CCF Seminar: knife and gun crime
Updated
Tonight, I heard some remarkable and shocking accounts of knife and gun crime in Britain and what is to be done about it.
I’ll not repeat the accounts of the crimes themselves: some are too grotesque to publish here. And that is part of the problem. Some young people in some sections of society are today so accustomed to crime and violence that it is difficult to conceive that tougher sentences will deter them. We were told that the death penalty would hold little fear for those who do not expect to live past their early twenties.
It emerged that some young people not only “hate the system” but also that they simply do not care what the law says. By the account of the inspiring young people present at the meeting, tougher sentences for carrying a knife would most likely strengthen those people’s determination to carry one in their rebellion against the law.
Of course we must deploy tough criminal justice against this problem, but we have reached a point where, if we want to stop this cycle of tragedy, we must recognize that gun and knife crime is the fruit of a societal problem and ask what we can do about it.
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