(posted 7526 days ago)Mirror
CRIME PAYS SAY TEENS
By Tom Parry and Graham BroughTEENAGERS believe crime pays, it was revealed yesterday.
Forty per cent of youngsters across the country believe it is the way to easy money.
And in deprived inner cities 60 per cent agree.
The astonishing figures came on the day a teenage boy lay critically ill after being stabbed for his mobile phone.
A young mum was stabbed seven times on a crowded bus by a mugger after she chased him and grabbed back her handbag.
And a teenage girl told police how she was slashed with a knife and nearly drowned by a gang.
The survey by insurance giant Norwich Union showed teenagers reckon prison is the best deterrent to crime.
Only five per cent thought community service worked - and fines were backed by just one per cent.
The poll of 600 13 to 19-year-olds showed 40 per cent knew someone who had committed a crime, with this doubling to eight out of 10 in poorer areas.
And 94 per cent in poor areas had been victims, usually of assault or mugging.
Norwich Union is working with Crime Concern on an anti-crime apprenticeship, where youngsters help set up crime reduction and drug education programmes in poor areas.
The firm's Jill Willis said: "It is not sufficient to rely only on preventive measures. We need hands-on approaches."
The 15-year-old boy was stabbed as he walked to school in Walthamstow market, East London. Police said his attacker was aged about 16.
The 22-year-old mum was robbed on a bus in Kennington, South London, with her five-month-old baby in a pram.
She and a friend chased the man through streets and retrieved her bag.
But the man, in his 20s, followed her back on to the bus and stabbed her. She was stable in hospital.
A teenage girl who cannot swim almost drowned when she was pushed into a river by a gang after refusing to hand over her mobile phone.
The 18-year-old girl was walking home on a towpath in Reading after a night out when six youths on pushbikes demanded her mobile at knifepoint.
She refused - and was pushed into the river. She struggled in the water for a few minutes before two men heard her cries and rescued her.