The Daily Mail has a clear line on crime and punishment. George Arnett wondered how far that extended to its commenters' views on young offenders, and built an interactive graphic to find out. In this guest post, he explains how it works and why he made it.

It is a scary place on the MailOnline comment boards. Angry invectives about the state of our country are part of the everyday experience for anybody who frequents them.

It seems that one thing that makes those that really makes the users angry are young offenders institutions (YOIs). The hallmark of "Broken Britain", they might think, where those for whom the ASBO is too strong are shut away for the harm they are doing to our society.

This word tree visualisation was originally put together to ask the question whether it was appropriate that harsh internet comments should be allowed on stories about young people. However, by focusing on such a tight topic it really does reveal quite a bit about the MailOnline's readers.

It uses the most recent ten comments from over 100 stories featuring the words "young offenders institution" posted by the MailOnline since 2009. To use it just put in any word and it will say what comes after in any of the comments in the database.

For example, if you put in the word "scum" then you can see that many users are happy to throw that word around to describe offenders. "Scum and scummer" was one inventive way that a user got their point across.

The Daily Mail is a newspaper generally catering to a right-leaning audience that mourns the death of England proper. Its website's commenters fit that mould and there is plenty that they would like government to resurrect. Typing in "bring back" shows some of the things that they are after.

Corporal or capital punishment is at the top of their list with some comments stating adamantly that the birch should make a return. Considering that if you type in "this country", most of the commenters using that phrase think the UK is going to the dogs then perhaps it is perfectly reasonable that the below-the-line faithful at the MailOnline are up for taking some desperate measures.

One commenter makes the charming point that in "this country you require a licence to own a dog but any psychotic piece of filth can become a parent". Looking what comes after "parents" in most of the comments in which that word features really shows what some users blame for the way our society has apparently gone downhill.

Some of the old bugbears of the Daily Mail such as "human rights", "Labour", "jail", "prison", "tax" and "the judge" also make for fun reads.

It is clear that some of these users feel free to unleash their vitriol regardless of the context. Many of these comments are clearly talking about teenagers, which is seen most clearly when you type in "young" and take a look at the words that follow after it. One commenter seems to have the view that "young people are just killing people like nothing more than popping a sweat."

Although it all seems rather ridiculous and most would take these views with the generous pinch of salt that they deserve, is it really appropriate that such views can be aired in stories about those that are under 18?

Those who participate in newspaper website's online discussion represent just a tiny fraction of overall users. So it is probable that not every MailOnline reader is terrified by the young people who share their streets. However, it is worth bearing in mind that any teenage user of the MailOnline website who happens to scroll down will be getting the views of these outraged few.

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