Violence in society - Unrelenting aggression

HARDLY a day passes now without images from the latest crime scene appearing in our papers or television. The regularity of violent deaths makes it hard not to believe that our society has become more violent.

Figures released by the World Health Organisation yesterday seem to confirm this view. The WHO tell us that 40 young people are murdered in Europe every day, over 15,000 each year. Four out of 10 of these killings are caused by people using knives. For every young person who is killed, 20 are hospitalised.

The usual and facile calls to control knives will probably follow this publication but pertinent questions need to be asked.