From the U.K. Mail: The lessons of a year of horrifying violence

Tragically, 2011 (a year already scarred by the worst riots Britain has witnessed for 30 years) draws to a close against a backdrop of appalling violence.

The babysitter knifed to death in front of her own baby nephew and niece ... the brilliant Indian student executed in cold blood ... the teenager stabbed to death in broad daylight on London’s busiest shopping street in a fight between rival gangs ...

A visitor to this country over the Christmas period – during which, as we coldly document on pages 20 & 21, there were 14 killings – could be forgiven for wondering whether they had stepped into a land where there is no respect for the law, or even human life.

Thankfully, the overwhelming majority of Britons are still law-abiding people who abhor the barbarity of this week and the nihilism of the August riots.

But, equally, questions must be asked about what has gone so dreadfully wrong in a country that, only a few short decades ago, would have considered the events of recent days and months utterly unthinkable.

As this paper has long argued, much of the blame rests with the liberal policies which, over the past 30 years, have undermined the fabric of our society.

By introducing fiscal policies which favour single motherhood over marriage, the political class has incentivised the growth of single parent households which, as the Mail revealed this week, one in five children now grows up in – more than any other major European country.

Unsurprisingly, a burgeoning and deeply dangerous gang culture has all too often filled the void left by the absence of strong families. Discipline has been largely eradicated from schools and bad behaviour has been permitted by liberal teachers afraid of being considered judgmental.

Meanwhile, unprecedented levels of immigration have placed huge strain on our social structures. Multiculturalism meant that asylum seekers arriving from often brutal, wartorn parts of the world were encouraged to live in isolation rather than to share traditional, peaceful British values.

Most shockingly, we now have a justice system that appears unable to understand the deterrent effect of  harsh punishments.

Consider how 50 people every day are being attacked by convicts given risible community punishments instead of jail.

Or consider today’s revelations that – far from receiving draconian sentences – thugs involved in the August riots were permitted to escape with slap-on-the-wrist cautions for burglary, knife possession and even arson.

Fixing what David Cameron has called ‘broken Britain’ will be a huge challenge, which is likely to take many years.

But one thing his government can do immediately is toughen our hopelessly lax sentencing laws.

For one thing that is still certain is that criminals who are behind bars cannot riot, or murder members of the public. Source!