Why we went stealing

PEOPLE aren't stereotypes, except in sensation-seeking newspapers or poor TV dramas.

So the question why some young people are drawn to crime and disorderly behaviour and not others is not easy to answer.

As York police commander John Lacy pointed out on these pages last week, most teenagers in York are bright, ordinary, enthusiastic youngsters.

When it comes to the minority who do get into trouble, there are some general 'risk' factors - poverty, drugs, unemployment, lack of opportunity, parents or older siblings who have a record of breaking the law - but there will actually be as many reasons and causes for offending as there are young offenders.

So how do teenagers end up getting on the wrong side of the law? And when they do, does the 'punishment' they receive help them see the error of their ways?

We spoke to two teenagers now living in the York area who have both had brushes with the law.

MICHAEL: I didn't think I would get caught shoplifting

Michael confounds many of the stereotypes associated with young people and crime. He comes from a good family with caring parents and lives in a nice part of York. His dad was in the army, so no-one could say he didn't have a good male role model to look up to.

None of which stopped him getting into trouble. He was 14, and hanging around in the evenings with a group of kids who weren't at the same school as him, when it first happened.

One of his 'friends' suggested shoplifting - and he went along with it.

"I just wasn't thinking about the consequences," he says shamefacedly.

"I know quite a few people who have got away with it, and didn't think I would get caught. I knew it wasn't right, but.... it was just going along with your friends. Some of my friends in school would have said no. But these were different friends."

Inevitably, they got caught. They were stopped as they came out of the shop - and Michael found himself at the police station.

His parents were shocked. "Initially, I thought it was a mistake," says Michael's mum, Joyce. "I felt certain it was someone else in the group, and not actually Michael."

Then she heard her son admitting it to the police. "I was angry, but more shocked. Your first concern is for your child, and what's going to happen to him."

What happened was that Michael got a caution. And that would have been the end of it - except that 20 months later, he offended again.

This time he stole a 'substantial quantity of sweets'.

Once again, he found himself at the police station. His parents were furious. "I felt very angry with Michael," says Joyce. "Yes, you feel guilty as parents, and think what have you done wrong?"

This time Michael was taken into a glass-walled room at the police station, where an inspector gave him a final warning. It meant he had escaped without a criminal conviction on his record - but that if he was caught offending again he would be in real trouble.

The warning also meant he was referred to the York Youth Offending Team. There, he was set a programme of work with youth offending team staff which aimed to get him to think about what he had done, and what the consequences of his actions were, for himself, his family, and the victims.

The final warning was intended to give him the 'space to consider his actions,', says his case officer at the youth offending team Kim Andrews-Devine. But it wasn't a soft option. "You have to accept that it is possible for people to change," she says. "A final warning gives you a second chance, but it is not getting off scot free. If he offends again, it will be brought up in court. he has to engage in meaningful work."

Michael, now 16, insists he has learned his lesson. He's now studying hard, and looking forward to joining the army next autumn like his dad. He's already been accepted.

He admits that for a while he was really scared. "I didn't think I was going to get into the Army. I do regret it. I caused a lot of bother. If I had thought about my family, it might have stopped me. But I was being stupid."

ANDREW: Things went wrong when a friend stood up to vicious bullies for me

According to the stereotypes, Andrew never had a chance. He was brought up in a poor area of East London, where crime, racism and drugs were rife. His mum was a single mother who had a succession of boyfriends, none of whom were able to act as a father figure to him or his sister Denise.

You would never think it to meet him. He's a quietly-spoken, articulate 18-year-old with a burning ambition to be a music producer or top information technology expert. But he has also got a criminal record.

It's hard not to be left with a sense of the unfairness of life when you hear Andrew's story. He had started going out with a girl he describes as 'half-caste' - and ended up being on the end of vicious bullying as a result. There was nobody to stand up for him; until, one of his mum's male friends - not a boyfriend, Andrew stresses - came to live with the family. He stood up for Andrew and helped him deal with the bullies - and naturally Andrew began to look up to him.

But things took an ugly turn. The man asked Andrew to join him on a burglary. "He was pressuring us, he was pressuring us," says Andrew. "In the end I went along with it. I just felt I had to."

He was caught - and, although it was a first offence, he wasn't dealt with leniently. He was sentenced to three years and nine months in a young offenders institution - a sentence reduced to two and a half years on appeal. In the end, he spent a year and three months locked up.

It was especially difficult because of the slow speed at which the criminal justice system operated. It was months before his case came to court - and by that time he and his mum and sister had already moved to York in an attempt to start again. He had done some work experience and had just started college when his sentence was handed down.

It was scary being locked up, he admits. He was bullied at first, until he learned to stand up for himself. But he decided not to waste his time, and began studying while inside to get some qualifications. "I worked my socks off," he says.

He was released last autumn, and found it hard at first to adjust to life outside. "I got a bit paranoid," he says. "I kept thinking everybody was looking at me because I had come out of prison." Now he's back at college. He know having a criminal record will make things difficult for him. But he's determined. "I will make something of my life," he says. And sounds as though he means it.

Names of young people, and their families, have been changed

Updated: 12:25 Thursday, May 09, 2002