Should knife yobs be sent to jail?

The Sentencing Guidelines Council has advised courts that a fine or community sentence should be used for people carrying knives if they haven't been used in a threatening way. A prison sentence should only be used a last resort.

Do you agree with these guidelines?

Did you know that 3 in 10 people arrested for having a knife receive just a warning and that only 1 in 10 end up going to jail.

What laws would you introduce to curb the current trend of teenagers carrying weapons?

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Added: 10 June 2008 21:14

Sue says:

Parents ultimately take responsibility for the actions of their children.It is the job of parents to introduce children to the complexity of the wider world gradually.Parents must not take their eye off the ball.You do not have to be hostile to bring children up. You can talk with them frequently.I used to use humour. When my young 9 + 11 yr old daughters came home from school I would say with fun 'Do you have any problems, any sexual problems'? We'd laugh but it was my way of showing that I was available for discussion and advice. My daughters, now grown up, still come to me with real life problems for discussion. Parents seem too busy working (overtime) to pay bills to make themselves available for their children.

Added: 7 June 2008 18:39

Doug says:

hello Lisa Marie

Surely 4 kids is plenty to be dealing with, perhaps too many and maybe that is also a reason for the unruliness in society. The number of kids that any parent (or on occasions parents) can deal with should be considered. That is what being responsible is all about....you should know your limits in this respect....and whether continuing to have kids will have a detrimental effect on the way that you deal with them and the situations that arise from having them.

It may well be that not all parents are as responsible as you appear to be and that this kind of unruliness and disrespectful behaviour is just allowed to go on unheeded by the remainder of parents.

Unfortunately there are other people in the country whose views also need to be respected and that is just not happening today. It is also "all about yourself and what you want and who cares about others" and that attitude breeds the situation that we are in now and how kids get to do what they want when they want.

Added: 6 June 2008 18:58

Dodger says:

Most of the knife crime is black on black, this is not being racist but telling the truth. The problem is that we are allowing people with different values and cultures in to our country both whire and black who expect to live by the values and cultures that they have come from. We being soft allow this to happen. What we need to do is send anyone found to be carrying a knife on their person to prison for a minimum of 5 years andone using one for 10 years, and in the case of murder life without parol. We are told that there are not enough prison spaces well get the criminals to build them as the prisoners of war did. Also do away with all of the luxuries of life, prison is meant to be hard to deter people from re-offending. Why should the decent magority of this country have to put up with the scum that we ahev living here both imigrants and home grown.

Added: 6 June 2008 11:42

pete says:

Anyone caught with an offensive weapon or knife etc, regardless of their age, should be sent to prison. Their parents should also be fined. There is simply no deterent for carrying weapons.

Added: 5 June 2008 02:29

Alan says:

I am of an age that, when we were young, there was one simple rule, If you couldn't afford it, you didn't have it. That included children. Then along came the welfare state. Now children are being born simply to provide a key to a council flat and as a cash crop for state handouts,and that is as far as their parents interest in them goes.These are the kids that are running wild in the streets and end up kicking anyone who tackles them to death. Make the parents responsible for them and their crimes with sentences to suit the crimes their kids commit.

Added: 3 June 2008 15:13

martin p says:

I have a very positive relationship with kids birth parents thanks
I am not bitter I'm a realist my kids are good kids with a few problems they follow the rules because the rules are there and enforced.
it's when the rules are not there or not enforced that kids go off the rails.
We've all seen it some little kid being obnoxious and it's parents doing nothing those are the kids that think they can do what they want later with no consequences.

Added: 3 June 2008 15:05

Lisa Marie says:

Here Dough my kids are fine i have four two girls two boys, my older three are respectful of their elders and others because thats how i have taught them and so will my youngest who is 16 months he too is taught right from wrong, and they do have rules but what i am saying is that some parents don't know what their kids are up too because they lie to them, all i am saying is that not all parents are to blame for their kids there are good parents out there and what if a child gets mixed up with the wrong crowd who's parents are to blame for their kids being totally off the rails all it takes is a child to be in the wrong place at the wrong time mate and they can get roped in. Oh and my life is just fine

Added: 3 June 2008 14:54

Lisa Marie says:

Here Doug my four kids are good kids because i have taught them right from wrong and there isn't anything wrong with my life i have a perfectly good one, i think you read my first message wrong, i don't beleive that ALL PARENTS are to blame for the way their kids turn out, my kids are in before a certain time and they do not stay out all hours and get in to trouble because they know for a fact that they would face the consiquences if they put a foot wrong. I have brought my children up to be respectful of others just as i was. and i would just like to say mate that maybe the foster kids parents have made you bitter to all parents. what i meant in the first message was that the goverment are to blame a little in all of this gang crime, not just the parents the goverment tell us how to bring our kids up and unfortunately some parents panick if they threat their kids with punishment because all too often they are taught at school that punishment is abuse.

Added: 2 June 2008 22:56

Doug says:

Well my comments seem to have caused some sense of what is right and what is wrong...Lisa-Marie ..all parents are responsible for all the actions of their children ....sorry that the way things are...I was punishesd also and it did not turm me into a thug....get a life and teach your kids what life is all about...they need rules

Added: 2 June 2008 15:00

martin p says:

Yes I do have kids 2 of of my own and 4 fostered ones and none of them would dare threaten, ignore, insult us because they are aware that we won't take it and there will be a price to pay. If parents taught them from birth about respect, cause and effect etc. then this situation would not arise.