This past week has seen England hit by a storm of rioting in major cities. Initiating in London on Saturday night, it continued through Tuesday with it spreading to other major population centres. There was unprecedented looting and vandalism by young people. Today on the BBC news website there is an article entitled: “The Competing Arguments Used to Explain the Riots”. The link is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14483149.
The article draws together ten of the major themes being espoused as the cause of these riots. They have asked two criminologists to give their views on these arguments. It is a very good article worthy of a read.
The 10 themes are: Welfare Dependence, Social Exclusion, Lack of Fathers, Spending Cuts, Weak Policing, Racism, Gangsta Rap and Culture, Consumerism, Opportunism, Technology and Social Networking. It would be lovely to be able to put our finger on one cause, which we could then rectify immediately and all would be well. But is it really that simple? There is cause and effect obviously but could some of these be the fruit of one root? Is one or more of these the root and others the fruit?
I don’t think any one of them is the true root of the social breakdown we have witnessed this week. It is interesting that my family in Canada were not shocked by what had happened when I called them. They said that rioting and looting occurred in Vancouver over the results of the final game of the ice hockey playoffs. It was a destructive and disproportionate response for the disappointment that fans felt.
The big question is: why the violent and lawless reactions of normally peaceful, law abiding people? Are we willing to really look at the root? Or would we rather pluck the flowers off when they spring up than deal with the deeper issues producing them? One commentator on the video clip from BBC’s “This Week” show with Sally Bercow, the House Speaker’s wife (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13726364) said that if we were to deal with sexualization of young girls then we would have to face dealing with the whole sexualization issue in society. He said that most people were attracted to scantily dressed beautiful people in advertisements and unless we were prepared to deal with it all, nothing would change for children either.
Is this not what the riots are about? Are we willing to change society to address the issues or would we prefer to simply suppress the riots and looting when it arises?
The article draws together ten of the major themes being espoused as the cause of these riots. They have asked two criminologists to give their views on these arguments. It is a very good article worthy of a read.
The 10 themes are: Welfare Dependence, Social Exclusion, Lack of Fathers, Spending Cuts, Weak Policing, Racism, Gangsta Rap and Culture, Consumerism, Opportunism, Technology and Social Networking. It would be lovely to be able to put our finger on one cause, which we could then rectify immediately and all would be well. But is it really that simple? There is cause and effect obviously but could some of these be the fruit of one root? Is one or more of these the root and others the fruit?
I don’t think any one of them is the true root of the social breakdown we have witnessed this week. It is interesting that my family in Canada were not shocked by what had happened when I called them. They said that rioting and looting occurred in Vancouver over the results of the final game of the ice hockey playoffs. It was a destructive and disproportionate response for the disappointment that fans felt.
The big question is: why the violent and lawless reactions of normally peaceful, law abiding people? Are we willing to really look at the root? Or would we rather pluck the flowers off when they spring up than deal with the deeper issues producing them? One commentator on the video clip from BBC’s “This Week” show with Sally Bercow, the House Speaker’s wife (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13726364) said that if we were to deal with sexualization of young girls then we would have to face dealing with the whole sexualization issue in society. He said that most people were attracted to scantily dressed beautiful people in advertisements and unless we were prepared to deal with it all, nothing would change for children either.
Is this not what the riots are about? Are we willing to change society to address the issues or would we prefer to simply suppress the riots and looting when it arises?
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