As the debate among politicians, police and commentators about how harshly rioters should be treated rages on, the British Government plans to send researchers into the inner cities to ask young people involved in the disturbances a simple question: why did you do it?
The job of analysing the causes of the looting and vandalism will be carried out separately from the work of the victims' panel, announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg yesterday to hear the stories of those whose lives were blighted by the riots.
The community and victims' panel will be chaired by a prominent public figure. Its report is to be ready by next May and will be submitted simultaneously to the leaders of all three main political parties.
But the Government has not set a deadline yet for the more sensitive research, about which Clegg gave little detail except to say it would look into "what happened, who did what and why they did it".
The researchers will interview former rioters, and young people from the same backgrounds as the rioters who chose not to riot. Interviewees will have the option of remaining anonymous.
Clegg's speech yesterday set a different tone from announcements by Conservative ministers, including Prime Minister David Cameron, who have stressed the need to punish the offenders and declare war on gang culture.
In a speech the previous day, the Prime Minister denied that the riots were about race, government cuts, or poverty, and asserted that they were about "people showing indifference to right and wrong".
One Tory minister, asked yesterday how the Tory right would react to Clegg's proposals, replied: "Oh, they don't mind all that as long as they know the rioters are going to have their goolies chopped off."
Clegg promised that every released prisoner "will be met at the prison gates by providers in the work programme who will make sure that those offenders will be put through a tough process so that they find work and they stay on the straight and narrow."
The idea of helping ex-prisoners into jobs is to discourage them from reoffending, but in case the measure sounded like a reward for wrongdoing, the Department for Work and Pensions added a warning that those who turn down a job offer will have their benefits cut for up to three years.
- Independent