This stereotyping inevitably alienates
our young people, and when the parents
are constantly compared to thugs and
criminals, it becomes very problematic
because it develops a sense of mistrust in
the family, which only creates further
barriers between the parent and the
child.
Therefore it is our duty as a civilisation
and as humanity we must eliminate any
prejudices or stereotypes that we may
have, whether conscious or
subconscious.
A good step to achieve this goal would be
to encourage the recognition and
publishing of articles in the newspapers,
both nationally and locally about the
praiseworthy acts committed by the
youth, so that we have a more well-
rounded and full perspective of our
youth.
Also to increase awareness of the
problems that our own stereotypical
views are causing us as a society, and to
help people understand that people act
firstly as individuals, and so groups
should not be judged on the basis of the
actions of an individual.
Let’s change the way we see you th
© Umar Khawaja 2010
 law by engaging in criminal activity. We
are given this impression from the
media, that our youth are just a load of
thugs on drugs.

We must ask ourselves, can a whole

A stereotype is a commonly held public
belief about specific social groups, or
types of individuals. Basing your
opinions of a group of people on the
actions or behavior of a selected few can
often lead you to have the wrong
impression about that group. However,
usually the case is that they are behaving
in such as a way as an individual, and not
because they are part of a particular
social group.
The youth are often unjustly branded
with a range of stereotypes, which are
mostly related to being rebellious;
against society’s accepted view of what is
normal, as well as rebelling against the
generation be inherently bad? Can all of
the 5.5 million young people aged
between 13 and 19 be involved in
criminal activity?
Despite the statistics appearing to show
an increase in youth offending, the Youth
Justice Board, a government
organization, tells us that people think
the rate of youth offending is on the
increase because of a number of reasons,
including:
 more crimes are being brought to
justice
 more crimes are being detected
 the community and the media focus
on anti-social behaviour, which is
often mistaken for offending (this
leaves people with the impression
that crime is going up).
You must also take into consideration
that the UK population has increased
greatly over time, so as well as the
increase in the number of young
criminals; there is also an increase in the
number of young people becoming
involved in positive activities such as
charity work. A prime example is the
increase in the number of young people
continuing into in higher education and
university, building themselves a stable
and successful career or profession.

A local youth, Matthew Jordan- “Most of us, like, wear hoodies cos’
we’re like cold and stuff innit, not cos’ we’re about to like stab you or
something”
At Dolore ut bene ratis duis gilvus jugis hendrerit suscipit regula populus. Quae ludus os qui eu, gemino aliquip conventio. © Umar Khawaja 2010