Reducing violent crime

All kids should volunteer - for at least 1 year.

Any kids that struggle could be teamed up with a mentor to help them get their issues sorted before it becomes worse.

All kids should go do an exchange, 2 weeks to 1 month, enough time for it to have an effect. To be able to develop themselves, empathy, tolerance, reduce racism. Or take part in schemes like Duke of Edinburgh, operation Raleigh, NCS etc. Going to summer camps and being exposed to new experiences can help kids lifes choices, confidence, there's not enough of this stuff going on across the board. It only ever seems to be certain students that get onto schemes.

Tackling the causes of violent crime is key, the approach of bringing together different services and involving communities when designing solutions sounds really sensible.

This needs to be combined with having opportunities, both for jobs and also to do creative activities, music/art, get involved with volunteering, and plenty of sports, especially for people on low incomes - to give young Londoners hope, value and a sense of community.

Following the recent Sarah Everend story in the news, improving safety for women needs to be better. Also mandatory educating people in schools and universities and work places about treating women properly and respectfully and keeping women safe from harassment and creepy and inappropriate behaviour.
To improve lighting in streets, stations, bus stops, railway stations, have staff working in stations, police and community patrol officers, taxis with female drivers, etc.
Better legal system to punish criminal behaviour and offenders and reoffenders.

There was a suggestion made on the recovering from Covid area about having 'safe havens' created for women in shops and local venues, with trained people able to allow someone - for instance being followed - to stay at the site and be assisted with calling for assistance- such as for the police.
This could also apply to young people - who again may be followed, threatened, or harassed in public in the street, but do not know if anyone could or would help them. We need ways and methods for them to know there is help and that many people do care and want to keep them safe.

We need more police out on the streets! Especially in the evenings and when it’s dark. More police on foot or cycling in the parks especially as woman are vulnerable and targeted including the youth.

Whatever has been done to stop crime since this was added by Talk London on the 19th September it has not worked. More Police, More stop and search even though my son has been stopped so many times and he is white in case anyone wants to make any comment, he is 37 in a couple of weeks but looks 20 maybe that's why they stop him or it could be because he has lots of black and mixed race friends. He has been told by police many times choose your friends better. We want Police that are not racists for a start. None of them has ever had anything on them they shouldn't. It might be too late to help this generation but the generation coming up should be able to attend a youth club like we used to in the olden days as I call them, we had so many clubs to go to, it was a very happy time. Now I dont know of any youth clubs, there may be some but my family and friends dont know of any in our area of West London. There should also be more sports clubs for the children to use their energy up and we might even find some more gold medal winners amongst them. What do you think could be done to stop postcode violence, but more importantly postcode murders?? Maybe the next Mayor might be able to do something about it as no one else has been able to. Thanks for listening

At www.teamcic.com we'd love to see London fully recognise that we can't solve violence through punitive measures alone; that embraces approaches promoting outcomes we want as opposed to the 'deficit model' - where we focus all our attention on the very things that we are attempting to eradicate!

These days it seems there are so many problems that need fixing…
We are living in a time when it feels that there are so many things wrong; when young people are struggling to live lives that are positive, healthy, productive and happy. Wellbeing issues, mental health challenges, violence (to self and others), drug / alcohol abuse, gangs, unemployment, radicalisation, homelessness… it seems that there is an overwhelming deluge on a daily basis in the world’s media…

All of these issues are real and we must find the solutions.
They all come down to well-being. The way we see ourselves and our world is the decisive factor in determining how we feel. Changing our perspective directly influences our emotional state. All change begins in the mind.

“If we see people only as problems to be fixed and that external factors such as their environment or their background are the root causes of their problems we miss out on the very solutions to these problems...”

What if the biggest problem is actually the ‘lens’ people are viewed / look through?

If we begin to look through a ‘lens’ that sees ‘what is right’ rather than focusing solely on ‘what is wrong’, we begin to see that we possess the wisdom and capacity to solve our own challenges… We are incredibly resilient and given the right platform and support, once we see this for ourselves, new stories emerge… People are not their problems… They face their problems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtJc53CXsM&feature=youtu.be

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/lifestyle/article/through-unity-knife-cri…

https://vimeo.com/367237008

https://vimeo.com/501231695/c842952bbb

TfL has told me to mind the gap between the train and the platform half a million times. This repetitive noise pollution raises passengers' blood pressure endangering their health and leads to more confrontations. If every journey matters, cut down the repetitive noise pollution and let us travel in peace.

