Shane Morris's victims wanted custody, not a chat

"This is just a sign to all the other kids that they can do what they like and get away with it. The only answer is to remove them from society," said shop owner Tim Woodlock.

The 13-year-olds - who even threatened to firebomb the home of a security guard at one store they targeted - are the subject of an anti-social behaviour order, but will not be taken from their home.

But would custodial sentences really curb the "yob" culture which, it has been claimed, grips the UK?

Listen to louts

Britain's wealthiest man, The Duke of Westminster, this week said the authorities should first listen to young people to help combat the perceived wave of loutishness.

Despite tough talk on crime from the UK Government, many experts have detected a growing interest in a softer approach to youth crime.

Have we lost touch with today's youth?

Law professor Dr Gerry Johnstone says so-called "restorative justice" rather than "punitive justice" is set to "become very, very influential for dealing with young offenders".

Rather than punishing teenage criminals by locking them up, the "restorative" model asks the offender to make a symbolic gesture to repair the damage they have done.

What form this "reparation" should take is often decided by the actual victim of the crime - with Scottish shoplifters in one project going to work in the stores from which they stole.

Face-to-face

The offenders must also meet those they have targeted, both to admit their misdeeds and to hear how those actions affected their victims.

In the Edinburgh scheme, 80% of victims found this process of mediation and reparation worthwhile - many saying it helped them to allay nagging fears about why they were victimised or that they might be targeted again.

Should shoplifters put something back?

In a similar project run in Fife, it was found that more than two-thirds of its problem teenagers did not re-offend witin two years of their first referral.

The authorities in Northern Ireland are also examining this "imaginative" system for dealing with juvenile offenders.

Announcing the closure of a controversial boys' jail, Northern Ireland Office minister Des Browne said he was commited to a "ground-breaking" project "to get young people to address their offending behaviour, particularly in relation to the effect it has on their victims".

An American academic has been brought in to test the effectiveness of restorative justice in dealing with more serious crimes in London's Hackney and Lewisham.

The charity Victim Support - which has 400 nationwide branches - has given its backing to the idea of bringing offenders face-to-face with their victims.

Court out

However, some voice caution about this new approach - which is also catching on in New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Dr Johnstone - author of Restorative Justice: Ideas, Values, Debates - says there is some concern that offenders could skip answering charges in a proper court.

"They may go into the reparation process without legal advice and unwittingly say something incriminating. There could also be instances where they make amends to a victim without being formally found guilty of a crime."

Do we need something more 'imaginative'?

At the other end of the spectrum, Dr Johnstone says some victims express scepticism about their involvement in the process - worrying reparations are a soft option for the offender, rather than being of benefit to them.

However, even in the case of the Morris triplets reparation has played a role. Magistrates noted that Shane Morris - previously in trouble for stealing a car - has been volunteering his help at a local historic tourist attraction.