Do you think youths are treated differently in urban and rural areas?

Question

I do. I'm 18 and live in somerset (that's rural) and people smile at me the whole time when i walk through the village, including people who wouldn't recognise me and even try to talk to me - american tourists mainly. admittedly i come from a resoundingly middle class background and don't own a tracksuit etc. but still, when i go into bristol, people look on me with a certain degree of suspicion, as if "well he's young, he's got a knife" - i do, it's for fishing...

another good example is with the police. In churchill (that's the village) a girl got hit by a car, i saw it and got interviewed by a really nice policemen. In bristol though, we saw a pickpocket and the policemen asked if i could keep my hands out of my pockets!

to me, there almost seems to be two different Britain's for young people

thoughts?

Answer 1

yup. I live on the boundary.

Answer 2

I think this is common all over the world and I have traveled quite a bit abroad while I was with the US Marine Corps . It is almost universaal that rural young people are trusted more than young people in the city ., and I think a lot of it comes from the way the parents raise their kids . In general rural parents are far stricter on their kids than those in the city and the entire village helps the parents do that , but in the city not everyone knows everyone so there is no help and the kids sort of run wild

Answer 3

I think that too.  Even in the States.  I grew up in a small town. If a bunch of teens were out running together, it was because it was Friday night and that was what you did.  You cruised the streets and parking lots looking for people you knew.  The police didn't bother us unless we were drinking.  I had never heard of getting a ticket for loitering or cruising until I moved to the city after high school.  Small towns allow kids to be kids.  Large cities treat them like criminals for being young.   I think the problem is that many older people have forgotten what it was like to be young and the lack of discipline that is allowed by the law in cities on the part of the parent is diminishing.  in small towns here, if your kid gets out of line, you deal with them and people realize that you are being a good parent.  People in the cities are different.  I remember people driving to school with their shotguns in the back windshield because it was hunting season and they were going after school got out. If they had been in the city, they would have been arrested.  There are two different worlds: one with common sense and the other with no sense.

Answer 4

It actually depends on the police officier

Answer 5

YEH !!

Answer 6

I see your point, but I know of one person age 17 that is always stopped by the police due to his looks and this is in a rural UK setting and when he is in town they leave him alone. Just when you think you have fathomed human nature the polarity changes!  I have put some links I found to some of the reasons I think they stop him.

p.s. Bristol isn't that far from here.

Answer 7

I think you are wearing rose tinted spectacles. I live in a village in Devon and the crime is as bad per head of the population as it is in a major city. Most of the young people are rude and arrogant and seem to do just what they like. Perhaps Somerset is different, but I doubt it having seen some of the villages.

Answer 8

YEH THE YOUTHS GET BROUGHT UP IN A DIFFERENT WAY LEARNING THAT THIS IS THE ONLY WAY IN LIFE TO BE A HARD GANG MEMBER AND BE INVOLVED IN ELEGAL THINGS