Studying the riots

IN the aftermath of the August riots Britain's coalition government continues to explore policies of punishing parents for the crimes their children commit. Withdrawal of child maintenance or child benefit from parents who allow their children to play truant or who frequently stay out late at night is said to be under review which hopefully will include consideration of whether such measures might make the problem worse rather than better. There is, however, one piece of good news, in that the government is said to be moving against local councils evicting families from council homes if a young member has been convicted -- not so much out of compassion or principle but because the law would probably require the council to rehouse the family in more expensive accommodation. I have written about this issue before and hope it is now settled against eviction. It is understandable that the riots have produced any number of theories as to their cause and future prevention. Unfortunately the government has refused to hold an official inquiry which could deliver a balanced judgement. In its place the Guardian and the London School of Economics are undertaking a study -- Reading the Riots -- which will interview in depth hundreds of people involved in the disturbances and also analyse 2.5 Twitter messages. This study will take time but its results should be of long-term value.