Past Events
- IoI at Oxford Literary Festival
- Teenage gang violence
- frighteningly real or dangerously exaggerated?
- Venue: Oxford Literary Festival
- Date: April 1, 2009
- Time: 20:00
- Tickets: £7.50 from 0870 343 1001
The conviction in December of Sean Mercer, who in 2007, at the age of just 16, shot dead 11-year-old Rhys Evans in Liverpool, has reopened the debate about teenage gang violence in Britain. Rhys was apparently caught in the crossfire of a turf war, and the murder investigation was hampered by a climate of fear created by street gangs. As with last summer’s spate of knife attacks by and on teenagers in London, politicians have been quick to speak out on the issue, while the media often give the impression that Britain is in the grip of gun and knife culture and gang warfare, with young people in particular both committing violent crime, and suffering as victims of it.
In sentencing Sean Mercer and his accomplices, Justice Irwin argued, ‘It is wrong to let anyone glorify or romanticise this kind of gang conflict. You are not soldiers. You have no discipline, no training, no honour.’ Is there a danger that commentators’ eagerness to condemn ‘gang violence’ in dramatic terms has the unintended effect of flattering teenage criminals? And do metal-detecting ‘knife-arches’ in schools actually normalise the carrying of knives?
How serious and widespread is teenage violence? Do concerns about violent youth crime reflect a breakdown of respect and discipline, or are we in the grip of a moral panic? Are liberal critics blind to the harsh realities of crime and disorder? Perhaps the preoccupation with teenage gang violence reflects a deeper crisis adult authority. Have we lost the confidence to tell young people what’s right and wrong?
|
Speakers:
|
 |