Let’s talk about the real cause of knife crime

Politicians refuse to address the problem of absent fathers, which creates a generation of ‘lost sons’

Iused to be a member of the Youth Justice Board and one of my tasks was visiting youth offending units. These spaces were teeming with young men who looked like me – I could have been their father or even grandfather. Many were locked up because of knife crime violence. I wanted to know the reason why.

So-called experts were telling me that it was all about austerity and a lack of youth facilities, while others claimed it was a dearth of suitable role models. In a new report, Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative Party leader, argues for a tougher line with gangs, particularly a policing policy unafraid to get tough on black communities, where there is a disproportionate amount of knife crime.

I wasn’t going to be sucker-punched into believing that these young men were not responsible for their own crimes and misdemeanours. Smart policing obviously plays a role in tackling crime. But I wanted to know why this issue excessively affects a particular community.

Every boy said that their problems started when their fathers left the home, while others were haunted by the father they never knew. This was also the reality of most of the boys they lived alongside. What we have are black boys thrown together, all from backgrounds without fathers. According to official statistics, black children are significantly more likely to grow up in single-parent families.

These boys are like Hamlet, thinking too much about their absent fathers. This ghost has not been exorcised. They have simply been left looking at their peers, which is like looking in the mirror. They also have a strong right arm, which they all too often put to ill use.

The worrying thing about crime in black communities is that it is now happening in a second generation. A culture of black masculinity has taken hold in Jamaica, the big cities of America and the UK where black men produce children without feeling the need to take responsibility for them.

Policy makers and politicians in the UK will not touch this area. Even sociologists, who should know better, have run to the mantra of institutional racism to explain the realities of black family breakdown. When I have talked about this issue, I have been accused of “blaming the victim” of “letting white people off the hook”.

But when I put this to my sample group of black boys, they all laugh. One boy says: “No one knows what to do with us. We are the lost sons.”

These lost sons confound everyone, from Duncan Smith with his strongarm tactics to Diane Abbott and her denial of the black family being in crisis.

Partly as a consequence of absent fathers, a black feminism has emerged among Abbott and her supporters that sees women as superheroes, capable of bringing up their children just as well without men. The black boys in the youth offending unit would say the opposite.

This “feminism” isn’t working for us, they say. It forgets the existence of a masculinity with all its deadly instincts. A father going Awol is something akin to post-traumatic stress disorder. When the father is absent or failing in his duty, our boys are left isolated and a danger. It’s no surprise that the experts in this field are older men, who provide what I call “lawlines” for the boys to follow.

It is not only Afro-caribbean communities that face this horror. Talk to women from the Somali community, for example, and they will say that the absence of a male figure in their homes has meant their boys have gone “wild”.

It is also interesting that in middleclass West African households, where both mum and dad are more likely to be present, boys are doing exceptionally well. In fact, the latest figures show these boys are more likely to go to university than white working-class boys.

But you never hear about this. The conversation around knife crime has been reduced to initiatives that have no links to the real causes. There is an answer which lies not in more youth clubs or police on the beat but psychological intervention, where young boys can confront the demon within.

Unfortunately, no one really cares about such solutions. It is far easier not to ruffle any feathers.