Voiceover

As a society, (cutaway of Romford shopping strip - public) we are becoming

increasingly preoccupied with the negative things highlighted in the media about
youth. (cutaway of ‘no hoods’) Binge drinking, drug-taking, street violence, gang
culture and general lack of respect seem to be the issues most readily grabbing the
headlines. (cutaway of newspaper stands)

Voiceover
62% of the public believe that the number of crimes committed by youths is on the
rise. However, youth homicides
declined by 68% between 1993 and 1999 and are at their lowest rate since 1966.
(Homicide graphs)

Where have these misconceptions come from? (cutaway of youths)

Andrew
Police Officer (Havering College sign cutaway)
Natalie (montage of cutaways - different selections of teenagers)

Voiceover
Do you think the media give an objective recollection of events when informing the
public of todays youth?

John Murphy (cutaway of a selection of newspaper headlines)

Rhys Ward
Natalie (cutaways of Jack Petchy awards/logo)

Voiceover
76% of the public say they form their opinions about crime from what they see or
read in the news, more than
three times the number who state they get their primary information on crime from
personal experience. These misconceptions indicate something is going drastically
wrong. So are the news media presenting an accurate picture of youth and crime?
(graphs to back up research)

Billy Cartawick

Voiceover
Research from the charity Catch 22 (cutaway of Catch 22 logo) showed that two
thirds of adults overestimated the level of youth crime, while 10% of adults believed
as many as two out of every five teenagers were criminals. In reality only 5.7% of
young people are involved in crime.
So who are the people to blame for this negative stereotype that the youth have
been placed with?
(on screen text)

These studies highlight how the public demonise youths, regarding them as a danger
to us and themselves
and believing that we need protection from them. (cutaways of teenagers, college)

Negative views are damaging. The question we must ask ourselves is if you treat
people a certain way,
will they eventually behave the way we continue to expect?
(cutaway: 'two students allowed in at a time' sign)
Ultimately we risk forcing them to live up to a negative image that is actually based
on the actions of a very small minority. (cutaway of students queued up outside
Tesco)

Andrew Rosindale (cutaway of students coming in and out of college)

Billy Cartawick

Voiceover
If we continue with this portrayal, Will we be responsible for standing in the way of a
historic opportunity for the youth of today and indeed our society as a whole?

Break title - WASTED YOUTH

End of part 1