Stabbing society

Yet another disappointing performance by Liverpool that saw them scrap through into the Champions League last night. The start to the new season has not been good, but still produced 3 wins out of 3. However, looking at the headlines this morning, you would think Liverpool were the worst team in England. All the criticism, and yet the main fact is that Liverpool won. If Manchester United had shown similar form, the critics would have lauded the performances as a mark of champions - to win when not playing well. I guess until Liverpool win the Premier League the critics won't stop criticising.

Whilst I was away from the blogging world for the past 18 months, one recurrent news story has been about the dramatic increase in knife crime. It seems not a week goes by without at least one death from a knife crime, especially in London. At last count, so far this year, there have been 24 teenagers killed in the streets of London. Just stop to think about that number. Almost one teenager a week is killed by a knife attack in London.

Politicians harp on about the cases of violent crime actually decreasing, but one cannot ignore the numbers. Twenty-four teenagers. Are we still living in the UK? How has society degraded so far that people can stab someone over the smallest of issues and show no restraint? What is the cause behind this spate of violence? What can be done about it?

Obviously the answers are not easy. Reports often point to extremely dire family backgrounds for both the perpetrator and the victim. Single parenting, lack of schooling, lack of discipline, poverty and too much free time are amongst the reasons for the cause. Although the statistics may show a decline in crime levels, like I explained yesterday, for the victims family and friends, the statistics mean nothing. I find it difficult to comprehend what has happened to society that makes knife crime so prevalent.

The act of stabbing someone to death - how is that possible? What must be the circumstances surrounding the development of that individual to cause such an event? How can someone be able to do that without regret or remorse? All these questions and no real answers. That's what the blog is for.

When I think about the people that carry out such vicious acts, I think of their circumstances - it must boil down to how they have been raised. That directly leads on to the kind of society we live in. A society that allows people to stab one another death. There will always be evil people, that is unavoidable, but for society as a whole, to allow such events is a great tragedy. Despite Gordon Brown's claims, our society is breaking.

Currently, a lot of reports speaking about how to deal with the knife crimes point towards how to deal with the perpetrators. One particular method receiving quite a bit of criticism is 'stop & search' carried out by the Met Police. Youths are being randomly stopped and searched for any knives or guns. Talk about marginalisation. These youths already come from brittle backgrounds and attempting to victimise them could potentially send them to the very place we are trying to avoid. Aside from that, it's not even certain whether such techniques are successful.

Another method is the often derided 'knife amnesty', allowing people to hand in their knives (or guns) to a local police station no questions asked. However, people need to first realise that possessing such weapons is wrong, otherwise why hand in the weapon? Of course, once the guilty party is found then surely they should serve time in prison. However, even this is not successful with only one in five people charged and found guilty actually going to prison. These methods and others deal with the problem, but not the cause of the problem - that appears to be much more difficult.

The cause of the problem lies in the background of these youths. Clearly, more needs to be done identifying areas that are vulnerable to 'poorly raised youths' (for want of a better phrase) and then acting upon it. Starting from the grassroots and working up. Educating people on the importance of family - not to have multiple teenage pregnancies, which lead to a multitude of single mums. When that happens, to then ensure the mums are supported in the raising of their children. Providing a decent school, decent leisure facilities to occupy free time and reward the efforts of people involved in making a difference - to the teachers, social workers, etc.

I personally don't think the above targets are too difficult for this government. Providing decent education in the first place is the key. Why should there be sub-standard schools? Why should the 'poorly raised youths' not have the same opportunities as others? Why should single mums or broken families not be supported? If these families have children who can potentially cause such damage, who can they turn to for help? Is the support system there? Clearly not.

Say for example, a single mum living in Brixton had a child who was involved with a gang who possessed knives. Who does she turn to? Her GP? He or she will refer her to the local psychiatry team for assessment of that child - how long will that take? 4-6 months. Imagine what could go wrong in that time. Ok, if she's not happy with that, she can contact her council and speak to a social worker who can refer the child to the social support team, but again, how long would that take? Assuming nothing happens while the mum and child wait to be seen, the child gets assessed - a lot of factors are identified - poor schooling, poor role models, poor attitudes. What next? Mum and child are sent for family counselling in another 4-6 months time. And so on and so forth. The time it takes to identify the problems and start dealing with them appropriately is too long.

I can continue this rambling for much longer, but I think I should stop. Much of what I say is idealistic, I readily admit that, but that doesn't make it unachievable. The death of one teenager per week in London alone, is a scary thought and interventions need to be made, changes enforced and better support systems provided to those involved. Of course punishments need to be guaranteed for the perpetrators beyond help but a lot needs to be done to treat the cause of the problem.

Take care all,
Thoughts just flow, when do they have to make sense?