Participants felt that neighbours no longer know or look out for one another, which leaves people feeling isolated, lonely and fearful – particularly the elderly and those who live alone.

People also spoke of a decline of community in a more abstract sense, in terms of a lack of public spiritedness or social responsibility. Older people spoke about how different things used to be:

…the community spirit, is broken down terribly over the last 20 or 30 years. I am nearly 50 years old. I can remember before. Society has changed, it is a lot more selfish and ‘me, myself and I’.

While it was recognised that new kinds of communities were emerging (such as virtual or online communities) people felt these were an inadequate substitute for the face-to-face interactions of more traditional local communities.

Some comments from the consultation

“Community breakdown - society has become very insular and people quite often don’t know any of their neighbours or who lives on their street with the ramifications of no community spirit with everyone looking out for each other and helping each other out.”

“It seems that people no longer care about others or the community area they live in. People are too busy making sure that they have whatever it is that makes their life easier, happier, etc. Regardless of the cost to others.”

“People don’t care for others, in fact it is safer to walk by on the other side of the street, people don’t come into contact with each other, they are isolated by their cars and their televisions.”

Participants suggested that people increasingly look after their own individual or family interests without considering the needs of society or the community.

Nothing is more important than my success, comfort and convenience – and that of my family.

This individualism was seen to have damaging consequences, fuelling selfishness and greed and leading to isolation and fear as people struggle to cope and live fulfilling lives alone.

Some comments from the consultation

“Most of our friends have no priorities external to their families. For example, they agree that climate change is a serious problem but will not alter their lifestyles because it is an external pressure outside the family universe.”

“Individual isolation bringing with it unconscious sense of fear and hopelessness because individuals know they cannot survive alone in a complex society.”

“Narcissism. The infatuation and love of self over the love of the other drives everything from greed and wasteful consumption to eating disorders and a preoccupation with celebrity. It is the darkest force within the modern collective psyche.”

Greed emerged as a key issue, seemingly a symptom of society valuing things in terms of money or material worth. People argued that the concept of need or of having enough has been forgotten and that we are losing sight of the things that are really important in life - things that can’t be bought and sold, such as friendship and kindness.

Everything seems to be based around money and owning things. The more you have, the more successful you are. There’s nothing wrong with having enough, but there’s pressure on people to go for more and more.

These issues of consumerism and greed did not emerge as strongly in the discussions among the unheard groups, but there was a shared concern about the impact of celebrity culture on society and particularly on young people.

Some comments from the consultation

“The materialistic celebrity and ’success’ culture. The worship of celebrity, fashion and success is the cause of bullying and causes a competitive society to appear and intensify, which sets us all against one another in the race for status and possessions.”

“We are in danger of losing sight of what is important in life, like kindness, playfulness, generosity and friendship. The immaterial things that can’t be bought and sold.”

“Obsessive consumerism [is] fuelled by advertising media and banks which lend money to people who cannot afford it to buy things they do not really need.”

Participants felt that we lack a set of shared values which guide people’s behaviour and interactions. This was strongly associated with individualism, selfishness and consumerism: people were described as pursuing their own desires regardless of potential harm to others.

The consultation also identified other virtues that participants believed informed people’s behaviour more in the past. A decline of honesty, tolerance, empathy and compassion, respect and reciprocity were seen to have damaging consequences for society.

People felt that this decline of values has occurred not only at the individual level: the media, business institutions and the government were criticised for being dishonest and self-serving.

Participants often associated this issue with a decline of religion and the loss of Christianity as a foundation for ethical behaviour in Britain, although other participants identified religion itself as a social evil, that causes confusion and conflict.

Some comments from the consultation

“People not respecting each other. I don’t just mean young people having no respect for older people, it works the other way as well – some older people tar youngsters with the ‘nasty’ and ‘ill-mannered’ brush when they do the same. It pervades all parts of society.”

“Some people just don’t seem to understand that other people are thinking, feeling humans; they really seem to lack empathy, and it’s quite frightening.”

“The lack of real care and compassion and solutions for those who fall through the safety net, young people in care, drug abusers, older people in poverty, homeless, etc.”

While ‘bad parents’ were criticised, it was also argued that parents were often doing their best in difficult circumstances. People emphasised that parenting is a skill and that getting it right can require support. Young parents were highlighted as a group in particular need of guidance.

Participants agreed that having a strong family was very important for children, but disagreed about the importance of a traditional family structure. Some felt that having a cohesive family of any form was enough, whereas others highlighted the importance of having a mother and a father.

Experience of family breakdown among the unheard groups was widespread. Many of the young people involved had grown up in care, something universally described as negative. They talked about periods of family disruption or violent family backgrounds acting as a catalyst for ‘going off the rails’. This was also suggested by web respondents, who saw family breakdown as a cause of anti-social behaviour among young people.

Some comments from the consultation

“Breakdown of the family structure, whether single-parent or not, the lack of a cohesive family unit and the support of the wider family and the values that brings.”

“Irresponsible, uninformed, ill-educated, unprincipled parenting…which sadly leads inescapably and directly to many of the problems seen, heard, smelt, felt and experienced in almost every city, town (and many villages) across the length and breadth of the country involving ‘young people’…all of which are merely the symptoms of this real social evil.”

“…some people raising children have no way of gauging how to raise a child. I mean they do the best they can, I wouldn’t say that was a ’social evil’.”

Some participants criticised youth culture and blamed young people for anti-social behaviour, binge drinking, violence, gun and knife crime and other problems. Others focused on how young people are failed by their families and the school system, and are misrepresented in the media.

