I have to say, Dick, that after reading your thought-provoking and balanced replies I now have a (slightly) more rounded view of things and not quite so ready to 'string-em-up and bring back the birch'.
Last year there was a little gang who had taken to sitting up on the bank near the back of our house and occasionally making a bit of a nuisance of themselves. Not too fussed, not our land even though they threw the odd stone at walkers and minor acts of petty vandalism (picking off rights of way signs, nothing major). Softly softly needed especially as there's lots of glass in the windows of the workshop, sports car with a soft top. Winter came, they got cold and stopped coming.
Just recently they came back (5 of them), same old, but this time with bikes etc and cycling down our track that has lots of blind bends and we don't expect to see anyone walking/cycling/running/coming the other way. 'Old' Roger would have charged down and given them a bollocking. 'New' Roger drove down and politely and pleasantly explained to them that it wasn't a footpath, they had no right of way but more importantly we didn't expect to see anyone on the blind bend and so didn't really want to run them over. No f'ing or blinding from them which have to confess came as a pleasant surprise.
So far, it's worked, touch wood. On Sunday, during conversation with another person from the village the subject of the little gang came up and it turns out that they all come from one family, the mother did a bunk a long time ago and their old man is a bit out of his depth. They bully younger kids, throw stones at them and seem fairly feral. The Community Support Officer is keeping an eye on them but if I had more time it would be good to try and find ways to channel their energy into more constructive ways.