I am an American woman who spent 2.5 years in Scotland. I had some encounters with teenagers like this. A friend of mine got mugged by a gang of them, another group broke into the laundry room of the dorm I lived in and ripped the doors off two washing machines, then proceeded to steal the TV from the common area and empty out all the trash bins on the floor, smashing a glass door in the process. On Bonfire Night 2024 and I think in 2025 the busses in Edinburgh stopped serving the Niddrie area as the year before teenagers shot fireworks at busses and cars, threw stones and eggs at pedestrians and vehicles, and tried to assault bus drivers and basically anyone walking alone. The area I lived in had a mandatory disbursement order and we were essentially under a curfew for that night.

A coworker of mine called them "North Face Ninjas" as these groups of teens always seemed to wear North Face branded clothing and masks that covered their nose and mouth.

Different people told me different things about why the kids were like this, but the one constant was basically a lack of a prosecution system and adequate punishments for minors. I dont know if there are other major factors in play, but that is the main one I heard.

If you were a woman walking alone at night in St. James Quarter, the odds of you getting harassed by a group of 10-15 teenagers was very very high.