Knife Crimes

[dinger]

There does'nt seem to be a day goes by we don't hear about another youngster being stabbed and many losing their life .I think the law must get tougher on this . All who carry knives go out with the intention of using them what other reason would there be to carry them .If anyone is found to be carrying a weapon they should be arrested there and then and be given a jail sentence . These people are treated to leniently and many are teenagers so get light sentences .It is happening much too much to be ignored .

[dinger]

I am finding this increasingly worrying . each day more stabbings . what are your opinions about this .

[Katelb]

I quite agree with you dinger,one youngster that was being interviewed said ,when asked why he carried a knife,' well everyone carries one these days,it's normal' I think like you that the law is far too lenient with those involved with knife crime andit will get worse if something drastic isn't done soon. The other worrying aspect that seems to be connected with knife crime is that it is usually alcohol fuelled,or drug fuelled,both of which are a further stain on our lives these days.

[Crocus]

Hi Dinger, having Sky News, we notice and hear about these stabbings. It's absolutely awful. I don't know what's going on in the minds of these youngsters walking around with knives in their pockets - why?

[sandybay]

It seems to be related to the gang and hip hop culture we [in Britain] have inherited from America and the strangely perverse definition of 'respect' that some youth have taken up.

The Home Secretary has announced some ideas today including making kids convicted of knife crime visit victims in hospital and have 'day visits' to prison to help them understand what their behaviour has led them to.

Not sure that isn't too little too late now. I've been on the left of politics all my life taking that view that education and spending money on the poor will help. It doesn't seem to have helped though. Agree with you Dinger, send them to prison [youth offenders wings as no point putting them in with the old lags to learn new criminal tricks] and if neccesary build more jails.

I read that New York improved it's crime figures by enforcing a 'zero tolerance' policy towards offenders starting with so called petty crime.
Any one else got info on that ?

In the mean time all we can do is pray/hope that these misguided children [and they are children even if they think they are tough guys] receive some good parenting or role models.

[Crocus]

I don't know whether this has any relevance, but a dr. (neurologic paediatrician) said that there are two kinds of people - those who listen and use good advice, and those who first have to make mistakes, some of it real bad, and the consequences of that mistake will cause them to listen and take good advice.

One cannot underestimate the importance of loving, supportive and good parenting, this not always preventing children to make mistakes. As far as I can gather, these youngsters are in their adolescence stage, a stage where they are so open to everything, where they are so easily influenced by what they think are "cool", no matter what it is. Their value systems may not be in place, or they may not have a value system of any kind, because the basis of value systems are found in the homes where they grow up. Children follow examples to the T. Which is why it is so important to be a good example whether you're a parent, a family friend, a family member, member of the community, the programme on tv, the book being read, the conversations, the friends they have. Even school, the teacher, the youth group. Children want to be nurtured, they love people to have an interest in them, in what they do, and they want to feel important for the right reasons. These things eventually mould and shape a child.

It's eventually a holistic approach I think, but as things go, easier said than done. xx

[sunflower]

I think the situation is extremely worrying. To think that the UK has children who are willing to 'waste' the lives of others and have no notion of the consequences for themselves is difficult to take in. The young people cannot seem to understand that, if caught, they will have their freedom taken away.....not able to go out, meet with their friends. This thought in itself should keep them from straying. It's terrible to think that the knife carriers have not got any positive approach to life and their future. And yet, I personally think that young people have a better life with more opportunities than past generations. It's unfair t blame it on their environment as thousands of others live in similar circumstances and manage to lead a quality of life and fulfil their dreams. It's a very complex situation, and one that needs to be urgently addressed so that other innocent young people will not have their lives cut short.

[jazzactivist]

I think that it is sad to see stabbings of young people on the news every night, but think that this is an example of the media hyping up a particular issue as scaremongering, and wonder what else is going on in the world that the news isn't reporting. There have now been about 20 young men (incl one young women) stabbed to death in London, that isn't very many when you consider the huge population of London. There has always been knife carrying and stabbings in big cities and, when you think about it, gang culture in certain areas has been around for as long as anyone can remember! But even one life lost this way is wrong. How to stop it is a different issue. I agree that the police operating a zero tolerence approach to carrying weapons should become the norm. However, the prisons are already overfull from zero tolerance approaches to other crimes. Do we want most of our population in prison? And who will rehabilitate them when they come out?

I agree with crocus, that children and young people learn their behaviour from the adults around them, and not necessarily only from adults who behave in anti-social ways. If a child is brought up in a home environment where the adults install a burglar alarm because they are afraid of being robbed of their possessions, hardly ever go out at night, never let their children go out alone, are suspicious of their neighbours or people who are different to them etc then this teaches children to be afraid and doesn't teach them the skills to deal with other people effectively. Children also have to learn restraint in different situations, and quite often now they don't seem to learn this at home. Our young people have learnt to be scared and jumpy when out and about and some feel the need to carry a weapon and use it on anyone that they think threatens their own sense of self. I think that a change in attitude among adults is required and, strangely, perhaps the credit crunch which might force people to buy less and share more might help...

[sandybay]

You are right Jazz about the press hyping the stories up but I think it may be valid in the sense that there has been an increase in the number of deaths of that kind in that age group rather than 'over-reporting' of the same number of crimes which does sometimes happen. Can't remember the exact figures but it did look as if according to recent statistics it was safer [in terms of mortal wounding] to be a soldier on the front lines in Afghanistan than to be a teenage boy in London.

You are right also Jazz in what happens to these people when they come out of prison. As well as building more detention centres [maybe lower grade than prisons] money needs to be spent on therapeutic interventions with highly trained psychologists.

What we are doing now isn't working and because of the pressure on prison places many offenders walk free with a feeling that they are untouchable.
That cannot be right and is not healthy for them as individuals or for us as members of this society.

The whole question of violence based video games and films and rap hip hop music with themes of drug related and anti-women violence needs serious attention too.

[jazzactivist]

I agree with you, sandybay. I am also not sure about the Government's idea of young people who commit knife crimes visiting people in hospital with knife wounds or talking with their victim's family. The idea of victims and young perpetrators meeting up was piloted in Scotland a few years back and then abandoned as the victims who agreed to it felt that their attacker was vicariously enjoying hearing about what s/he had done a second time, and it didn't slow down crime either. It seems to me that this plan just puts victims of crime and their families, who are already experiencing lots of stress, in the role of being responsible for the rehabilitation of their attacker, perhaps before they have come to terms with what happened themselves. I don't think that I would agree to it if it was me or my family, as changing someone's attitude does need professional intervention as well as wider social change.

[sandybay]

[QUOTE=jazzactivist; The idea of victims and young perpetrators meeting up was piloted in Scotland a few years back and then abandoned as the victims who agreed to it felt that their attacker was vicariously enjoying hearing about what s/he had done a second time, and it didn't slow down crime either. It seems to me that this plan just puts victims of crime and their families, who are already experiencing lots of stress, in the role of being responsible for the rehabilitation of their attacker, perhaps before they have come to terms with what happened themselves. .[/QUOTE]

Spot on again Jazz, particularly in that it may make victims of crime feel duty bound to help rehabilitate the victims. Victims already seem to get treated as second class in the justice system.

[dragonfly]

I think the lack of role models is crucial. When we were growing up our heros were all good guys and the goodie always won. Today all the hero's seem to be nasty, horrible villans. I think kids are more influenced by their peers and films than their parents. Also a lot of parents have to work full time and don't have time to teach them properly.

[dinger]

I find it hard to understand why it seems to be innocent people who are on the wrong end of these knives and land up being killed in cold blood .