Ipswich Green Party Calls for Change to Violent Crime Focus

3 August 2018

Ipswich Green Party Suggests Violent Crime Should Be Public Health Issue

 

The Ipswich Green Party met recently to discuss how the issue of violent crime in the town could best be tackled.

It was felt too easy to simply blame the cuts to youth services in 2011 despite the obvious impact. We also need to change our attitudes towards this growing epidemic.

Currently we often treat knife crime as a purely criminal issue and usually reactively. We need to begin treating Violent Crime as a public health issue. Being proactive and treating it at source has been shown to work in cases around the world.

Treating violent crime as a health issue is regarded as the key factor in reducing the number of stabbings in Scotland. The most remarkable decline was in Glasgow which had one of the highest murder rates in Western Europe.

In Ipswich we need to be working with young people, especially targeting those from the more challenging backgrounds. Positive role models and mentors need to be in place to steer our young people towards positive lives rather than the dangerous culture of gang related crime and violence.

We all have a part to play in this. We cannot simply rely upon local government or charities to pick up the pieces. We can all become a positive influence on their lives by offering them respect, earning their trust and helping them to make positive rather than negative choices in their lives.

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