The story about the 19-year-old youth who has been charged with the murder of three Mandeville women, is indeed very disturbing.

This story comes at a time when it seems that more and more youngsters are turning to crime. The Westmoreland police recently announced that they were searching for two boys, ages 15 and 16, in connection with an increase in crime in the Grange Hill area and, a few weeks ago, another teenager was taken into custody after he reportedly stabbed and killed another.

If anyone reads or hears these stories and is not worried about what this means for our country, that person is neither sane nor normal. In a society where the youths are turning to crime, things do not look good for the future. It is almost as though the problem of crime has come full circle; when one set of gunmen dies, another set takes over.

It is all well and good to try to come up with methods to deal with established criminals, but how about trying to correct the problem before it gets to that stage? How about trying to prevent our youths from taking this path?

To permanently correct any problem, the root causes need to be addressed. It is much easier to control embers than it is to contain a raging fire and this is the thinking that should guide any approach to crime.