Clive Fairweather: Key to keeping the violence genie in the bottle is in nurturing respect for others

Published on Monday 16 November 2009 21:29

THE key indicator in this revolting and extremely worrying case lies with the fact that the perpetrators came from "chaotic and violent home backgrounds".

Violence often begets violence and, subsequently, lengthy incarceration is often the only solution once the crime has been committed.

Surely the only long-term solution is prevention in the first place, but quite how does society set about creating stable families in our poorer areas?

This is a conundrum that has exercised the wisest of minds in Scotland since time immemorial; but still we must keep on trying – especially focusing on about five postal-code areas in Edinburgh and upwards of 60 across the country as a whole.

We also need to be doing far more about limiting access to alcohol for the young – and the rest of us for that matter – whether it is minimum pricing or curtailing the number of outlets available and the times that purchases can be made.

Our prisons are filled with male – and, increasingly, female – offenders whose violent outbursts have been hugely fuelled by alcohol. The damage this particular drug is exacting on us all as a community is, in my view, far greater than illegal drugs – though the latter also account for a great deal of acquisitive crime.

When I was the age of these latest offenders, alcohol was extremely expensive and quite hard to obtain; it also was bitter to the taste and the drunks on our streets tended to be mainly old men.

Fast forward to today where alcohol is dirt cheap, sweet and easy to get down your throat – so no wonder housing estates (and for that matter upmarket George Street on a Friday night) are at times completely awash with youngsters whose minds are temporarily altered for the worse – while parents and elders are indoors in much the same state.

When you add the everyday violence that surrounds us all in this information age – be it in films, on television, or the internet – no wonder the more impressionable have fantasies lurking in their minds which are then played out under the influence of lager, vodka and cider.

This is further coupled with the violence that has probably been visited on them in their own dysfunctional families.

And on top of that, these days you can use your mobile phone to empower yourself into instantly becoming your own (pornographic) film director.

It's not just 14-year-olds, either; there are occasional and growing undertones of this latter practice among today's US, British and other military. Indeed, surely there are echoes of Abu Ghraib in these sickening events which have taken place much closer to home, at the top of Leith Walk.

Violence lurks in all our minds; the key to keeping the genie in the bottle is a lifetime of careful nurturing and respect for others, rather than violently demanding "respect!"

&#149 Clive Fairweather is a former chief inspector of prisons. A former SAS officer, he has campaigned to stop children being sent to adult jails.