The mere sight of a hooded teenager is enough to make some people hurriedly cross the road. But appearances can be deceptive. Not every street-wise youth is out to terrorise you. Meet Mr Hoody Two Shoes. Sharmarke Hersi fits the description. He's tall with cropped hair and wears a hoodie and trainers. And for those whose fear of teenagers is driven by something more troubling still, the colour of his skin will no doubt make them cross the road. But he's not happy about society's impression of him or his peers. In fact he's pretty angry about it - not least after he was stopped by police officers last year who were looking for a knife-wielding robber in north London. When the A-level student asked why he had been stopped, he was told he fitted the description of a tall black man wearing a hoodie. If he meets the same officers again, he will be telling them that, subject to getting the grades, he's probably off to study international relations at university. "It's like some kind of moral panic," he says philosophically.

"I was on the train not long ago and a lady was holding her bag tight because of my dress code. You sometimes see people crossing the road to avoid you or putting their phone away." Gang culture and youth crime is something that Sharmarke and his friends grew up seeing around their neck of Camden in north London. But after one student died in a knife attack in 1994, the head of one of the biggest schools in the area vowed to turn it around and instil in all his young charges a sense of community solidarity.dfb hoodie 2014 Huw Salisbury, now retired, was nationally recognised for his efforts at South Camden Community School, particularly because of his pioneering work in integrating refugee children into the mainstream. ccsu hoodiesBut Sharmarke says it's the former head's mantra of doing what is right for those around you that stuck with him.alstyle hoodies

"My little brother and his friends were hanging around in groups and had nothing to do. There was violence between the white community and the Asian community and people like me, Somali kids, were sort of in the middle. I didn't want to see them following in the footsteps of others, younger boys looking up to the older ones and thinking that gangs were the thing to do."la lakers hoodie ebay That's when youth charity Envision turned up. The organisation works with hundreds of teenagers, predominantly in London, and helps them take leading roles in shaping their communities. Unlike most volunteering organisations, it doesn't tell them what to do. Instead, it supports them in all their ideas - good and bad - and teaches them how to negotiate the roadblocks of officialdom which stand in the way. "You don't know what's going to work sometimes because every school or community is different - but it's about being willing to put some trust [as adults] in someone's ideas

School ban outlaws 'hoodies' In the case of Sharmarke, he wanted to set up a sports club, based around the martial arts he enjoys, to provide a focus and discipline for younger teenagers at risk of getting into gang culture. Run on a shoe string budget, the project eventually attracted up to 40 people per session - 40 people who could very well have been hanging around on the streets. As a result, gang culture may be a little bit weaker today in one area of north London than it was two years ago. "We believe that young people have the ideas and we want to take their ideas and turn them into action," says James Williams of Envision. "You don't know what's going to work sometimes because every school or community is different. But it's about being willing to put some trust [as adults] in someone's ideas." Demos, a thinktank that looks at what makes communities tick, says Sharmarke's experience and Envision's other projects have wider lessons. Its new report looks into what makes Britain's most active volunteers.

And it argues that fear of hoodie culture, and the branding of teenagers as apathetic or a threat, is damaging efforts to rebuild communities. Crucially, argue authors Paul Skidmore and John Craig, society and officialdom's reluctance to listen misses a trick: if government wants to strengthen communities, then people like Sharmarke need the chance to do the work, rather than just be told what to do. Rather than focus on Asbo-aggro rhetoric, those in power should actually be asking the hoodie two-shoes in society for help in finding the way out. The report's publication is timely. This month sees the first Children's Commissioner for England sit down at his desk. Professor Al Aynsley-Green argues that government needs to stop consulting young people and start properly involving them in society as citizens, albeit young ones. It's a view shared by Demos' John Craig who says the approach needs to be applied to volunteering. "Young people expect to be able to engage and participate in communities on their own terms," says John Craig.

