Most governments feel more comfortable spending taxpayers' money on punishing louts rather than counselling them.

ECONOMIST: Youth work

An advertising campaign is also being launched to get the message across that litter louts will be fined.

BBC: Clackmannanshire Council to fine litter louts ?50

He was one of the most insensitive louts you could ever possibly imagine.

NPR: Electronics Pioneer William Shockley's Legacy

In the 1890s, this German gymnast and patriotic teacher raged against the "foot-louts" in Germany suffering from what was called "the English disease".

BBC: Champions League final: Is fussball coming home?

But residents on Middlesbrough's mean estates ascribe him near-messianic powers, and reverentially recount anecdotes about his pursuit of litter louts and intimidation of thugs.

ECONOMIST: Policemen and politics

Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak were as young as those louts in Animal House when they popularized the PC in the same year as that movie was released.

FORBES: BOOM INTERRUPTUS

One, from the Scottish Daily Express read: "Fury over Louts".

BBC: Day Queen booed at Stirling university remembered

Suggest that louts need love and understanding.

ECONOMIST: British politics