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Damilola father: Violent rap lyrics fuel knife crime
Martin Bentham10.03.09
The father of Damilola Taylor today blamed violent video games and aggressive rap lyrics for fuelling knife crime.
In evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee, Richard Taylor, whose 10-year-old son was killed nine years ago, said he was saddened by the "negativity" being injected into young people's lives.
He suggested that new measures, such as a tax on violent videos, could be needed to counter the trend.
Mr Taylor, who was recently appointed as an adviser to Prime Minister Gordon Brown on knife crime, also called for increased mediation between warring teenage groups,
He said he shared the fears of many about aggressive elements of popular culture and claimed they were an important factor in the growth of knife crime since Damilola bled to death after being stabbed with a broken bottle on the North Peckham Estate in 2000.
Raising his concerns about video games, he said: "Young people have access to all this and it is having a negative impact.
"It saddens me that the laws have allowed us to bring in all this negativity into people's lives. It is coming in every day and people are seeing new ones and it is harmful."
Mr Taylor also told MPs that he was concerned about the content of much rap music. "It is creating more of a problem because of the language that is used. It is language that, as a father, I would not allow my children to hear," he said.
"To me, there is a lot of negativity that comes out of this music, especially that which is coming from America."
Mr Taylor was giving evidence to MPs on the home affairs select committee as part of its inquiry into knife crime.
He also told the committee hearing that he would shortly be presenting the Prime Minister with a "manifesto" of proposed action to tackle knife crime, but declined to give further details.
Reader views (3)
You're all completely wrong, there's no reliable evidence to say that todays young people are more violent, however, there is a significant small number who are. So lets get real. The other point is that violent lyrics in music/poetry/film has been around for the last 4 decades and we just don't know the affect this has on young people, simply because no ones researched it. Its very easy to pick on Rap because it's the most popular and most relevent with a bigger audience. But lets not forget what they said about Jazz/Rock & roll, just to remind a few people the same things were being said. The fact is Violence amoungst the young was far worst in the 70's and 80's, simply because we had Skins heads/Greasers/hells angels/teddy boys/Football hooligans, the list is endless and everytime any of these groups would clash it would be mayhem. How quickly us oldies forget. It's a shame we don't invest more time into helping young people to value themselves and respect others. But I guess that costs far too much
Matt
- Matt Jameson, Kent
Too right! Rap isn't proper music, anyway. If I were a parent, I would not allow my child to have rap stars (or popstars in general) as role models. Rap is about promoting violence and hatred, particularly towards women. Rappers always refer to women as "bitches", never as human beings. Is it any wonder our kids have no respect?
- Cally G, Essex, UK
Of course it does. We all know that. So does violence in media, books and the internet and computer games. But when is somebody going to have the guts to censor it and stamp it out.
- Dhanraj, basildon
