Violent Crime Apparently Stabilising After a Tough Year2 min read

The starting months of 2018 came as a shock for many living in the Capital due the amount of violent crime being committed on a weekly basis.

At one point during the start of the year, London had more cases of homicide than New York City, with over 50 lives lost in the space of three months.

Knife crime among young people has been the most concerning and has seemed to be on the rise in the last four to five years.

Only last week, an 18-year-old was killed in a stabbing and thrown off a moped on Denmark Road, Camberwell.

From the beginning of the year up until now, 87 people have been killed in the Capital, putting the murder rate in the course of a 28% increase.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has revealed that apparently the rate of Violent Crime is in a phase of stabilising after an intense five months of chaos.

She explained that the monthly homicide rate has gone down to only five killings a month in comparison to the months before July, where figures reached up to 15.

Many still question today what the factors are that lead to violent crime as well as gang activity among young people.

We can point with out a doubt that deprivation in multiple areas is a leading cause to the increasing violence we see in today’s London.

The pressures of urban deprivation is pushed down further with the amount of budget cuts that have occurred in the last decade or so.

Cuts to policing as well as youth clubs has swayed progression in our communities, making young people more vulnerable to either being a victim or committing crime.

In June, the Met Commissioner herself stated that rejecting the correlation of cuts to policing and a rise in crime is “naive”.

With a new task force funded by the Mayor, the authorities are expecting to see a decline in the number of crimes committed in the Capital over the next year.

Cressida Dick also believes the hypocrisy of middle class people is to blame for the rise in violent crime among the youth.

Their purchase and consumption of drugs such as cocaine at house parties has also been pointed out as a stimulus for violent crime by the Commissioner.

Moped offensive have apparently dropped since the start of 2018. However, only tackling the crime itself isn’t going to solve the situation.

Measures need to be taken in educating and creating safe spaces for young people again to prevent the loss of life.

 

 

Photo by Benjamin Davies on Unsplash