PEOPLE IN Dundee and Angus are scared to go out at night as crime, gang culture, and alcohol and drug abuse lead to a “more violent” society.

That is the finding of a new survey on modern evils released yesterday by the Dundee Anti-Poverty Forum.

Chairman Jim Milne said the fear of crime was top of the list of concerns for people in the area, according to research carried out by the group during the winter.

“A lot of people spoke about gangs of youths running about terrorising everybody and people were frightened to go out at night,” he said.

But he added that he was “surprised” nobody mentioned terrorism. He had expected the issue to feature in people’s concerns, given it has such a high profile in media reports.

“We tried not to lead (the interviewees) at all,” he said. “It was important people were able to bring up issues they thought were important.”

The key findings of the report were that the public were concerned about crime, gang culture, alcohol and drug misuse and that was true across a range of age groups and among the working and unemployed.

People from rural communities had concerns about services such as transport, post office and bank branches being under threat.

Society was seen as being more violent than in the past. Courts were seen to be lenient.

The breakdown of family values and moral decay featured heavily. Poor parenting, teenage pregnancy, lack of respect, anti-social behaviour were raised.

Interviewees also had concerns about the lack of opportunities for young people.

High prices of housing, in terms of rents and purchasing, was a major issue for many of the young people interviewed. The high cost of fuel and utility costs and escalating levels of unmanageable debt were raised.

Mr Milne said the point of the research was to find out people’s views and was not about providing “solutions.”