What are the reasons for youth crime and violence in the UK?

Posted by MoonlightByWindow@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 50 comments

Like those typical groups of young boys or teenagers causing trouble on the high street - every town has them, we've all seen them. It's something I find interesting because people will offer up many theories for it: low socioeconomic success, disillusionment with the future, broken windows theory, shitty parents etc. But that doesn't change that terrorising random passersby or convenience stores is a choice that they actively make. They don't need to "resort" to doing this, they just want to do it for some reason. But I don't understand why. There are plenty of poor people whose lives suck who don't act like this and are perfectly pleasant people to be around. So why?