David Cameron on Youth Crime.
In a speech earlier this morning David Cameron called for tougher policing against youth crime and anti-social behaviour. In a first-rate demonstration of talking-without-thinking, Cameron has set out a series of new Conservative policies including the barring of young offenders from driving.
As usual much of his speech was filled with ambiguities and absurdities. Cameron boldly stated that we need to move from a “one-dimensional approach” toward youth crime, toward a “three-dimensional approach” centring around ” the response of the courts, second the response of the police and third the response of society as a whole”. However, his notion that banning young offenders from driving will in some way act as a deterrent from their propensity toward perpetrating criminal activities lacks any sound ‘three-dimensional’ understanding.
Where he is falling short on the issue of youth crime is to concentrate on responses to crime (those of the courts, police and society) as opposed to making himself properly aware and appreciative of the reasoning behind such acts.
Punishing young people for anti-social misdemeanours will not solve the problem of crime in the long-term due to an ignorance of crime’s foundations. With such a common-sense realisation, we must in turn ensure that we do not become complacent and overconfident; the causes of crime are exceptionally multifaceted and complex, varying and evolving constantly across time and space, and it is these on a local level that we need to come to grips with and tackle.
Banning young offenders from driving will do little but further stigmatise and socially isolate young people from connecting with the very structures they require to integrate fully and successfully into society: transport, education, employment. It will also further entrench any existing insolence and disrespect toward the state and figures of authority – a total backward step.
On a very rudimentary level, it is constructive to find that Cameron has at least verbally acknowledged the role played by drugs, alcohol, unemployment and debt in catalysing social unrest and criminality. In spite of this I fast lose optimism when the party is so ardently focussed on “radical action” to restore family life and the stability found therein. The view of family supported and espoused by the party is limited and to an extent discriminatory toward modern society’s new and diverse social groups.
Comments
2 Responses to “David Cameron on Youth Crime.”
Leave a Reply
I like the new site CK, very smooth. Lush in fact.
I think Cameron’s words need to be taken in context of a wider social policy that is (very) slowly beginning to emerge. Tougher policing against youth crime is his theme today but it represents only a fraction of the overall ‘plan’ to turn us all into peaceful fellows who respect thy neighbour. The rest of it appears to be a two fold campaign of giving local institutions more power and encouraging the family unit. I don’t think these are bad themes at all but the proof is the pudding, as some say, and we will have to wait to see what the manifesto actually looks like. The actual policies they devise to implement these ‘themes’ will make or break the party.
I’m still holding out hope for old Cams. Things are turning against him and his party is (once again) tearing itself apart and throwing all sorts of ill timed criticism at their leader. Party discipline is essential if you are going to win elections, the Tories really should have learnt that by now.
But I do hold out hope, I think Cameron’s beginning to crack. All the bad media coverage and the backstabbing is starting to make him red in the face. You can see his patience ticking down, the pretty boy face and painstakingly careful wording will surely fall away in a total fit of rage. Then we will see what sort of leader he is. I actually dream of the day Cameron stands up in the Commons and starts shouting and spitting at Brown. Grrr! Get angry Cameron, come on. Go for it. You know you’re right, you know Brown isn’t the man. Now go for the throat, stop toying around the edges and GET HIM!
ahem.
*WARNING - ANTI-CAMERON PROPOGANDA BELOW*
It does seem true, if we are speaking in generalities, that Cameron is eking out a social policy tailored toward the right-wingers on his backbench – most obviously a philosophy that draws on Victorian ideals, such as family ordering and security. However this plan to turn us to “peaceful fellows who respect thy neighbour”, will only work for those already in circumstances which can easily fit into those structures: his policies appear exclusionary and partially blinkered toward the needs and problems of diverse societal groups, but this is all by-the-by.
In terms of the issue at hand I fail as yet to see how the idea mentioned in the article fits into this plan, and how it’s meant to prove effective in any way at reducing the prevalence of youth crime in a manner that is constrictive and positive.
Order, security and societal benevolence are all noble aims, but Cameron’s methodology (as we have witnessed it thus far), is not approaching the situation correctly.
In the extreme it harbours contempt and chauvinism. It does so in a manner that may make those who are not achieving in society - not necessarily or completely through fault of their own - feel as failures in themselves, further reducing empowerment and increasing apathy and disillusionment.