Letter of the month

Professor Steve Tombs, one of our Open University colleagues, had a letter published in The Guardian pointing out the differences in responses to murder depending on who the victim is:

'Twenty years ago, also in south London, another man was stabbed to death for "what", rather than who he was. No media nor public outrage immediately followed, nor did the full weight of the state swing so dramatically into action – quite the opposite, in fact, as the Stephen Lawrence inquiry was years later to document. Moreover, on the day of the killing in Woolwich, Julie Bindel called for an inquiry into why victims of domestic violence – two women a week killed in England and Wales – are not getting sufficient protection. None of these cases are direct equivalents – but the differential responses to each of them are, sadly, all too telling about state, institutional and societal priorities.'