Who’s afraid of the hood?
By Patricia Hoskins
What's really happening on our streets? Has violent youth
culture become an epidemic? Is gun and knife crime spiralling out of control?
The Drum brought together key players from Birmingham to thrash it out. Hear
what they had to say.
Britain’s gun and knife culture is still dominating the headlines. Politicians and their advisers are desperately looking for answers - but they still seem no closer to solving the central question: what can be done to end gun and knife crime?
Cause and effects
Suzette Davonport - West Midlands PoliceQuestion: “What is the cause of gun and knife crime in our inner cities?”
Suzette Davonport (Assistant Chief Constable, West Midlands Police): "The global nature of society has completely changed. We now live in a get rich society – this has developed a whole range of people who are not able to buy into that in a legitimate way."For those people who don’t feel they can get rich quick they will look at alternative ways to do that. The violence, knife crime and gun related issues fill that gap for some of those people.
Mike Royal (Coordinator, Birmingham Street Pastors): “If I was to sum it up in one word, I would say there is a real sense of hopelessness. We have a generation of young people who perhaps have tried the education system but are now excluded. These guys have got nothing they can focus on.
Mike Royal - Birmingham Street Pastors"We now live in a get rich quick society”
Kirk Dawes (Managing Director, West Midlands Mediation and Transformation Service): “Kids have always been in gangs; it’s whether of not their behaviour is against the law.
What we should concentrate on is the bad behaviour of individuals. There is a basic lack of knowledge amongst our young people on how they should deal with conflict. It should be taught in school as part of the curriculum."
Marc Edwards (Managing Director, Young Disciples): "One of the core reasons is extreme social exclusion. Because of the social exclusion frame they are in, they have created their own environment and framework of how to live – their own rules, regulations and ordinances that they follow."
Is knife crime on the rise?