Another teenager dead right now - how do we get a grip on gangs?

[NorthNineteen]

Name changed. A teenager was killed (shooting) close to where I live. It happened about an hour ago, there are loads of police, an air ambulance came. It's so awful, I don't know many details but what can be done to protect children? Clearly the current system is broken. It's so heartbreaking to think someone has lost their child today.

Want knives off the streets? Increase stop search and make it a mandatory 3 years in prison if one is found.

Stop and search has limited impact as a deterrent, They found that after a 10% increase in stop and search during a given month, recorded drug offences would be 1.85% lower during the next month, while non-domestic violent crime was 0.01% lower.

It has slightly more impact as an investigative power. Across England and Wales in 2017/18 around 30% of stops and searches led to what’s called a “positive outcome.” This refers to cases where action is taken against people who were stopped and searched. This includes arrest cases but also covers other resolutions like warnings and Penalty Notices.

fullfact.org/crime/does-stop-search-work/

The deterrent will be putting those carrying knives in prison.

Stop and search will find those people.

What are Labour promising - I've not heard this mentioned particularly

I've no idea, but not voting Tory is still a starting point. A decade of Tory cuts to services and support for young people and families have scorched their way to a bleak landscape for so many.

And of course, there's little hope of improvement with the hideous, heartless government that we currently have. So yep. It's a starting point.

@JaniieJones

'But you can't compare it to the 60s - what relevance does an era'

Because people are blaming gang culture on poverty. There was far more poverty in the 60s, many people lived in squalor.

So yes we have to accept there is a massive problem nowadays with daily tragic stabbings but you can't lay all the blame with the government or 'poverty'.

More police is needed, but more community and family responsibility too.

In the 60s, people had guaranteed jobs, usually in manufacturing, to enter after they finished school. Those days are long gone, sadly. I think that’s one of the key differences.

Because people are blaming gang culture on poverty. There was far more poverty in the 60s, many people lived in squalor.

Overall the population was probably much poorer though & people were probably kept more active by more jobs & more physical jobs even though these jobs didn't particularly pay much. The problem we have now is much greater inequality & a far more materialistic society.