'Respect' be damned, it's a concious determination to wield the power of life and death. Murder without remorse; fueled by the poisonous lyrics of black amercian rap and hip-hop.

paul McCloskey, London, England

Can we have the statistics for knife crime, stabbings and murder by knife before all the immigrants came to this country.....

Mike, Farnborough,

I was recently pursued around my local park in broad daylight on a Sunday afternoon by three youths claiming I'd showed them disrespect by merely walking past them and ignoring them. They seemed to work themselves up into quite afrenzy about this imagined slur. A week later 4 pre-teen girls took up the entire pavement as they came towards me and clearly expected me to get out of their way even though I was wheelinga large suitcase. One of them did move slightly and as I walked past she said loudly 'I weren't going to get out of the way for her'. I always thought that respect had to be earned for what you'd done not demanded ina surly manner by morons witha chip on their shoulder. The least little incident seems to set them off and if they have a knife or gun that's their response. It's very disturbing that in some of these attacks violence appeared to be provoked by the victim having the temerity to fight or talk back to them. We seem to live in a bullying culture unfortunately.

carole, London, UK

As Peter says, [true] "Respect is earned, not claimed."

I can't help but wonder if one of the reasons for understanding respect in the younger members of our society have also been lost as competitive sport has been removed from schools. The atmosphere of equality that we generate there is artificial. Yes, it is a nice thing for our children to grow up believing they can achieve whatever they wish regardless of their true abilities, but when they then have the cottonwool taken away, they can feel angry and resentful at those whose inate ability takes them further.

Coming back to competitive sports: if our children are shown that some people are better at something than others, that prowese on the sportsfield can garner some respect, that excelling in one field can be balanced by another. That in life we are not equal, but also that how we look does not necessarily translate into ability. On the playing field, we learn that repect is something to be earned.

Jon Dawkins, Bristol,

Respect is earned, not claimed. Respect given grudgingly at the point of a knife or a gun is not respect. Nobody respects anybody else trying force or coerce them into any action not willingly given, and the sooner these young poeple learn that, the safer our streets will become for all. This is one of the basic tenets of life and should be instilled in children in the very first years of life. Waitiing until children attend formal schooling is leaving it too late. It is the parents responsibility, it comes with the territory of raising a family.

Peter, Brixham, Devon