'Lack of moral sense key factor in British teens breaking law'

A delinquent minority will commit an average of 86 crimes each by the age of 16, with less than 4 per cent responsible for nearly half of all youth crime, the study said.

The 16 per cent who admitted having the weakest moral sense and self-control were responsible for 60 per cent of all the recorded crimes, The Independent newspaper reported today.

Cambridge researchers studied 700 teenagers over five years in Peterborough, chosen as a bellwether location for its average size, crime level and social make-up.

From the age of 12 to 16 youngsters were asked about their attitudes to lawlessness and asked what criminal things they had done. Their answers were cross-checked with police records.

Crime occurred when teenagers with little sense of right and wrong were in areas where people were unlikely to intervene