Call for mentors to stop gun crime

A government-commissioned report has called for more positive role models for black boys to prevent them becoming involved in gun and knife crime.

Produced by a panel of experts for the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Reach report released on Thursday concluded that unless wide-ranging action is taken the problem could cost the economy as much as £24bn over the next 50 years in lost taxes, justice and healthcare costs.

It claimed a culture of low aspiration in inner-city areas was fuelling a rise in violent crime and a spate of recent deaths, with young black males looking up to rap artists who glorify a gun culture.

As well as the need for positive role models from within their own communities, such as mentoring from lawyers, doctors, teachers and others, recommendations included more funding for voluntary organisations on the ground and extra encouragement for parents to take more responsibility for their children.

The report also called for a closer relationship between schools and the parents of black boys and for education watchdog Ofsted to ensure the academic gap between black and white pupils is closed.

The report was set to be handed to communities secretary Hazel Blears on Thursday who, while broadly welcoming its findings, has promised to provide an official response within three months.

Reach chairman Clive Lewis, who runs the Men's Room charity for black men, said: "We need to focus our collective effort on raising the aspirations and achievement of black boys and young men to enable them to be more connected and engaged with wider society and more able to make an even greater contribution economically, culturally and politically to Britain.

"Often the only well-known images of black men are those of sportsmen and rap artists. But black boys and young men desperately need a greater diversity of images and portrayals, showing that black men can be, and are, successful as in a wide range of careers including business, teaching, the law and health care.

"There is an economic and social imperative to raising aspirations of black young boys and men. In turn this will help to create a more skilled workforce, reduce crime and the fear of crime, decrease the pressure on the criminal justice system and provide a boost to the British economy."

However writing in Thursday's Guardian newspaper, south London community activist Chuka Umunna said that part of the problem was that gangs are already providing role models for young black men.

He said that initiatives such as the 409 Project he works for "suffer from a chronic shortage of funding", while "time-poor parents are at a loss to know what to do".

"Today's report repeats the familiar calls for more positive black role models, but the truth is that, more often than not, money - or specifically the lack of it - is the root cause of much of this violence," he said.