NL’s Youth Crime Action Plan includes: The possible ”naming and shaming” of 16-17 year old teenagers, where anonymity could be lifted, offering support to “problem families” but also eviction from social housing if they fail to co-operate (so more homelessness).
More control orders, ASBOs and family orders (more criminalisation and stigmatisation). There were real possibilties with the Youth Crime Action Plan but these have been squandered in favour of the obsession to be tough.
While there is concentration on the so-called epidemic of knife crime, domestic violence is hidden in the shadows. Around one quarter of all recorded violent crime is domestic. On average two women a week are killed by a current or ex-partner. Yet where is the moral outrage, where is the moral panic? And domestic violence happens at the heart of the family and it transcends social class.
Domestic violence is something that is often at the heart of a child’s troubled home life. Decent housing and a a physical environment where it is safe for children and teenagers to spread their wings and yes let off steam!
Behind these things lies the low wage/low benefit econnomy. And the rewards for working all hours is that people end up being ground down. In contrast celebrity culture and conspicuous consumption are presented as the way you should live your life.
And the thing pervading all this that is not mentioned is the further alienation caused by the racism that runs through British society. Letting many young Black men know that they are the enemy within: why give a F*** about society when it does not give a F*** about you.
Changing all these things should be what a socialist or a social democrat should be about without the need for it ending in knife crime or a right-wing moral panic. NL has spent 11 years doing plenty of other things but not these.
Posted by harpymarx 
