• MUCH of the media is obsessed with blaming teenage knife crime on feral youth running riot. But the reality is far more complex.

Unless we are willing to understand this and move away from the establishment’s current confused cocktail of deterrence, punishment and rehabilitation, no lives will be saved.

Crime arises from a combination of individual and social factors, its level and types a result of the society we create or allow to happen. The police cannot solve the problem alone because it is not in their power to influence its driving forces, of poverty, exclusion and limited job opportunities.

Criminal justice efforts to control the situation have revolved, to date, around knife amnesties, focused police operations and similar reactive measures.

Though good for publicity, these have limited effect and, in some instances, may even be counter-productive. Stop and search, for example, may worsen the situation by victimising young people and creating mistrust and resentment. Police recognise this.

With a limited mandate and even more limited resources, police cannot solve these problems by themselves. We can only achieve our common objectives through policies such as a basic income, taxes on wealth and greater spending on social services, backed by political will to improve the quality and equality of society.

Islington has one of the highest child poverty rates in London (38 per cent). That should be the background to every new headline informing us of a stabbing.

RODERIK GONGGRIJP
Islington Green Party