Do you have any actual evidence for this?
It is a common perception among most generations through the ages that crime is getting worse from one generation to the next.
This perception persists when there is no evidence for it being true, or even when the reverse is true.
How dangerous is Greater London and how does it compare to other counties in London? If you are searching for crime statistics in London, you must read our report.
crimerate.co.uk
This myth isn't recent or confined to the UK; it is an extremely long-standing, worldwide phenomenon.
One of the consistent themes in society is older generations believe the newest generation is the worst behaved.
okcfox.com
Each generation has remarkable differences and unique characterizations, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is the tendency for those generations to critique each other.
www.deseret.com
I do wonder if it's possibly made even worse in the modern era by increased reporting and also social media hysteria.
Completely agree, especially with the point about social media making things
seem worse. For example, kids fighting on the way home from school is absolutely nothing new - but now that videos of such fights can spread all over social media, it's created a perception amongst
some people that this is a new or significantly worse problem.
Overall, I would say that I don't think antisocial behaviour has got worse as such, but it has changed and to a point become more prevalent, but see below.
I feel like antisocial behaviour has split significantly when compared to previous decades. Serious antisocial behaviour - that which feels threatening - has reduced in quantity (frequency?) but has perhaps become more serious when encountered, i.e a more serious risk of significant violence such as stabbing. Overall though, this sort of behaviour seems to occur less often - you certainly don't seem to hear as much about people being mugged, for example.
On the other hand, I feel like the majority of antisocial behaviour has become less intimidating, less serious perhaps. It's all those annoying things, rather than something that actually causing much of an inconvenience. Things like feet on seats, playing music/videos out loud, speakerphone conversations and the like. I think this type of behaviour has massively increased, but perhaps also significantly, is often less malicious.
I'm less likely to walk down the street and come across an intimidating group of youths blocking the pavement and refusing to move, forcing me to cross/walk in the road or walk into them and initiate some sort of physical interaction, but more likely to sit in a cafe whilst somebody is playing videos out loud on their phone.
So, overall, I think there is probably
more antisocial behaviour (based on what most people on this forum seem to classify as such) but, in contrast with the past, the vast majority is both far less serious and less likely to be of malicious intent whereas serious antisocial has become
more serious but - at the same time -
less frequent.
(All above based on anecdotal/personal experience)
