are people just getting nastier?

[Kayless]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/...ngland-devon-15856146
Upset my boyfriend and I'll microwave your cat! The woman who put the cat in the bin was bad enough, what is happenning to us? There's the kids that stabbed the disabled guy and nicked his leg, there's the bloke who towed a dog behind his Porsche, are we just getting nastier as a race?

[Old_Geezer]

No, I suspect it is just a case of more getting reported.
A percentage of the people have always been nasty, and a percentage nice.

[rowanwitch]

no. I don't think so.. its just we hear about the nasty ones as the media likes to jump on each dreadful case...good news doesn't equal high circulation/viewers there are still a lot of kind helpful decent people out in the world...

[naomi24]

Yes.

[Sqad]

With the abolition of corporal punishment, one would have thought that a less violent society would emerge.......clearly little signs of that.

[emmie]

No it's just in the papers more often. As i read that cat story earlier, made me feel physically sick.

[jackthehat]

I was at school with a lad who delighted in doing some pretty spectacularly nasty things to animals (so much so that a group of us wrote to his potential employers - he would have been working with animals)......these days he would probably have found himself in the papers or on 'tinterweb.

[jomifl]

I think a lot of young people have difficulty distinguishing between reality and the video game fantasy world that many of them spend so much time in and so are detached from the consequences of their actions.

[anotheoldgit]

/// I suspect it is just a case of more getting reported. ///

That may or may not be the case, but regardless of that, these horrible things are actually happening, and unless we stop this continuing breakdown of our society it can only get worse.

What can be done?

Well there are much more learned persons than I, who are trained to look into these things, and come up with some answers, but in the meantime, a good start would be to introduce much harsher punishments for the perpetrators of all crimes.

[ummmm]

Nasty things have always happened.

[Sammy48]

most definately but what goes around comes around.

[Sqad]

Just anecdotal......just anecdotal....but I always felt safe walking through the backstreets of the East End of London at midnight in the 60's.......but I wouldn't do it today.

Yes, I do remember the Krays and Jack the Ripper and my feelings remain the same.

[Gromit]

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was founded in 1824, so there has obviously been the same problem for very many years. Technology such as microwaves or cars may not have existed then, but there were people doing equally horrible things to animal 200 years ago.

Humans can be cruel to each other as well as animals, unfortunately it is part of who we are.

[Sqad]

Gromit....I accept all you have said...BUT...despite reforms, there is no evidence that the situation is improving.

[ummmm]

But is it getting worse?

[pa___ul3]

I may shock a few people here but I think so, although not in this case. This is an example of a horribly callous individual. I think people like that have always existed and, unfortunately, always will, I don't think it's anything to do with society.
But in general I think people are because it's required in their societies in order to succeed. It was a while ago now in one of AOG's threads about young black lads causing problems and my answer was that it's just about that level of society getting nastier and, where the population is higher, people have to be even nastier in order to be the nastiest bastard.. which is the one that sells all the drugs and gets all the money. So yes, because of illegal drugs, I think some people are getting nastier. I'm still a ruddy nice chap though!

[RATTER15]

Im not sure, I think we are just getting to hear all about more and more.

[237SJ]

I`m not sure they`re getting nastier but I definitely think that in the UK, a lot of people have lost respect for others and themselves. And, as mentioned, I think some have become desinsitized by violent video games. Yesterday, my mum was in the food till queue at M&S. She said that two tills away there was an old lady who wasn`t quick enough with her basket and the kid who must have been about 17 (with baby in tow) screamed the foulest mouthed abuse at her. Everyone looked on and said nothing (which is part of the problem). Even the staff just sat there and did nothing. That sort of behaviour is more common than it was 20 years ago.

[carrust]

When I supervised Community service for the probation service, I had a guy who got 240hrs for kicking a puppy to death. He was bragging that he took his 9yr old son to the slaughterhouse (he was a slaughter man) & let him slaughter a calf. You try to treat all the offenders in the same way, but I would have gleefully strangled that man.
In answer to the question, I don't think we have got nastier as a race, there have always been sicko's in our society.

[anotheoldgit]

I think it is a growing problem passed down the recent generations, and before you all start raining down on me, you must admit that some children of today are much more vicious than in the past.

Take the use of knives for instance, years ago it was part of a boy's attire to have a sheath knife hanging from his belt, and a catapult tucked in his belt, and most would carry an air rifle or pistol.

But did they stab or shoot at each other? of course they didn't, why even carrying a toy cap firing gun, would not be tolerated these days.

One has to ask why?