Guns and knives
Crime is a major issue for children and young people: 51 per cent of young people in the 2006 Survey of Londoners put crime at the top of their list of concerns.
Although relatively rare, violent crime experienced by young people in London – including gun and knife crime fatalities – clearly has a disproportionate impact on their and the wider community’s feelings of safety, especially where the ages of those affected is getting younger.
The new Mayor, Boris Johnson, has placed youth violence at the top of his list of priorities, saying "These teenage killings are not a series of freak events. Each fatal stabbing or shooting is at the apex of a pyramid of violence, thuggery and bullying that is making life less pleasant for everyone in the city... even if it is a long, hard struggle to deal with the present culture of knives and gangs, that is all the more reason to make a start".
You can read more about gangs on thesite.org and on the Need2Know website. More information about safety issues of young people is in the Mayor’s State of London’s Children Report.
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