Restorative justice

We have been visiting the Isle of Wight for quite a long time now, of recent years Brading, on the east of the island. We nearly always make it to Shanklin in the course of these visits, taking in both the main shopping street and the famous Shanklin Chine. The shopping street is that of rather a poor area, both by virtue of the sort of shops and the sort of people wandering about. Lots of charity shops. While the Chine, is a rather old fashioned attraction in what was once the thriving tourist village of old Shanklin. Lots of thatch and tea shops. The bottom of the chine, that is to say the sea end, rather than the village end at the top of the cliff, is snapped above.

With the result that we were a bit shocked to read of some dreadful vandalism to a large house on the fringe of old Shanklin. A large, fairly old house, in among some new build. Owned by a couple who are clearly quite well off as they had not been there for a month or so at the time of the crime.

The damage was done over what appears to have been a period of some weeks by a gang of half a dozen or so youngsters, girls and boys, aged around 11-15 at the time. And there was a lot of damage: windows broken, furniture smashed up, walls daubed and mess everywhere. Smashing up someone else's house because they could, just for the fun of it. Maybe £200,000 or more worth of damage.

The youngsters, too young to be named, have been fined £1,500 each and given referral orders for a year. There appear to have been no sanctions on their parents, not all of whom turned up in court. I assume that most if not all of the families involved are poor and that there would not be much point in larger fines: the money is just not there. Referral orders, of which there is some description at reference 2, seem to be all about supervision and restorative justice. Which in all the circumstances might be the best that one can do - assuming that the Isle of Wight is any better placed to deliver social services after years of Tory cuts than authorities across the rest of the country.

We can't do much more to redress the hurt to the couple concerned and I suppose that the rest of us will carry the money cost in the form of increased premiums for our household insurance. I associate to having one's house trashed by drug addicts needing fifty quid for their next fix, another crime where the hurt and damage is out of all proportion to any gain.

This morning, I had a quick look at the social situation on the island, turning up references 3 and 4. The bottom line seems to be that the Isle of Wight is quite poor, with a scatter of deprived urban areas, including Shanklin, but that crime is quite low. Poor, perhaps, with the decline of agricultural employment and the decline of the once thriving holiday industry on the island.

Noting in passing, that, to my mind, ONS has got a bit carried away with its graphics at reference 3. All very clever, but a bit light on digestible information. I associate to the huge and expensive economic atlas of Ontario which I once owned, another triumph of graphics over common sense. Bing turns up a picture of the book from Amazon (who have not actually got a copy for sale), while Google turns up reference 5. With one copy having found its way to the library of the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

PS 1: 07:07: the 'Upload from computer' option in the new 'Insert  image' dialog box still not working in Windows 11.

PS 2: 09:22: but it is working in Windows 10.

References

Reference 1: https://shanklinchine.co.uk/.

Reference 2: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7597e7e5274a436829876a/fact-sheet-youth-referral-orders.pdf.

Reference 3: https://www.ons.gov.uk/visualisations/dvc1371/#/E06000046.

Reference 4: https://iow.gov.uk/azservices/documents/2552-JSNA-2021-Isle-of-Wight-Health-Places-summary-report-FINAL-v1.pdf.

Reference 5: Economic atlas of Ontario - W. G. Dean, Geoffrey J. Matthews - 1969. Published for the Government of Ontario by the University of Toronto Press.

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