Last week council chiefs urged Sheffield residents to Stand Together to help fight crime. But here one Sheffield mum tells how her life has been made a misery by yobs constantly harassing her and other residents in her neighbourhood.
And she issues a challenge to Sheffield Council and South Yorkshire Police to make actions speak louder than words. Here she describes how she has been plagued by anti-social behaviour.
"Since moving to the south of the city at the end of last year, I have had two windows put through by kids, one on Halloween and once by a football.
"I have had the side of my home graffitied, one of my car mirrors ripped off, and my neighbour's car was tipped onto its side in the middle of the night.
"We have found kids climbing over my 6ft fence into my garden rather than knocking on the door to ask for their ball back - balls that are frequently kicked into my fence, and the side of my house, often hitting windows.
"In fact, at about 9.30pm one night when I happened to peer out of my kitchen window, I saw a gang of kids kicking my garden gate and one in the garden.
"When we went out and challenged them, they pretty much laughed at us and the kid continued to search for whatever had been originally thrown over the fence. He eventually climbed back over after climbing on our wheelbarrow.
"Whenever we have challenged the various groups kicking footballs at the side of our home, we have been sworn at, threatened and abused. They have then joined ranks with other kids and, in gangs of 15 plus, have proceeded to threaten both us and our neighbour after we dared to take photographic evidence.
"Whenever we have attempted to involve the police it's been utterly pointless - no police are ever sent out to chase the kids off or look at the damage caused.
"In all the incidents myself or my next door neighbour has reported the police have never turned up, and if we have eventually managed to speak to the community officer, days after the incidents, the community officers then never turn up for subsequent discussions arranged.
"The only suggestions they have ever made were for us to buy our own CCTV equipment, or video and take photographs of these gangs. Doing so has just caused us further aggravation and stress. We feel intimidated, stressed and bullied and it's incredibly frustrating that we feel powerless to do anything about such threatening behaviour.
"It's no wonder that people eventually snap under the pressure and take the law into their own hands, when the police are so unwilling to get involved.
Undoubtedly us citizens will eventually get prosecuted for someone slipping on a wall painted with anti-trespasser paint, or cutting themselves on razor wire, or for thumping the next threatening youth."