U.S.A. and Western Europe. Indeed, this was an assessment many East German punks shared themselves. According to one, Mario Schulz, "The start was that I liked the music. I did not quite understand the English texts, but this ostentatious experience as an outsider, this capacity to shock, that pleased me. I was already- someone else would probably express it differently- an awkward sod." By the authorities, punk was seen as representing a way of life which was contrary in nature to existing social conventions and values. Punks were, however, not the only youth sub-culture to be considered ‘negative decadent’ and a threat to the stability of socialist society: heavy metallers, skinheads, and goths were also targeted. Whilst it is hard to ascertain an exact figure, the punk scene in East Germany in the early 1980s was still relatively small. For example, ‘In 1981, the Stasi (secret police) identified 1,000 punks and a broader group of 10,000 sympathisers.’ Punks, whether considered as individuals or as groups, were persecuted by both the regular police and the Stasi. More overt methods of persecution by the regular police- such as enforced haircutting, arrest, and physical beatings- were combined unofficially with the more insidious and far-reaching decomposition methods (trans. Zersetzung) of the Stasi: these involved various forms of infiltration, false flag type acts, framing, psychological harassment methods designed to cause mental health problems, and incarceration on the basis of mental health legislation or on the basis of crimes ostensibly committed. As the methods of the Stasi were difficult to detect and even harder to prove, it allowed them to circumvent international condemnation in regard to the persecution of their own citizens. Aside from being designed to harm people, the methods were also designed to discredit and isolate individuals and break up the various bands and groupings. They relied heavily on the hiring of collaborators who were of a similar disposition to those who were being targeted. According to Stasi officers, this was a task which was harder to achieve with punks due to their ‘feeling of belonging together.’ Nonetheless, the Stasi did have notable success in the repression and decomposition of the punk scene. Former member of the band Namenlos, Jana Schlosser, stated in 1984 when she came out of jail, that "The Stasi had pretty well managed to smash punk." Global perspectives The punk subculture has spread to many countries around the world. The