To feel depressed about street crime increasing?

[Belindabobtail]

In many areas it seems to be, especially since the pandemic. It has even crept into the rather quiet area where I live, albeit much rarer and in the town centre.

I grew up in Lancashire, and still have family/friends there and around Greater Manchester. I'm obviously saddened by the death of a 16 year old girl in Warrington this Saturday (knife attack) and there are many that don't reach the national press. It brought to mind how much of this I'm hearing of late, how a few people I know have even witnessed knife crime or threats in their town centres in the afternoon - and I mean places where you hardly ever heard of that kind of stuff a few years ago.

I know there are complex issues surrounding the rise in knife crime, which I won't get into here, but on a recent visit to see friends I witnessed someone being attacked in broad daylight in a busy town centre, which shook me up a bit. This is reported to be quite common in a few places I used to know, that never used to have such issues.

I usually might think it seems to be increasing because it is reported more frequently, but not so sure. It is something I did used to associate with large cities or very troubled spots, but apparently not now. Is anyone else thinking this? To be honest I would love to hear I am mistaken.

There are certain places now that when I visit, the atmosphere is bizarrely different, sort of charged with a weird violence, with much more trouble on the streets and in stores. This includes seeing off road bikes being driven through a shopping arcade, kids smashing public property, a ton of addiction issues very visible and a massive amount of litter, glass and smashed phoneboxes, etc.
There is definitely a sense that you might walk past or experience something kicking off and unwittingly get stuck in it.
I can only stress that this feels somewhat sudden, that in the few places I am thinking of it definitely wasn't like that a few years back.

Does anyone know if this is a thing, an actual increase in smaller towns, or could it just be the areas I am hearing about? And if it is increasing, what do you think is the reason? Can anything help?

I think a lot of youth are completely submerged in the cult of the self. A focus on the importance of one's emotions that has lead to mass flourishing of narcissistic personality traits, personal sense of entitlement, vanity.

If people were being raised to be less self-involved about everything, and were taught more about things like duty to others, objective/reasonable behaviour, tolerance of people disagreeing with you and staying rational, they wouldn't feel that accountability is down to your "personal truth", or that meting out their stupid vicious emotions on the world was a perfectly ok thing to do.

Great observation - and it's also worrying how young both the perpetrators and victims are.
I think you have to go in to very rough areas to get an idea what's going on with a lot of these kids. I remember years ago there was a murder case near Preston or thereabouts, where two alternative/Goth teens were attacked (the girl died).
The mother of the main perpetrator was reported to have sat in court yelling 'that's my lad!' or something of that description.
Fining or punishing the parent/s won't lead to much because there are generations of broken families/communities who simply don't care, couldn't pay or already live with severe addiction or mental health issues.

I don't know how any future gov would scratch the surface of this. But there's a distinct lack of authority in many of these places. If you are somewhere untroubled, you might still think authority is an incentive to behave, but this issue is definitely creeping beyond it's traditional borders of troubled 'sink estates'.

I strongly doubt a lot of these kids are hanging out on social media. Many are in overcrowded housing, or can barely read or write.
But like I said, I do think it's a growing issue, and it's turning up in unlikely areas.

I live in the heart of london on honestly feel safer than i have for a while. Being outside after 7 during the pandemic was so scary, the only people outside were the local drunks. Much more lively a now and the street lighting seems so much better.

Maybe its different outside london as i seem to be hearing a lot about knife attacks outside of london rather than in it.

That's if they bother to come and check it (in time) or at all.

I live in a suburb in the south east. House for sale on the corner needs complete refurb and is on for 800k just to give an idea. When we moved in 10 years ago it was the most boring crime free area ever you expected hyacinth bucket to live here. Now we have recently a drug dealer round the corner whose house was set on fire and windows smashed in. Lots of broken glass in the park from teenagers and weed smoking. Lots more graffiti. A fight in the local deli. Boy racers smashed a wall when they were racing together. Every week vans going around nicking from front gardens. People turning up armed to a persons house that they knew. A modern slavery case at the newsagents. Someone shooting seagulls from the flats. This is just the stuff I know of. Honestly this place is so twee in so many ways loads of retired people and artists but it really is going down hill quite concerningly sadly.

Have any of you noticed increases in this kind of behaviour accelerate since covid?
From my perspective it was definitely on the rise but the pandemic seemed to speed it up - after a relatively quiet set of lockdowns my sister reports a huge influx of anti social behaviour in her otherwise quiet suburb. Examples include open drug dealing, joyriding, cars set on fire in the street and people driving cars along canal footpaths.

I used to think my spot was somewhat safe but I'm not convinced. Considering what many of you have suggested regarding government cuts, I also wonder if government behaviour in recent years (lawlessness and entitlement) has had some influence en masse?

It's terrible, knife crime is every week now.
Depressing but nothing gets done to stop it.
Not enough stop and search. No respect for anyone, no fear of going to court/prison.
No idea what the answer is.
Society is horrible.

Why not include them? Are they not a clue to the divisions felt in society?

The girl was Sophie Lancaster, she was beaten to death by thugs in Bacup. At the time that was so shocking to hear because it wasnt a regular occurrence. Not saying it's any less shocking now, its utterly abhorrent what that scum did to her.

In today's world though, murder is routine. I listen to the radio on the way to work everyday and all I ever hear in the news bulletin is a stabbing here, a gun shot there, people being murdered left, right and centre. Babies and young children in house fires often caused by vengeful adults, parents and step parents killing their children (Star Hobson, Arthur Labinjo-Hughes etc.), the shooting if a 9 year old girl in liverpool, the shooting of a women in a pub on Christmas eve, a racist attack by children on a 15 year old girl outside of a school last week. Stabbing, knife attack, murder every day on repeat. It's disgusting. Its utterly vile and senseless. Society is broken.

I do believe most people are genuinely decent. But honestly I cant comprehend the mentality of people these days. I think we have become a lot more selfish as a society. But that's just my opinion.

Police pick and choose what to investigate if they don’t like you they will ignore you

I suppose it is easier for some of us to choose to believe it isn't increasing, because it isn't the kind of thing that is easy to swallow. It isn't good four our mental outlook to consider a break down of decency and law.

It is of course reported more now, in a national sense, and the perpetual chaos of social media doubles down on it, but stats do show a sharp uptick, which is difficult to ignore.

After posting this I looked at a few local news outlets for where I grew up and found that most knife crime isn't making headline news there. Perhaps it is going to gain more traction when the victim is a young girl. Considering the reports from Liverpool and other areas in the past few years, the murder of very young women has definitely increased.