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Originally Posted by demonrail666
I'd buy that if it was a problem isolated to London, but it takes place all over Britain. I really think it's a cultural thing, albeit one that finds it's most acute expression within more economically deprived areas (be it in parts of London, Manchester, Nottingham and, I'm sure, Bristol). It seems to be a shift in mindset, in which ideas of self-worth are shown almost solely by disregarding the worth of others. In its most extreme form this can be the act of stabbing someone simply because ..., at its more benign level it is playing music at levels that would inevitably antagonise one's neighbours.
Maybe we should stop thinking of kids as 'special', and start letting them know that, in the big scheme of things, actually, they aren't that special at all. I dunno, it's an argument that just goes around in circles. But definitely, until the 'Left' feel willing to look beyond mere economic causes, while the 'Right' come around to acknowledging tougher sentencing isn't the sole solution, we'll be stuck in the middle, having to cope with a problem that doesn't fit particularly comfortably with any political agenda.
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Not enough in the south-west to constitute 'exceptional', I'm afraid. Although suicide rates continue to rise in Devon/ Cornwall, drug deaths in Somerset and both rising in south Wales. Unfortunately, unless a statistic is outside of an area's 'average', it doesn't get much press. Oh, and unless I'm much mistaken, Somerset has the highest levels of underage drinking in the whole of Europe. There is something exceptional about the gun/ knife crime increase in London/ Manchester/ other, but these are areas notorious for the same - the worrying thing, in press terms, isn't that it's happening, it's that it's happening amoungst the under-16/18s.