Panel Voices – MALTE LAUB
LET’S TALK: Police are the wrong agency
Trust an academic based at King’s College London to come up with a daft idea. Or is it? Police are the wrong agency …
Malte delivered these thoughts at the final Forum of 2019. They contain important food for thought – for all of us.
Kids on the Prices of Facilities
Sherifa asks some young people at a youth centre what changes they would like to see. One of the answers was pretty interesting, and at its heart scrutinises the effect [...]
It doesn’t make sense
A young person talks from his experience at school, where once accused of wrongdoing, it is almost impossible to defend yourself The result can ultimately end in exclusion, which to [...]
“Get Yourself Away”
A mother gives advice to girls who may find themselves in a situation: '...when you see somebody if you're with a group and they're doing something wrong and you know [...]
Talk To A Teacher
JJ gives some advice to young people, about how there will always be some teacher who is ready to listen to you, and who will give you some good advice [...]
Why Are Young People Exploited?
Sherif talks about how family difficulties can leave members of that family vulnerable to exploitation "Why do you think, a lot of the youth nowadays are getting exploited?" "Do you [...]
Exclusion Doesn’t Work
In a discussion held with some young people at a youth club, Freddy from The Childrens Society comments on how schools' use of exclusion only makes the problem worse: Audio: [...]
It’s not you don’t fit the system…. the system doesn’t fit you
A young person talks with a representative from the Children's Society about how his ADHD wasn't recognised at school for years. This is a common problem which schools need to [...]
Sometimes School’s an Escape
Sherifa explains how she thinks some schools are often failing students, because they are too focused on their own agenda or their reputation: "I do think that with schools everyone [...]
Love Yourself
A mother who works with young people has some advice to give, particularly for girls: "I think for me when it comes to girls, self-love is the most important thing. [...]
Talk to Your Parents
One thing we discovered in talking to young people is some people would not talk to their parents. But knowing you are falling deeper into danger and not being able [...]
“I called the police and said he was stabbed”
This is the story of a mother who had the feeling her son had been stabbed. ".... I didn't see the stabbing but I knew it was going to happen [...]
James Waddington QC
I find it encouraging that knife crime is in the news. Whenever this happens, the likelihood of some change taking place dramatically increases.
History
The issue of knife crime has been in and out of the news for 55 years. Therefore, I was frustrated to hear talk in 2019 of demonising an entire generation. This is divisive and wrong. It is divisive because, cloaked in purported good intentions and glib words, it seeks to set one part of society against another. It is wrong because it has always been well known to be the case that a relatively few young people are responsible for the worst incidents. I see a lot of them. I represented them in the 1980s and 1990s. I have tried them since 2004. It is also wrong because media coverage, in highlighting the problem, dramatically increases the chances of something being done about it. This is exactly what has happened over the years.
The Prevention of Crime Act 1953 was enacted in the light of press concern about teddy boys. The topic has been in and out of the news like many other criminal behaviours ever since. Parliament has reacted by way of new legislation or increased sentences when this happens. After similar concern in the 1980s, there was the Criminal Justice Act 1988 which created offences of having a bladed article in public and also on school premises. After a period of austerity in the 1990s which like today had an impact on resources, during the 2000s, more resources were applied to policing and youth policy. In 2018, after very serious economic retrenchment, mandatory sentences of at least 6 months were introduced for second time knife offenders. The press is currently very interested in knife crime which is a serious problem. But, it is not the first time that it has been a serious problem. Probably the single biggest reason for the recent increase in murders is a lack of police presence.
There needs to be a bigger police presence on the streets with the minimum of intrusion into people’s private lives. All crime tends to go down when there are more police on the streets.
The Police need to continue to improve their relationship with the community. The police say that more work is being done on this at their end. They need to be more sensitive and also do more active work in the community. I think less stop and search is a good idea as I don’t think it is a very effective tool and it is very intrusive.
What people have to say…
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