There was also concern about the perceived “growing gulf between the old and the young” as one website participant put it, and the negative attitudes this can encourage between generations.

Young people in the unheard groups talked about how their place in wider society felt uncomfortable. There were concerns that young people lack good role models and that some face limited opportunities and job prospects.

Negative stereotyping was a common concern, borne out by comments from older participants, who expressed their – at times unfounded – fear of young people:

I noticed there was a bunch of youths standing around and my immediate reaction was to stop and think ‘Oh my goodness, shall I go the other way?’ Until two seconds later I realised it was my own son and his friends. But that reaction was in me already.

Some comments from the consultation

“Young people [have] no manners, no self-control, no respect for anything.”

“There is a wealth of potential in young people…they tend to be stigmatised rather than encouraged.”

“They just, they’re stereotyping young kids now as all being little yobs…There are a lot of yobs out there, but not everyone who just wears tracksuit bottoms and stuff like that.”

Drug and alcohol misuse was suggested as a cause of ill-health, poverty and family breakdown. Conversely, drug and alcohol misuse was also described as a consequence of family breakdown, weak communities, child abuse, domestic violence, poverty, stress, unemployment and lack of opportunities or education.

Participants recognised that it could provide “a means of escape from social, economic, and other personal problems“. There was also concern that celebrities, films and television can sometimes glamorise drug and alcohol use, especially among young people.

Many of these concerns were echoed in the personal experiences of the unheard groups: some older participants highlighted the damaging nature of drug-taking and the devastating effects drugs could have. Ex-offenders who took part in the research spoke about the connections between drugs and crime in their lives.

It is worth noting that participants in the unheard groups also recognised the role of personal choice, emphasising that sometimes they took drugs because they enjoyed it.

Some comments from the consultation

“Drinking is considered acceptable and even funny in all forms of the media – especially well-known TV programmes such as Coronation Street, EastEnders and other ‘role model’ soaps. They then ask the question ‘why are our kids obsessed with booze?!’”

“Drug and alcohol addiction. This has a knock-on effect which we all have to pay for - financial, social and the pressure on the NHS.”

“Drug dependency and general lack of understanding of the problems faced by those caught in the trap of addiction.”

…if you’re poor, you’re struggling all the time - you have no choices in life. That’s what poverty does to you, it gives you no choice.

Participants suggested that poverty was closely intertwined with other social evils. For example, they described how, in a deprived community, making money from drug dealing can seem an appealing option to young people, reflecting the notion that poverty is “the keystone to other social problems“.

There was widespread concern about inequality - the polarisation of society into ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’. Web respondents felt that growing inequality in Britain is socially divisive and morally wrong, partly because income differences do not always reflect people’s efforts. Participants in the unheard groups added a different perspective. They recognised that people doing well would welcome growing affluence, but noted that there was a whole swathe of people not benefiting.

While some participants expressed a sense of disillusionment and hopelessness, others talked about personal responsibility for getting ahead in life.

Some comments from the consultation

“Even though on average the UK has become more affluent, there is a poor distribution of wealth. The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer!”

“Inequality…This is one of the root causes of the increase in crime and in dissatisfaction in modern society. I believe that a more equal society would make everyone happier, both rich and poor.”

Participants sometimes identified immigration itself as a social evil, but often focused more specifically on the competition for limited resources (such as jobs and housing) that it can create. Participants felt that local residents can lose out to immigrants for these things.

Why bring over more and more people when you can’t sort the problems you got?

In this way, the social evil was the systems in place for those in need, rather than immigrants themselves.

Other people highlighted the economic and social advantages that immigration has brought to Britain and were critical of intolerant and negative attitudes towards immigrants and other people thought of as ‘outsiders’. There was a feeling that society should be more inclusive and supportive of these groups and that people should have “a more rounded view of immigration, based on facts, and could see it as being part of the UK’s rich tapestry”.

Participants also focused on the lack of compassion shown to asylum seekers and refugees entering the UK.

Some comments from the consultation

“Whilst most caring people feel sorry for immigrants fleeing from persecution in their own countries, we are a small island with limited resources and can’t be held responsible for saving the world.”

“I wish people had a more rounded view of immigration, based on facts, and could see it as being part of the UK’s rich tapestry rather than focusing on the scaremongering coverage of a minority’s bad behaviour.”

“I think safe communities can only exist when everyone believes that other people are not so different from themselves.”

As well as identifying violence and other kinds of crime as social evils, they highlighted fear of crime and violence as another important dimension. People expressed anxieties about the perceived prevalence of violence, aggression and crime and a sense of unease about what might happen.

People resort to violence for what seems like fairly trivial provocation.

Connections were made between drug use, gangs and crime, which participants in the unheard groups could sometimes talk about from personal experience. Drug addiction was also connected to prostitution and the sexual exploitation of young girls.

Child abuse, exploitation and violence against women were cited as specific crimes that were social evils. There was a consensus that these were absolute ‘wrongs’ in the research with unheard groups and so they were discussed less than some of the more contentious social issues.

Some comments from the consultation

“Crime and fear of crime. People should feel free and relaxed to get on with their lives. But far too many live in fear of someone committing a crime against them.”

“The UK has turned into a violent society.”

“Crime - this affects everyone regardless of race, class etc. The media hype it up but people don’t feel safe in their homes or on the streets. Most people have personal experience or know people who have been affected. It affects how we live our lives on a day to day basis - where we go, how we get there, what type of car we have and where we park it.”