http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8395601.stm

I'm blaming X-Factor, it obviously needs to be banned

Seriously though, why are young people seemingly so willing to believe in the ghetto mentality?

Because they're idiots.

I think sociopathic would be a better description, a seemingly more and more common occurrence in people these days.

I blame the internet.

Yep. I think you're right to be honest.

+1, killing someone on a whim? WTF?

It was more than "a whim". The guy thought his entire future was in the balance. People have killed for a lot less. People have killed old women for their pension money, for example.

Most murderers are sociopaths; I think that goes without saying. Murder is rarely an appropriate response.

There have been examples of people who do kill purely "on a whim"; there was that case quite recently where a girl killed a neighbourhood child just to see what it feels like. That's really quite antisocial. In fact, I'd say it's psychopathic.

Unfortunately, once they've demonstrated that they'll cross the line such people probably can't be cured. They can only be hidden away and contained.

Sorry sorry, I was responding more to the tone of LAX's post, should have made that clear

Still, as you say, deciding on murder is hardly the way forward - I often wonder if these sort of kids and young adults decide (maybe subconsciously) that this sort of thing will toughen them up mentally if nothing else, which is obviously more of a societal issue if it's got to that stage, going by the nature and frequency of twisted attacks...

Thankfully, I grew up in a nice middle-class environment and the worst violence I've ever personally experienced was a black eye from a play ground bully. I am in no way qualified to comment on life in the toughest parts of our cities... but I'm going to anyway.

From what I've seen on the telly and read in the news, I think you're right. I don't think "violent initiation" it's a new thing exactly, but the use of guns and knives amongst young people and "gang members" does appear to be more prevalent.