Nowadays many young people deliberately damage public places. What are the causes and solutions?
Cause
- Misplaced conception of freedom of expression
- Lack of counseling about how to vent their anger
- Lack of education about the relevance of communal properties - youth are completely oblivious of this fact that public places are funded by taxpayers’ money and hold a great importance for society
- Lack of empathy towards surroundings
- Lack of accountability
- An intent to highlight their fearless attitude
- Absence of proper measures to counter such acts
Measures to counter such acts
- Educating them about the significance of such places and the impact of their actions
- Holding them,or their families, accountable for such damage and making them bear the expenditure of such damage
- Punitive measures: penalty and punishment
- Installing proper security for such location
Vandalism has become a new normal for contemporary youngsters, for they are driven by several factors: lack of counseling, and absence of appropriate mechanisms to counter such behaviour, but there are ways to curtail this trend. The following paragraphs shall discuss the causes and suggest some measures to control this unsocial propensity.
To commence with, the most prominent source of this illegal conduct is the misplaced notion about using freedom of expression, which persuades the youth to resort to causing harm to the communal assets, by either defacing them, or damaging them. To corroborate, during anti-racism protests by the youth, across Europe in 1998, many participants went on to paint graffiti or important government buildings, and uprooted fences. A majority of these protestors admitted that they considered this as their right to highlight their dissent.
Similarly, regimes across the world have failed to acknowledge this problem, and are yet to enact proper laws that are sufficiently-equipped to mitigate such instances to discourage this kind of attitude. Law enforcement agencies across the world are helpless since they are not empowered by statutory support, and perpetrators walk scott-free after committing such offences.
As far as dissuading this appalling practice is concerned, there is a dire need to enlighten the upcoming generation about the ways to regulate their anger; significance of public property and the consequences of damaging them. Moreover, the police must be armed with powers to apprehend and punish those engaged in vandalization of common public areas. These steps, if applied prudently, can go a long way in alleviating this complication.
In hindsight, ignorance about acceptable social behaviour and lack of tools to discourage it, are encouraging young vandals, but, although not a panacea, a blend of persuasive, and punitive measures, can help to some extent.
Introduction 1
Of late, the incidents of vandalism involving youngsters have been witnessing an up swing. This trend is driven by several factors, like lack of counseling, and absence of appropriate mechanisms to counter such behaviour, making it imperative to find ways to curtail it.
Introduction 2