"They don't want to sit on a committee and so on. Now that's a challenge for politics and politicians because some of the things that they may want to do are difficult to measure in terms of what they do for a community. "But that's why we called this report Start with People because much more needs to be done to go to young people and challenge preconceptions that we may have.David Orr advises us  not to panic… Recently, I attended the event Morals in Moral Panic, the fourth and final in the series of Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded seminars exploring the phenomenon of moral panic as it relates to 21st century social issues and anxieties. One of the drivers for the seminar series which commenced in 2012 was the intention to mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of Stan Cohen’s seminal work Folk Devils and Moral Panics. Professor Stephen Webb kicked things off by suggesting that the etymology of the term moral panic could in fact be traced back to 1769 and Sir Albert Moral, resident of Orkney.

Moreover, it was suggested that the nature of moral panics has changed over time. Where before the concern was with witches and ‘Reds Under the Bed’ in the McCarthy era, moral panics are increasingly linked to particular social phenomena from “twerking” to trafficking as opposed to individuals. However, the overriding message, emphasised by Frank Furedi, was that it is important to explore the moral dimension of panic theory. With reference to the work of David Garland, he noted that when someone dismisses concerns about a social phenomenon as little more than a “moral panic”, that person may be refusing to acknowledge the legitimate fears of others. This can go hand-in-hand with unstated negative assumptions about the morality of those who promote moral panics. During a week when UKIP managed to secure one of the six Scottish seats in the European Parliament with its unrelenting anti-Europe and anti-immigration message, this analysis certainly gives pause for thought.

How does this relate to social work practice and to youth justice specifically? Well, a quick, in-exhaustive and by no means undisputed rundown of supposed moral panics in social work in the last 20 years might include the following: Historical abuse in residential child care New Technologies and Internet Offending The ‘Pornification’ of youth Child protection and the ‘Named Person’ Risk Assessment and Risk Management. In reflecting on the content of the day’s seminar, I wondered about what might be the opposite of moral panic. As with so many complex phenomena, thinking of the world in black/white, either/or binaries tends not to be terribly enlightening. Take the Jimmy Savile case and Operation Yewtree. Egregious acts of sexual abuse focused primarily in the 70s and 80s were evidently perpetrated by individuals in positions of power and influence, not least in the BBC. Recently, several high profile figures have been found guilty in a Court of Law for these abuses, specifically Stuart Hall and Max Clifford.

Savile was never subject to such proceedings but the “Innocent until proven guilty” precept appears to have been dispensed of in his case. What seems clear is that when a moral panic narrative takes hold, it often generates a great deal of heat and not a huge amount of light. My view would be that the abuse of children and young people, when it emerges, whether in the form of allegations or tangible evidence, ought to be investigated in a robust and transparent fashion. Those responsible for such acts of abuse should be held to account. To either overstate or underplay the frequency, severity or prevalence of behaviour as significant and harmful as child sexual abuse is clearly irresponsible. I have no truck with ‘moral entrepreneurs’ who may seize on such a phenomenon, exaggerating its endemic nature, in order to attract funding for projects and activities aimed at tackling the scourge. Equally, I have no truck with those who would prefer to sweep matters under the carpet or talk of “a few bad apples” than address the reality of what may have taken place and to respond to it accordingly.

From a social work perspective, I took away two important messages from the seminar. Firstly, it remains as important as ever to retain a sense of curiosity and willingness to question. Why would somebody say that? What reason does X have for claiming Y? What if I am wrong? Secondly, it is essential to avoid being drawn unnecessarily into diversionary activities that might distract attention from issues pertaining to social injustice and inequality. How much of the moral panic about ‘neds’ and ‘hoodies’ at the start of the noughties served as a smokescreen for a raft of policies that ensured already socially disenfranchished young people were further stigmatised and victimised? Maybe we should be spending less time reading Cohen and more time on the work of Thomas Pinketty? David Orr is a National Development Consultant with CYCJ’s practice team, seconded from Edinburgh Youth Offending Service (YOS). His specialisms include managing high risk offenders and restorative justice, particularly its application in the aftermath of serious harm.