As I sat down to write this article, I was confronted with the shocking reality of gun and knife crime in the UK. As I began to research the story ,I was greeted with the news that two young defenceless children had been stabbed and killed.
Furthermore, another teenager became the latest victim of gun crime: Sharmaarke Hassan, 17, was shot in the head on the 24th May, becoming the 15th victim of gun and knife crime in London since the beginning of the year. Last year only witnessed 28.
Recently, in this spate of violence we’ve heard about the deaths of Robert Knox, 18, and Jimmy Mizen, 16. Both were innocent teenagers killed for no reason, caught up in a society which seems to be rapidly descending into a Levithan nightmare – of war against all.
New Labour have been criticised for their approach to youth crime and social justice. An internal government report which has just been released provides damming evidence of an ineffective approach to youth crime.
Labour, however, promises to clamp down on knives, guns and gangs, claiming that significant progress has been made, while the report states that re-offending rates are still high and have not changed much since ‘97.
Labour are set this summer to release a major new Youth Crime Action Plan, which is expected to take a dramatic new stance on youth crime. The Government are also looking to launch a new advertising campaign against youth crime designed by teenagers.
The adverts are graphic and shocking, spread across all media formats, notably social networking sites. Channel 4 also is taking a positive step toward gun crime with a new season of shows called ‘Disarming Britain’, which promises to be provocative and eye opening season of programs.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has recently announced that £5bn of investment will be targeted at hotspots across the country, which will see the increase of knife searches and use of targeted stop and search; action that civil liberty activists are concerned about.
The Government are also to work closely with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that those carrying knives are actually prosecuted. On their website, Labour criticise the ‘slick salesmanship’ of the Tory opposition and ‘David Cameron’s hug-a-hoodie approach’.
The statistics on gun and knife crime are not always conclusive, but what is for certain is that more young teenagers are becoming victims and perpetrators of serious crime, often targeting each other over gang lands.
All we need to do is to look back at the past year to recount vast number of deaths and to recognise what this epidemic of crime is doing to society; the tragic story of Rhys Jones last August is the most chilling.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Alf Hitchcock said: “The age of offenders and victims has decreased from mid-teens to early twenties, to mid-teens”. The Met’s response has seen a two week operation, known as Blunt Two, which seized over 200 weapons, with more than 200 arrests.
The police and government are certainly getting tough, but there is still a lot more that needs to be done.
In a recent Good University Guide table Nottingham came out as the least safe city. Cardiff came in at 13 out of 20 least safe university cities excluding London.
Early intervention is being called for and to some extent this is happening across the country with schemes in place looking to curb youth crime.
However, many ethnic minorities feel targeted and this also points toward a much more surveillance heavy society.
For example, in Essex, police have been openly filming and photographing youths in an attempt to discourage and catch youth criminals.
How much is too much is an important question. New Labour needs to answer if they are to keep hold of power.
Prevention and tougher laws need to be worked out in a balanced and constructive way to reduce youth crime.
