One in three young people living in cities throughout UK thinks it is acceptable to carry a knife in self-defence because violence is so rife. Teenagers and twenty-somethings have lost faith in politicians, the police or schools to protect them and increasingly believe they need to be armed to defend themselves against people of their own age. Nearly half said they knew someone who had been a victim of knife crime. A national advertising campaign is going to be launched, aimed at teenagers who carry knives for protection, warning that doing so makes them more likely to be stabbed. Parents, especially mothers, will also be targeted by ads in women’s magazines urging them to talk to their children about the risk of carrying weapons. However, experts warned that unless children can be made to feel safer on the streets, they are unlikely to give up their weapons. There is a picture of young people completely taking it for granted that guns and knives and violence is a kind of everyday part of their landscape. The scale of violence against lads has been revealed in new figures which show that in England an average 58 youngsters a day are being admitted to hospital after being deliberately injured. The numbers suggest that the incidence of intentional harm against youngsters may be rising. Aggression is a feature of behaviour that may be an element of youngsters’ need to be looked after, and trying to understand some of the causes of this are important. It is helpful for parents and carers to have strategies for dealing with violent or aggressive confrontations, should they arise. This can apply equally to younger children and older adolescents. Youngsters may well have experienced aggression, humiliation, or helplessness at home or school during their childhood. Circumstances that are threatening create feelings of fear and insecurity, and may well provoke an aggressive response. Fear of humiliation or a sense of being ignored, undervalued or misunderstood, with feelings of low self esteem, may be countered by strong aggressive reactions. Other youngsters may respond by becoming withdrawn and uncommunicative. Youngsters may have experienced adults who are not able to handle complex and difficult situations and have resorted to outbursts of temper, destructive behaviour or domineering means of control. Aggression is one of the identified products of frustration and helplessness. Parents and carers should be aware that when faced by challenging behaviour, their own feelings of anger may result from not knowing what to do that is, frustration and helplessness. Sometimes, aggression is used to cover up feelings of depression. In some rare cases, aggressive behaviour may have an organic cause, or may be evidence of a psychopathic disorder. In a indictment of the UK’s drinking and gangs culture among disaffected young people, police officers are fighting a constant battle against anti-social behaviour and alcohol-fuelled violence which needed greater support from parents. Most of the bad behaviour is fuelled by alcohol, much of it supplied by adults, including some parents. A hard core of parents turn a blind eye to the fact that their youngsters are out there, drinking under age and congregating in places where they cause nuisance to others. Groups of young people gather sometimes in large numbers and police officers constantly break the groups up, seize alcohol and send youngsters home to parents but police could not do it alone. All parents have a responsibility to make sure that they eradicate the problems caused by groups of youths, who intimidate and threaten people and same age boys. Whatever the causes, it is necessary to remedy this dangerous situation.

Published in July 2008 on www.clubdtv.com