A number of correspondents have recently criticised the lack of action by Sussex Police.

The blame does not lie with the police. Those of us who are the wrong side of 50 would not have dared cheek a police officer in our childhood.

Those foolish enough to be caught up to no good were tried and punished within the space of five seconds.

Only in serious cases would juveniles be put before the court. Then it was approved school or Borstal.

Such institutions may not have done the young offender any good but at least it stopped them making life miserable for everyone else.

Unfortunately, in the late Fifties, a group of social scientists decided to justify their existence by looking for the causes of crime.

What those well-meaning do-gooders forgot is that there is a big difference between an excuse to do something and a reason to do it.

There may well be a link between poverty and crime.

However, poverty is only an excuse to commit crime, it is not a reason. Attention deficiency is another good excuse.

To finance tax cuts, the Government closed down the Borstals and approved schools. Politicians can afford to make such moves because, in their posh, private estates, they do not have to live with the problem.

The final insult is that the Home Secretary has appointed an American policeman to show how the job should be done.

Of course, crime is going down in America because the US has got shot of the dogooders.

Criminals in there get locked up for a long time - "Three strikes and you're out".

The only reason our own prisons are so overcrowded is because short-term sentences are no deterrent.

If a British criminal knew his third conviction would result in a 20-year sentence, he would not commit that third crime.

-Simon Smith, Upper Beeding