Letter: Child killers who need understanding

Sir: The reactions you have published related to the killing of James Bulger have so far been confined to the legal issues. The question of why this appalling crime took place must be considered if further such crimes are not to be committed.

From the accounts I have read in your paper, I deduce that the older of the two guilty boys had found little or nothing to which he could relate at school or in other activities open to him; and that the younger one found acceptance by the older one of considerable importance. The fact that the older boy had built a hut by the railway is evidence of a degree of initiative and imagination. I do not know what other clues there are to their behaviour.

Both have many years still to live. I, and I am sure many other people, sincerely hope that whatever the reasons were for their estrangement, even temporarily, from ordinary society which dominated them at the time of the murder, will be changed during their confinement, so that they can lead lives of some normality and satisfaction.

If we do not try to understand young people better, and so prevent such conditions, we cannot be surprised if similar tragedies take place and increase. It is not enough to leave it all to those who look after the offenders after the crime.

Yours faithfully,

MARGARET R. JACKSON

Chipping Campden,

Gloucestershire

26 May