Gary's views

KNIFE CRIME

What lies behind the sudden spate of stabbings in some of our larger cities? The root cause flows from something I have written about many times, namely the breakdown of the family unit in many parts of our society. One of the things we get from our families – or should do – apart from encouragement and discipline is identity. Family teaches us a lot about who we are. Identity is important to all of us; we all need to know who we are and where we fit into the bigger picture.

For a significant minority of young people, those coming from households of chaos, there is no real sense of identity. (Please note: I am not talking about single parents, but households of chaos). No order, no stability, no framework. This is why so many turbulent youngsters are ending up in street gangs in which they find their identity, where they fit in, for the first time in their lives. These brutal gangs are becoming a family substitute. I do not mean the groups of young people who hang around in Plympton, Plymstock and Ivybridge – they are not gangs in this sense they are just teenagers hanging out together. I mean hardened units with a clear pecking order, almost always involved in drugs or other criminal activity, many of them carrying knives. We do not have this in south west Devon and hopefully never will.

What are we to do about it? I certainly favour tougher sentences for anyone caught in possession of a weapon, but this alone will achieve little – because these kids have got nothing to lose by going to prison – unless we also tackle underlying causes. This is but one reason why we now have to confront these households of chaos.

It horrifies me to think that the state should muscle into how a person raises a child. But what choice do we have when the consequences of so many children being left to drag themselves up go far beyond personal under-achievement and spill over into the lives of all of us. I support the government seeking to target the problem families that lie at the heart of this.

This must not be another gimmick – this must mean tough effective intervention. Let the message ring out loud and clear: if you bring a child into this world you are responsible for bringing up that child to be a responsible citizen. Is that so radical?