosyllables.

As for punishment – I’d go for anything that involves being outdoors, preferably where there’s no wi-fi, 3g or phone signal. Electronic isolation is probably the thing that will ‘hurt’ the most.

yunki – Member

cuddles

With Garry Glitter. 😈

it’s gonna be subjective..

My 4yo son is motivated almost entirely by a need to gain our approval, he absolutely revels in it..
My 18 month son could not give a flying monkey and is driven purely by fun, seeing discipline as a challenge to be thwarted..

I’m guessing that your average crim is likely to fall more into the second category, but it’s going to depend a lot on what his motivations for committing the crime were..

He doesn’t exactly sound like a budding career criminal to have dropped himself in it like that though, so maybe he’s a noob, only playing at it, or he’s got an honest streak.. He might just be scared

We knew even at 12yo to keep schtum round my way, I guess the other alternative could be that he’s not very bright.. Maybe he was desperate?

I guess the third option is that he’s a ****.. Start by asking him if he’s a ****

This is fascinating.

A forum full of (mostly) lefty bearded tofu-eating sandal-wearing Guardian-reading hippies is advocating policies the dodgiest Sharia state would be proud to call its own.

Why not find out why the lad tried to nick your bike? Rehabilitation schemes? Does he have mental health issues? Are his options limited by his family / peer group (ie, laughed out the house if he gets a job / further education)?

Are there any youth groups nearby that aren’t airy-fairy primary school style ones, but perhaps run by ex-criminals who’ll know how to deal with him?

Granted, I’d be royally pissed off if my bike was nicked and in all honesty, yeah, I’d probably lob the first stone, but society makes the criminal – especially so thanks to funding cuts to above schemes – and I’d expect the rest of you to be a bit more objective. We stopped deporting people for stealing a loaf of bread quite a long time ago.

A forum full of (mostly) lefty bearded tofu-eating sandal-wearing Guardian-reading hippies

It’s threads like this that prove that oft written (or similar) canard to be so untrue. Or maybe the bleeding heart leftie liberals haven’t got up yet while all the hard working backbone-of-the-nation eye-for-an-eye crowd are already sat at their computers. 🙂

It’s threads like this that prove that oft written (or similar) canard to be so untrue. Or maybe the bleeding heart leftie liberals haven’t got up yet while all the hard working backbone-of-the-nation eye-for-an-eye crowd are already sat at their computers.

Damn straight. Actually, I’m changing working patterns from earlies to lates, and today is officially a rest day.

Take him out on a bike ride.

A Some members of a forum full of (mostly) lefty bearded tofu-eating sandal-wearing Guardian-reading hippies is advocating policies the dodgiest Sharia state would be proud to call its own.

ftfy

Its an interesting one this. The only way you’re going to get through to the scrotes is if they respect you.

A guy who I know who was a bit of a lad, to say the least, when he was younger. He sorted himself out (after a couple of stretches inside) and went into (unpaid) youth mentoring. He’s a top bloke, who’s experiences are grounded in real-life experience. He managed to turn a lot of these young potential career criminals around, as they looked up to him. So when he told them about the reality of prison, drug addiction etc it sunk in.

I won’t repeat what he has to say about these schemes and the type of people who run them. The upshot of it is that these kids are alienated, and have been dragged up in some god forsaken hell hole. So guess what? Being patronised and/or lectured by those who they see as the comfortable middle classes (bleeding heart or otherwise) has precisely **** all preventative effect! In fact, a lot of the time it achieves the exact opposite.

It’s threads like this that prove that oft written (or similar) canard to be so untrue. Or maybe the bleeding heart leftie liberals haven’t got up yet while all the hard working backbone-of-the-nation eye-for-an-eye crowd are already sat at their computers.

Or maybe people can be left-wing on some issues and right-wing on others?

Stick and carrot is more effective than either alone IMO. Support for offenders where possible but serious consequences too.

Anyway, excuse me while I go and continue to power our nation’s economic recovery by doing some work.

10 hours of nyancat ought to sort him out

Or maybe people can be left-wing on some issues and right-wing on others?

I don’t disagree. I’m just saying that the liberal/sharia-law-supporting (wrt crime) balance is about the same here as anywhere else in life. It is a worry though that people are prepared to run a hosepipe up someone’s arse and feed rusty barbed wire through it, followed by someone else creepily suggesting that it’s an ingenious solution, for a property crime. I dunno, maybe they don’t really mean it though, or maybe they’re happy to suggest, but not implement, in which case I guess they’re keyboard warriors.

EDIT: Excuse me while I flagellate myself for using the phrase “just saying” 😡

Make him wear a sandwich board stating he is a sticky fingered thief. Ensure he walks round the town so every one knows who he is and his face. Much better than a small announcement in the paper where he one feel the humiliation.

The trail building idea is quite a good one. It shows something positive linked with bikes, and he might enjoy it. If he learns that bikers are good pepole he might repsect bikes a bit more.

All this nasty punishment stuff is just garbage, and is written by people who have no idea why people do the shit they do.

Make him wear a sandwich board stating he is a sticky fingered thief. Ensure he walks round the town so every one knows who he is and his face. Much better than a small announcement in the paper where he one feel the humiliation.

Surefire way of making a model citizen for the future there. Can we implement this nationwide?

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPlEIryW8zA[/video]

<pinkoLeftyLiberal>

Build a bike together. Find a bunch of cheapy second-hand bits – I’m sure for a good cause Singletrackers would come to the party. I will.

Teach him the feeling of putting something tangible together for himself.

EDIT: He gets to keep the bike, of course…

</pinkoLeftyLiberal>

EDIT: He gets to keep the bike, of course…

Then have someone else steal his new, hand-built, much loved bike. Karma.

My only experience of restorative justice was when I got assaulted by a car driver after an exchange of words.

He got out of his 1 tonne steel box threatening to kill me before assaulting me because he felt threatened by the wheezing, overweight, middle aged fool on the mountain bike who had shouted back at him, apparently.

OK, officer, you give him a gentle talking to ‘cos if you can’t see that his story is a crock of shite and you can’t be bothered to speak to any of the witnesses, I can’t be bothered to waste my time pursuing it either…..

they say his background is pretty harsh

^this – morally its not his fault, but he is paying the price for being born of human scum.

Turn the other cheek, give him a hand up or leave him to see if he can get his own life in order.

I just hope he finds his way in life before he does something too bad that taints his life forever. I did, and I was lucky, very lucky.

Youth Workers – chapeau.