Every time I see news headlines about “antisocial youth”, I instantly know what’s coming next.

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Politicians promise tougher policing, harsher punishments, and new powers to control young people in public spaces.

Instead of investing in care, governments invest in surveillance, policing, and criminalisation. But these responses are not solutions. They are distractions from a deeper political failure: the abandonment of young people by the state and the expansion of punishment as a substitute for care.

As someone with a youth worker background, I have seen what actually changes lives. Relationships, trust, stability, and collective care. I have worked with young people who were written off by schools, criminalised by police, and treated as threats before anyone asked what they were carrying or surviving.

What transformed them was not surveillance or coercion. It was having consistent........

© LBC