Guardian gives thoughtful analysis of lives of chaos

Tuesday's Guardian newspaper carried a two-page spread on the perpetrators of the shocking and brutal deeds in Paris last week.

The headline on the story runs: "Broken homes to jail cells: chaotic lives of France's pioneers of jihad".

It's the story of grinding poverty, prison violence, non-stop chaos.

Dounia Bouzar, an anthropologist, who heads a centre to support families of French teenagers tempted by jihad or who have left for Syria said of Kouachi, one of the killers, "It's about transferring a feeling of malaise into a feeling of being all powerful".

If a portion of the money that is spent on weaponry and security were invested in the slums and poorhouses of Europe and the world might it be a different story?

If a hint of the drama and energy that is expended on security were given to building up the confidence and esteem of people in extreme poverty, there might never have been the Koucahi brothers.