Youth worker opinion on the London riots

They condemn the riots, but say that there are several clear explanations as to why they happened, concerned with youth issues.

All agree that the very young age of some of the looters was shocking (younger than 10, in some cases)

Susana Giner of the Youth Media Agency believes that some of the blame should fall on the media for promoting an excessively harsh view of young people- she cites a survey from ‘Children and Young People

Now’ in 2009 stating that 76% of the stories about young people in the media were negative.

If young people are vilified by the media and therefore society, it is inevitable that they will attempt to rebel. If they are already seen as ‘criminals’ they will begin acting like them.

Giner also mentions that only 1 in 100 young people are ever involved in any crime.

Some youth workers also believe that some of the cuts imposed by the coalition are partly to blame- such as cutting EMA, tuition fee increases, and cuts to youth services in London. Feel that the youth has been disenfranchised.

Most of the rioters would feel hopeless, with no opportunities

Mediation worker Zoe doesn’t believe reports that gangs in south London got together during the riots as there is too much animosity between them.

The youth workers believe that one of the big problems is that many come from single-parent families where there is no authority in the home, so young people are free to run wild.

Camila Batmanghelidjh of Kids Company explains that the rioters were looting and going against the areas they lived in and their own communities because they feel they don’t actually belong to the community, and that the community has nothing to offer them.

For youth workers, the riots, whilst more violent than they expected, didn’t come as a surprise, after years of growing animosity.

Those working ‘at street level’ are aware of the worrying trend of large groups of teenagers “creating their own parallel antisocial communities with different rules” (gangs). These gangs are usually the only ‘support’ these young people receive- not a surprise that they have no respect for traditional authority

Mention the use of Twitter and Facebook to keep the momentum going.

Youth workers give their opinions on how to ‘heal the wound’; as to prevent the riots from happening again, have to help out the young people who feel they have nothing to lose.

Suggestions: a proper voice of the youth in the media, more positive representation of young people in the media, more coverage of positive youth projects, as well as more support for single-parent families.

Batmanghelidjh argues that the community has selected who is ‘worthy’ of help and who is not, and this needs to be combated in order to stop riots like the riots of August happening again.

Sources

 Time Out London 18-24 August 2011, no.2139:

• ‘Sticks and stones…?’ by Susana Giner, director of the Youth Media Agency, p14
• Opinion off Zoe, Mediation worker, North London, p21

‘Caring costs- but so do riots’ by Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of Kids Company, in The Independent, 09/08/2011