Teenagers are young growing buds. Lot of care has to be taken if we need them to blossom into a beautiful flower (Successful person or professional). For that, care and good education/guidance has to be given right from young age and the first place to start from is home! Parents need to spend more time with their children and guide them to a better future. Schools and educational institution should increase the awareness of crime and also under-age sexual activities which is another concern as the rate of individuals being infected with AIDS and other STD is increasing day by day.

In my humblest of opinion, the UK government should bring back Conscription from 18 years of age. This would bring respect back to a lot of young frivolous, lost souls because most parents cannot control their children because they are no longer allowed to discipline them. This is thanks to irresponsible politicians who insists that parents should not hit children.

The Government should also start look at bringing back capital punishment for proven murderous crimes. The whole of society will then have a lot to think about before they commit these murderous crimes.

It cannot go without comment that the vast majority of these killings are carried out by non whites on non whites. This is certainly the case in London. Irrespective of the claims by politicians we are not an integrated society in the UK. There exists vast differences in aspirations and values between the white communiites and the ethnic communities in the inner city areas of this country. Tougher sentencing won’t make the slightest difference in reducing these mindless killings. As long as young men and women feel removed from the main stream of British culture this violence can only escalate perhaps with dire consequences for all of us.

We need to get to the root of the problem - social depravity. Give these youngsters something to do apart from take drugs and get violent. Sterilization is probably the best option.

I’d say anything is possible! we need to put in efforts and many out there are not ready to do it (because of their own reasons, which I understand). But if we need to see a change, we are the ones who can make it happen. The government can only put policies in place and try to reduce the effect, but it all comes down to us individuals! “what we sow, is what we reap”

In truth, we all really KNOW what has to be done, but no-one it seems has the ‘nuts’ to do it! Start by ignoring the offenders so called ‘Rights’- and ignore all the liberal ’social workers’ too, they’ve had their day and failed dismally, just ask yourself - how was it done before, when we had safe streets? We DID have it right? I would pray that 2 high court judges, 2 top barristers and 2 MP were shot or stabbed, that should do it, then we would see the answer, both positively and swiftly!

After the 2nd world war, Europe migrated towards rapid industrialisation and modernisation. In this pace lots of goodwill got lost in the sewage, family values, religion, ethical principles, all in the name of democracy, capitalism and equality.

All this were good until the 70s, and then gradually in the early 90s, side effects started to kick in from the modern families who had embraced this new values. This has resulted parents becoming paralysed to control there kids and churches being converted to pubs, and the worst group are those, who have just have parked there kids on the face of the public. This people should be given a lesson to become responsible, i.e. benefit payments should be revoked permanently.

To curb with the modern crime some major attributes, have to be reinstall, beginning with the responsible parent, to have kids shouldn’t be free privileges on the expenses of the public, and zero tolerance introduced, better education, and large prisons without cable TV, crime punishment shouldn’t be a relaxing holiday, criminal should work in prisons, and pay for the crime committed.

Before capital punishment was abolished it was rumoured that the experienced members of criminal gangs (for example burglars) would check that they young hotheads were not armed, because if someone got shot in the heat of the moment, the whole lot of them could hang. There is no doubt in my mind that for similar reasons the reintroduction of hanging would make people think twice about going around routinely armed with deadly weapons. Hanging is a pretty grisly business, but it’s not as abhorrent as the behaviour of some of the members of our growing underclass.

I think the punishment system currently in the UK is what is the main problem, teenagers no longer care if they are sent to jail for a year or two. And if anything, a lot of them even feel proud to say that “they have been inside” like it something “cool” or desired amongst young people.

I am a teenager myself and I have completly different attitudes but maybe that was the way I was brought up or the fact that I understand the implications of going to jail to a further extent. What I have seen is, the teenagers that start to perform badly in school are the ones that no longer feel bothered with their life and resort to “life on the streets” as some sort of drop back. So, the fact that young people are doing badly in education and not getting significant help and support from teachers or even parents isnt this a sign? A lot of parents arent tough enough with their children, and I dont mean directly resorting to hitting your children - we have all seen those “super nanny” programs that are able to calm and gain control over aggresive and disobediant children.

As well as this there is also the big issue that the individuals commiting the crimes aren’t afraid to commit them. Isnt the point of the crime and punishment system to make potential offenders afraid of the consequences so that they don’t commit the crimes? And if these crimes continue to be committed by younger and younger offenders, doesn’t it suggest it is becoming more acceptable amongst them? Clearly, if youngsters aren’t bothered enough that they still carry knives and guns shouldn’t we MAKE them bothered and afraid so that they won’t commit such crimes. Youth offenders instutions are said to be just like “youth clubs”, if this is the impression being given out to our young generation, can we really expect anything better, especially if parents and teachers are losing control of these youngsters.

Some people talk that violence on tv and video games is a cause of the violence on our streets, but, crime has allways been around and so has violent films. That isnt the case, a seperation from television and real life is what needs to be implemented. Teenagers need to realise that what happens on their tv screen should stay there because in the “real world” severe punishments would be put in place. But evidently, this isnt the thoughts of the teenagers committing the crimes.

