Evening Standard comment: Mean streets

The police have a good record in detecting the perpetrators of teenage killings, partly because Operation Trident focuses specifically on black-on-black killings. Containing the fear of crime through visible policing on run-down estates is also crucial. But however worthwhile these initiatives are, there is a limit to which the police can deal with a problem that has everything to do with the kind of society of which the killers are a part.

Poverty of aspiration, simple poverty, absent fathers and dysfunctional families, fear of crime on estates, poor schooling, the prevalence of drugs - all contribute to the makings of the young men who end up charged with murder.

The Government could do a great deal more by tackling the educational underachievement of young black boys for whom there is no escape route from the estates - and we should not forget that it is they who are the biggest losers from ministers' failure to improve secondary education in London. But ultimately, the solution to youth violence must lie with the communities themselves.

Until they send out the message that such violence is unacceptable, it is likely to continue.