Riot suspects’ past crimes emerge

15 September 2011 Last updated at 05:13 ET

One in four people charged over the riots in English cities last month had committed more than 10 previous offences, figures show.

Three-quarters of them have a previous caution or conviction, Ministry of Justice figures show.

And more than half of those accused are aged 20 or under.

Writing in the Times, Iain Duncan Smith said the social problems behind the riots had been allowed to fester “out of sight of the middle-class majority”.

“Last month the inner city finally came to call, and the country was shocked by what it saw,” said the work and pensions secretary.

“This was criminal activity, and it is right that it has been treated as such in the courts. But this response will only take us so far,” wrote Mr Duncan Smith.

“We cannot simply arrest our way out of these riots.”

‘Vacuum of authority’

He said: “Too many people have remained unaware of the true nature of life on some of our estates.”

Many of these “dysfunctional communities … had become fertile grounds for drug dealers, gang recruiters and violent moneylenders”.

For ng people in these areas, gangs were filling “a vacuum left by other figures of authority, particularly the family”.

This “vacuum of authority” was accompanied by a “distorted morality” that allowed looters to view “an absence of police protection as an open invitation to steal”.

As part of a “robust social response” to the problems, he suggested efforts including:

• Tackling gang culture
• Support for parents and restoration of discipline in schools “to ensure that ng people have the support networks they need throughout childhood”
• A welfare system designed “so that work pays”

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