As i said before, a harser punishment is needed, jail these days isnt seen as such a frightening place for teenagers.

To solve these issues, capital punishment would be a clear solution, what could be worse of a punishment than death? Obviously, the thought isnt a pleasant one, but we need to think in the long term, if we let this situation continue, more and more INNOCENT people WILL be killed, there is NO DOUBT about that, but if the death sentence were put in place, GUILTY people would be killed and less and less INNOCENT people would die. So we have to make a decision, do we let this continue and let all these innocent people be murdered or do we take a bold stand and put in place something which WILL deter killings and young offenders, with the use of a SMALLER amount of “scape goats” to gain back control?

And if the answer isnt clear, would you not look around the world and see why the situation is so bad in the UK? China for example, has the largest population in the world and yet its crime rate is quite low in tables, doesnt this suggest we are doing something considerably wrong? Shouldnt we learn from others maybe?

Children need to be loved and know that they are loved. So much weighs on how they are treated by their parents from birth. If they are loved, they will know how to love. Love is manifested through many dimensions, one of which is time invested in relationships. Many parents may not be fortunate enough to afford that time and care and indeed many do not know how to love. Governments should intervene on a local level by providing the support for those parents who struggle to bring up their children, social clubs could be organised in every neighbourhood for kids to form a community with others overseen by specialists in social care. Churches should be involved in promoting that - after all the message of Jesus is love.

Lulu - agree with you whole heartedly. Kids aren’t being raised with enough love, and never grow up knowing how to love. This is a vicious circle that will continue forever without intervention. We have seen that prison doesn’t work, if we are going to lock a million people up then we may as well give up altogether. I do agree with Lulu that religion could make a huge difference, although I don’t believe in a god myself.

Perhaps some kind of social cleansing is in order. The only trouble is that we would have to kill 65% of the population.

This Government is to blame for the whole mess…
I remember Blairs and Labour’s slogan “tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime”…..

Well, is this the British model of “tough”???
It’s time to adopt the model of the USA….

No problems when it comes to being “Tough” on Saddam and his cronies!

Prison MUST be a deterrent….otherwise we have all failed, as WE vote in the government.

This is a social issue - legislation for guns and knives helps little if fashion is such that people think it cool to kill because that is a big part of the dominant image of success in their social zone.

The media has a share of the blame by devaluing any ordinary life syle in the sick process of making fame everything that matters. There is also an underlying criminal economy that is much larger than it was in past decades because of illegal drugs and this is at the core of a large percentage of the problem becuse it simply funds a large number of lawless individuals and activities.

Either we randomly test people every day for drugs, make those with big money justify where every pound comes from, properly arm, equip, train and pay our police and get serious about stopping drugs which they certainly are not at the moment and never really have been or just simply legalise drugs and tax them. Anything else is corruption and nothing short of one of these alternatives will make our society safer in the long term.

National service! only disipline can serve these bored teenagers!!

i dont repeat myself a third time! thank you and good night!!

If someone is caught with a knife, especially if they are ferral and have minimum social skills, then they should have a commuted sentence that requires them to spend three years being educated and socialised in a strict, secure environment.

Discipline is something they lack in spades, and they need this taught to them.

However, human rights MUST prevail and we need to ensure that these people do not suffer ANY abuses or bullying at all.

The environment must have a very positive anti-bullying policy and showing these people by example how to behave is a paramount issue.

We cannot have a prison-like ethos where drugs, violence and abuse from inmates and guards are permitted.

If we do not ensure these ‘new style reformatories’ do not have the same problems as the old ones (as portrayed in the film ‘Scum’), then it will be a failure.

There must be numerous checks and balances, where rape, abuse and violence are totally excluded. A separate, independent office of inmate advocates should be instituted and given real power to ensure abuse, etc., is kept at bay and that victims will get immediate assistance and support.

Teaching these kids respect, dignity and fairness, would be the number one priority.

They deserve that!

Tough on crime doesn’t help. States in America who have the death penalty do not have a reduced murder rate (in fact some have much higher rates).

I think Blair did have something with the 3rd way. Basically that economic prosperity was the best way of keeping crime down. Certainly the stats proove that affluent people are less likely to be sent to prison or commit crimes etc.

That being the case, I think the problem is going to get worse before it gets better. The current economic doom and gloom will not provide much prosperity for the youths who feel they have to carry a knife to be safe.

I would also say there is a major problem with the whole generation of kids who were a teenage pregnancy, and have parents who were a teenage pregnancy. These people obviously have much less life experience than older parents to pass onto their kids, and consequently stand less chance of being successful parents. They are also likely to be in the benefits trap and unlikely to have a career and demonstrate to their kids the importance of a good education and career.

I recall many years ago when razor slashing in Glasgow was something of a gang pastime, Lord Carmont in a landmard court case consigned an offender convicted of such a crime to prison for 15 years for such an outrage.
It had the effect of almost overnight, stopping such attacks.
This was at at a time when such a sentence was invariably carried out without any consideration of sentence reduction, for whatever reason, and because of this the knife and razor carrying community knew exactly where they stood.
Forty years on, thanks to politicians who, for their own reason wish to promulgate their own progressive ideologies, society is no further forward. Quite the reverse.