End the culture of youth violence

Despite Labour claims that crime is going down, England and Wales
continues to have double the European average. The evidence is clear that
social breakdown in London is linked to breakdown in family relations -
which Labour and Conservatives have fuelled by their anti-family policies.
London is a high-crime society with a complacent Civic Hall.

Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson and Brian Paddick are competing with each
other to promise more and more police officers. While the Met continues to
be tied-down by red tape, it is London taxpayers who must pay the bills of
lawlessness. More officers are just part of the answer. We want to switch
police effort to New-York style primary prevention, often called 'broken
windows' policing.

The Met will be instructed to challenge the 'anything goes' mentality by
enforcing the law, whether the disorder caused by public drunkenness and
substance abuse, or petty acts of vandalism. Intelligence-led Stop and
Search operations will be actively pursued, subject to extensive training and
rigorous monitoring. For the safety and wellbeing of police officers and the
public alike, The Christian Choice opposes the use of the so-called
“SUS laws” (Stop and Search based on a police officer’s suspicion alone).
Labour have sought to re-introduce these, yet history in London shows it
fractures police and community relations - making neighbourshoods less safe.


Neighbourhood Watch Groups will be properly funded and revitalised.
Community support of local police officers will be improved through the
extension of Street Pastors and Special Constable schemes. The benefits of
crime will be reduced by increasing the risk of both detection and punishment.
The approach of The Christian Choice is to invest in social institutions which
encourage a law-abiding lifestyle, especially the family.


The Christian Choice will launch a “pathway out of the life of crime” initiative to
help parents whose children have been lured into crime. We want to help
families bring those children back to law-abiding living. Our priority is keep
families together - so youngsters have fathers; mothers are empowered to
choose to raise their children at home and where poverty is kept at bay by
rewarding work fairly. Home Office studies link family breakdown and crime,
but City Hall does nothing to strengthen the family based on marriage. The
Christian Choice will change this.


The Christian Choice will seek to widen the scope of illegal-drug spittal
testing for those arrested for robbery and burglary, to include all Class B and
C drugs. As a first step, we will introduce a spittal test for Cannabis. Annual
figures will be published showing the relationship between specific illegal
drug use and specific types of crime.

Through the Metropolitan Police Authority, The Christian Choice will also
work to see a different approach taken in London's prisons. Two of the
most effective means of reducing offending - providing prisoners with
numeracy, literacy and vocational training leading to recognised qualifications
and getting them off drugs - are not fully implemented. We want this to change.
American studies have found that inmates who acquire vocational qualifications
re-offend 33 per cent less than other offenders.

Prisoners must be assessed immediately on arrival in jail so they are
prepared properly for release. All will be expected to get off drugs and
alcohol and mandatory drugs tests must be imposed for all prisoners on
admission to jail and regularly while in jail. Not only do we want proper therapy
to get prisoners off drugs whilst in prison, proper support will be given when
they leave.