Just to be clear I don't advocate corporal punishment. What I do think, however, is that creative sentencing works. For instance, in Belgium, perpetrators and victims can meet through a new-ish initiative. Similarly, these youths could, provided they are sufficiently motivated, be put through a modelling workshop. There also is evidence that this helps the victim deal with their traumatic incident.
None of the hard strategies work. If only a judge was given the power to oblige them to attending MDMRC or another nearby club for 10 years. Or if their computers were ceremoniously destroyed with a hammer. Prison will sadly set them on a path of addiction, poverty and petty crime. In some instances, these people become a serious threat to the community. Rather, giving them the tools to sympathise with the railway community is the long and slow way, but maybe in 20 years' time they will be able to look back and say to themselves 'Those modellers at the MDMRC really turned my life around'. Who knows, perhaps in 60 years' time they might even be the ones championing our great hobby.
I also feel compelled to add that Military Service does very little to improve them. It just reinforces the stereotype of the army being full of 'Get yer sorry head over here!' type drill sergeants, furnished with canes and a dictionary full of expletives.
