Vandals.

[mattc]

There must be a numbers element to this.

As popn. density increases, there is more chance of a bad apple turning up at your favourite phone box/ memorial/wall-without-graffiti.

Then a 2ry effect comes in - society works better when everyone knows everyone else*. A kid is more likely to commit these crimes if he thinks he won't be seen by a friend of his parents.

So city kids may not be inherently chavvier than rural ones.

[*well, in this sense it does. you may not actually want all your neighbours to know you ... ]

[bobb]

It's a hard 'ch', and is the same as the Romany word for child.  How it got its new meaning, I have no idea.

I thought it was derived from the Romany word for boy? I'm guessing it got it's current meaning from the stereotypical view that young male gypsies are trouble makers.

My favourite definition of chav though is "A term middle class people can use to mock the poor without feeling guilt" 

[Zoidburg]

It's a hard 'ch', and is the same as the Romany word for child.  How it got its new meaning, I have no idea.

I thought it was derived from the Romany word for boy? I'm guessing it got it's current meaning from the stereotypical view that young male gypsies are trouble makers.

My favourite definition of chav though is "A term middle class people can use to mock the poor without feeling guilt"  

I will continue to use the term "chav" to describe thieving scum, I grew up in this area and toughed it out like everyone else did.

It's not a class thing - it's a human being thing.

You are kind of implying that persons from less well off backgrounds are less sophisticated and in need of your sympathy - this is not the case.

Constantly blaming environmental factors for people acting like animals stopped washing with me a long time ago.

[Really Ancien]

It was certainly a class thing with us, us kids in the low density urban fringe would call them 'townies'. The poorly supervised offspring of shift workers in the local factories. Then the factories closed and the better motivated townies moved to find work. leaving a feckless underclass, wich hasn't worked for a generation. The only thing that stopped the town centre becoming a no-go area were the asian immigrants, who tend to be well behaved.

Damon.

[Zoidburg]

Thats not really class but geographics is it not?

The better motivated moved to find work - this leaves no excuse for the remaining feckless ones IMHO.