Although it's a complex issue, there seems to be a lack of common sense when it comes to dealing with it.

No matter how many Units and taskforces are established if younger people are left with nothing to do and no aspirations, they quickly become easy prey for others focussed on using them for criminal activities (often violent/ linked to violence).

Cutting budgets for organisations providing safe outlets for our youth inevitably leads to increases in crime.

For older people accessible routes away from crime need to be the norm rather than the exception.

When violent crime occurs, punishment needs to be in line with the crime committed and justice for victims needs to be paramount.

Those at risk of committing crimes and those with spent convictions need to have deterrents severe enough to make them think more than twice.

Those who have been forced / coerced into committing violent crime(s) need to have safe routes out.

The named causes of violent crime stated above are all suffering from budget / staffing cuts.

More money needs to be spent on ensuring that Londoners are not victims of violent crime and less money needs to be spent on things like blocking roads.

Talk to the gangs and ask them what they think. I am sure you will get the same answer from all of them. The kids that are being recruited by gangs need alternative things to do. Community centres etc have all but gone. We need a massive amount of funding to enable opportunities for these kids. If you have no money, no hope or nothing to do then you turn to crime or gangs. We need to treat this as a social issue rather than a crime issue. I would also look at legalising weed as it's a complete waste of police time and resources.  Those that smoke will do so whether it's legal or not so we may as well legalise it which will generate a billion pound industry and stop the criminal activity surrounding it which we can pump back into the poorest in London. I would also seriously look at making knife carry an automatic 10 year sentence. Nobody is going to carry a knife if there's a risk of 10 years in jail. Atm the minimum is 4 months for under 18s which is pathetic. These kids would rather do 4 months than die. We need to be tougher. I saw one guy get 2 years for stabbing someone that is completely unacceptable. 

I'm new to this, but with children who've left primary school last year and a couple of years ago, it seems to me there is not much support for parenting teenagers.  We rightly support new parents and parents of younger children, but could more be done to support parents of teenagers.  Parenting teenagers has new challenges and isn't easy.  This would be need to be alongside the immediate and important issues around gangs and deprivation, and would give a longer term approach.  Helping one parent, helps multiple children in a family.     

Boys and girls are being hunted down and killed in the streets of London. Who should be protecting them? 

Crime will never go in London, unless there is real equal opportunity instead of psudo equal oppertunity. Tax payers will pay for those people seeking benefit. A Government encouraging a young girl to get pregnent expect a crime free society.They should have little shame in thinking that way. Up bringing of a child is hugely contributer how that child become a responsible person of the society. Every attempt Government is making to show if anyone works hards has to suffer. 

most people who are commiting crimes are often raised in a backround full of violence and they just grow up being used to it or in poor housing. they'd start learning from their siblings and i know for a fact growing up life was not the best for me i've been through a lot of abuse to the point that i started acting like my other family members i would start skipping school not because i was un safe but because i didn't really see a future for my self. by the age 15 i was carrying knives got my self caught multiple times in pru and one day it got to the point i ended up in court and thankfully they just gave me half a year with yot. most of us never choosed to be violent we just saw it as the only option at that time. most people grow up with no one telling them what to do they have their parents but their parents dont seem to understand why they behave so poorly or they are not aware what their kids do on the streets. Teaching kids from a young age would be better we could listen to what they say hear them out we could even hold events in school talking about all sorts of violence from abusive parents to street violence we can hear what they say show them videos of what really goes on and hopefully we can change their thoughts and views. we can also hold events up like football matches music festivels where people can feel safe to go to not worrying about if they should carry any weapons or anything. police need to start talking to the kids they arrest and talk to them on a 1 to 1. telling them they'll go jail if they carry on behaving bad wont do no good they'll act and behave the same, some have brothers or family members in prison so they are aware of what they're doing but showing them what prison is actually like and the out come of what they do on the streets hopefully they change their mind in what they do.