Report to the People
3rd September 2007
Culture Change
The
violent murders across Britain, which seem to have filled our papers and screens
on a daily basis this summer, make you wonder just how cheap human life is to
some people.
What
on earth is going on in someone’s head when, like the thugs who have committed
horrific, unprovoked murders in Inverclyde, you assault or kill a human being
over some imagined insult, or worse, for a laugh. And, more importantly, how do we change this mindset?
This
was the question on my mind when I attended last week’s violence reduction
seminar at James Watt College’s Waterfront Campus.
Addressed
by Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, the conference heard that
kicking the “recreational violence” habit requires more than just effective
policing.
Of
course, when someone breaks the law, they need to be caught, then dealt with
swiftly and severely. But, if we
can stop them offending in the first place, we save police resources, the
courts’ time and, crucially, innocent victims’ lives.
We
need to ask where these (mainly) young (mainly) men get the idea that inflicting
severe injuries on others is a normal weekend leisure pursuit.
Well, if they grow up with domestic abuse, they’ll soon come to see
violence as natural. Similarly, if
their lower-level antisocial behaviour, and that of their parents, goes
unchecked, how are they going to learn that actions have consequences?
A
culture change won’t be easy to bring about, but, if we want the waste of life
to end, we have no choice but to try.
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