Dear Country boy,

Yes, you're right. Absolutely. Hardly the end of the world... for some of us.

As I'm typing this to you, I'm also listening to the news.

An elderly lady was stabbed to-day while trying to get money out of an ATM in suburban Melbourne (Boronia of all places).
A man tried to help her by fighting off the attacker - the man got stabbed as well.

As you say, hardly the end of the world ...

Let me tell you the story of James Macready-Bryan, a young man who had his life before him. Then, in a moment, his future vanished. For the past five months, Macready-Bryan has been floating in twilight. He is 20 years old. He lies in a hospital bed, occupying neither life as most people know it or death. But for his father, Andrew Macready-Bryan, nothing is more important now than receiving some form of communication from James - something that would give hope of a potentially meaningful recovery. It is not there yet. James' eyes are open but they track aimlessly around the room. He drifts between sleep and a form of limited consciousness. Even slight recovery could take years, if there's recovery at all.

You read in the media every week on the Monday that someone's kid has been bashed inside a nightclub or in the city somewhere, and you just think to yourself, 'Thank God it wasn't my son.'

Well one day - it may just turn out to be your son. I pray that day never comes.
That's the day that perhaps you'll understand - it is the end of the world - for people who have to face facts that their child is not coming back. That would be very hard to deal with.

Foxy,

I read that story too, and it's awfully, awfully sad. Of course, for the family who suffers, all these stories are disasters. Those of us who reacted with sarcasm/humour/etc in the beginning of this thread were reacting not to these personal tragedies, but to the idea of a spate. 150 children will die of SIDS this year. Each is an unimaginable tragedy for the parents. But if I posted that there was a spate of SIDS, I'd obviously be wrong.

Anyway, while I'm still not convinced there's a spate (The Age stats still don't tally with Vic Police stats, and newspapers love accelerating crime stories), let's forget about it and focus on the question you asked. What cause crime. Pelican's link was excellent. The sentence that jumped out to me was:

"The offender of tomorrow is often the vulnerable child of today."

People, especially boys, who end up wards of the state or in the foster care system are over-represented in juvenile detention. Protecting and supporting families might be the first port of call.

Bring back army conscription, that always had a good result on: making men out of boys.

Foxy, I'm not denying that individual acts of violence are a tragedy. Not once did I imply otherwise.

I do object however to your attempts to string together a bunch of ancedotes and misleading statistics so as to paint a picture of some sort of societal collapse; which then allows you to claim you know the cause and the solution to this phantom problem.

In Boronia.. just near those ATMS there are no less than 2 martial arts schools..within 30 meters. Pity one of the 'lads' was not close at the time of this attack.

I know I'll be thinking of this and more vigilant myself each time I pass them.

One fellow I know.. is 5'2" if that.. and was confronted at those ATMs by a knife weilding attacker demanding money. He said 'Mate.. I'm only going to say this once..put down that knife" he didn't and learned quickly what a tornado of fists and feet from a kickboxer even of small stature can do.

I wouldnt say we have a 'spate' of violence here.. there are certain trouble spots (Station, Mall) if you are there at the wrong time.

I witnessed a riot at La Porchetta, young thugs wielding bike chains etc at the staff.. fortunately the dog squad and police happened to be close by. It was magic to watch them in operation.

young thugs wielding bike chains etc at the staff.. fortunately the dog squad and police happened to be close by. It was magic to watch them in operation.
BOAZ_David,
Dog Squad ? That's outrageous ! Did the poor thugs receive counselling ? Did they get compensation for their traumatic experience ?