Violent Crime
Rev Jim McCartney
Chief Executive of THOMAS
Recent high profile media coverage of violent crime involving fatalities is sending a shockwave through our nation’s conscience. Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Channel Five News, show that there is a knife crime committed in the UK every 24 minutes. Literally anyone of us could find ourselves the victim of such an attack; however the most at risk are young males aged 14 to 24. As a criminal justice strategist developing systems to help liberate prolific offenders within the drug treatment sector, I am anxious and troubled by the grotesque attack on young life. Paul Knox the 18 year old budding actor, who played Marcus Belby in the forthcoming Harry Potter film, was the 14th teenager to die violently in Londonthis year. His only crime was that of an innocent young man who was out with his friends who became the victim of fuelled aggression with devastating consequences.
What has gone wrong with our society, our young people going out only to return in body bags? This is not Iraq but London. The recent May Bank Holiday saw a spate of attacks involving young people in and near the Capital. As I write this article a 19 year old man lies critically in hospital after being stabbed at East Ham tube station. A second man also aged 19, was arrested after being found with head injuries in a road nearby. Two 17 year old youths are fighting for their lives after being shot in North London.
What is it that drives young people to commit such atrocities? We have just opened our new £1m unit to work with the drug and alcohol addicted. The drug treatment sector has its fair share of disenfranchised people. At grassroots level we can see the manifestations of a lost youth now searching for identity and meaning as it struggles to cope with the demands of adult life. A significant number of people who access our services are themselves the victims of a turbulent adolescence, now regretting many of the mistakes from a misspent youth.
British musician TRICKY blames hip-hop for rising crime in the U.K., insisting it has created a generation of angry and violent young men. The artist, who mixes rock, hip-hop and pop in his music, claims parts of Britainare now more dangerous than New York, and the popular hip-hop culture has contributed to the situation.
I believe there is a need for a new type of rehabilitation, re-programming our youth so that it can develop new ways of dealing with irrational thinking. The problem faced by some of our young people is that when they are gripped by irrational thinking it is often too late. American psychologist Albert Ellis, the originator of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy, was one of the first to systematically show how beliefs determine the way human beings feel and behave. Rehabilitation is about helping people to change their thinking patterns, moving away from irrational to rational behaviours. I endorse the need for some of our youth to engage in a residential therapeutic community.
Parents know if their children are at risk. Government also needs to inject funding into this type of development. Living for a short period in a residential therapeutic community can provide a learning opportunity that can radically transform a human life. Alternatively some of our young people will either die or end up in prison.