UK Commission on 2011 Riots Points to Poor Parenting Instead of Police Violence

The Riots, Communities and Victims Panel released its final report yesterday, concluding, “after the riots, we must give everyone a stake in society.”

The panel, appointed by British Prime Minister David Cameron to examine the August 2011 riots that Scotland Yard described as the worst urban violence in the UK in living memory, focused on the country’s “500,000 forgotten families,” arguing that a lack of institutional support for young people, as well as poor parenting, were among the factors that led to rioting in Birmingham, London Manchester and other English cities. Darra Singh, Chair of the Riots Communities and Victims Panel, said in a press statement:

There are people ‘bumping along the bottom’, unable to change their lives. When people don’t feel they have a reason to stay out of trouble, the consequences for communities can be devastating – as we saw last August.

The report estimates that up to 15,000 people, most of them under the age of 24, participated in the riots.

On broad youth participation in the riots, the report notes:

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