10 July 2006

Soft on crime, soft on the causes of crime

It is easy to mock Mr Cameron's new "Hug a hoodie" approach to youth crime. The Guardian reports:
"Tory leader David Cameron today defended his "bold" new approach to tackling antisocial behaviour with a call to show Britain's youth more "love".
Speaking ahead of a widely trailed speech to the Centre for Social Justice, Mr Cameron told BBC Breakfast that he was not urging people to "hug a hoodie", as the Labour party claimed.
But it was time policymakers looked beyond a "sticking plaster" approach to tackling social problems.
Mr Cameron, who will use his speech this afternoon to argue that sanctions such as antisocial behaviour orders should be used "less and less", said he was "being bold" in his approach.
He will say that young people need a "lot more love" if they are not to be drawn into offending.
While some people feel threatened by youngsters wearing hooded tops, those people may often be scared themselves. "Let's try and understand what's gone wrong with these young people, " he
said."
But is Mr Cameron's approach likely to be less productive than Jack McConnell's 'war on neds'? According to The Herald (here), the latter does not appear to be making much impact. If Mr Cameron errs too much towards understanding and not enough towards condemnation, at least he has avoided the knee-jerk reaction of Mr McConnell whose only answer seems to be increasing repression.

Having said that, I rather doubt if Ms Goldie will be entirely happy with her leader's new position.

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