THERE is a grim familiarity about the claim we report tonight of housing estates being turned into no-go areas by teenage thugs and vandals - and the demand for more bobbies on the beat.

Time and again the problem surfaces. And it is not just in inner-urban areas where it occurs.

Again, time after time, solutions are sought - extra police, security cameras, tough tenancy contracts, private security patrols and more.

Yet, what this repeated experience highlights is not just the extent of the problem, but the phenomenon itself.

It shows a society brutalised by widespread rejection of the respect for others.

Indeed, that very fact was neatly summarised by Blackburn's housing chief as councillors complained of nightly trouble from youths on every estate in the town. There is a national problem of anti-social behaviour, he said.

And as much as dealing with its effects, it is the attitude itself that must be confronted.

For though it may not be the source of the serious, high-profile offences that are found in the rising crime statistics, it is the circumstance that lies behind the fear, frustration and anger of decent citizens everywhere who are harassed by the yobs.

It is the menace that makes ordinary people afraid to go out on the streets at night, even in "quiet" country towns, and the spectre that stalks the shuttered town centres and the bolted-and-barred homes of communities that no longer feel safe.

This newspaper has faced criticism in the past from those in authority for highlighting the problem and its repeated effects - we have a negative outlook, they say, which magnifies the issue and over-intensifies concern.

But, as a newspaper that is part of the community, we know what worries decent, ordinary people.

And what concerns them most is this everyday experience of loutishness, vandalism, graffiti-daubing, littering, noise and the tide of petty larceny, break-ins and auto-crime that goes with it all. Too many lives are being made a misery by it.

And it would be a foolish head-in-the-sand outlook to play it down. For something has to be done.

True, much is being done in recognition of the anti-social menace that has sprung up in this generation.

The TV security cameras, the use by councils of tougher tenancy agreements and professional witnesses to combat intimidation by bad tenants of neighbours who complain, projects like the Safer Cities anti-crime partnerships and neighbourhood watch schemes are excellent initiatives.

But we can only expect the tide to turn when those in authority admit that society has become hostage to a snarling "me first" outlook and make real efforts to stamp out the attitude as well as its effects.

It must begin with serious efforts by the government to properly catch and punish offenders. And politicians concerned with the issue might note that the rightward lurch of Labour towards that response is not just a pragmatic manoeuvre for votes, but an appreciation of the national mood of fear, frustration and anger.

And if that is reflected by the tough temper of Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw, it is no doubt only because it reflects the feelings and experiences that his constituents in Blackburn have delivered to him.

The louts need to be hit hard, then, with more policing - sufficient to allow zero-tolerance initiatives to be introduced, at least in the most troubled areas - and with stinging punishment in the courts.

Then, when the realisation is abroad that anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated, the task can begin on rooting out its inspiration - though that may require everything from violence on TV to the collapse of the family to come under the microscope.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.