REGARDING your report (LET, June 22) on teenage thugs in Clayton-le-Moors, I just had to respond as I was born and raised there.

I have lived in Los Angeles now for 16 years and we have our problems too. But the way the law deals with teenage crimes, misdemeanours and felonies here has certainly changed over the years.

The judiciary has far more power than the British judiciary and the scope of the sentence fitting the crime is usually left to the judge - as with the parent who was ordered to be shackled to its wayward child to keep an eye on it.

American justice decisions sometimes seems ludicrous and bizarre, but they are often tinged with common sense, linked to modern-day living. And they do hold the parents and delinquent children responsible.

That is why they have truancy and curfew laws for minors. Maybe the law in England is missing the point - it's not targeting the problem, just the result.

I personally would have the parents of delinquent youngsters ordered by a magistrate or judge to attend parenting classes, for which they had to pay full costs, to learn how to control their own children.

If it ever happens, sit back and watch the result. It would surprise you, I'm sure.

CLIVE KNOWLES, Los Angeles, California, USA.

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