David Cameron has said tackling the "broken society" is back at the top of his agenda following last week's riots.
The PM said he would review government policies and speed up plans to deal with "problem" families, improve parenting and education.
As part of plans to tackle what he called a "moral collapse", he also pledged an "all-out war" on gangs.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband warned against "knee-jerk gimmicks" instead of "lasting solutions".
As the two politicians gave speeches, courts have continued to hear cases of the hundreds of people involved in rioting, looting and disorder across England. Total arrests across seven police forces on Monday morning were 2,772 - 1,406 of whom have been charged.
In other developments:
- Police investigating the death of Richard Bowes, 68, in Ealing last week say a potential witness has come forward. A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder
- Two men and a 17-year-old boy have appeared in court charged with the murders of three men hit by a car in Birmingham last week. Another man was arrested on Monday - three others are already on bail
- Gordon Thompson, 33, has appeared in court charged with starting a fire which destroyed the 150-year-old House of Reeves furniture store in Croydon
- Bill Bratton, the former US police chief advising the government on gangs,tells the Guardian he can reduce crime despite cuts to police budgets
- Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith tells the BBC that people convicted of involvement in rioting could lose their benefitseven if they are not jailed
Mr Cameron described the disorder that spread from London to parts of the East and West Midlands, Merseyside, Bristol, Manchester and Gloucester as "a wake-up call for our country".
In a speech in Oxfordshire, he said politicians had been unwilling to talk about rights and wrongs, but "moral neutrality" would not "cut it any more". He questioned whether politicians had "the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations".
He included children without fathers, schools without discipline and communities without control in a list of what he believed has gone wrong in parts of the country and said people were "crying out" for the government to act.
"The broken society is back at the top of my agenda," Mr Cameron said.
Over the next few weeks, he said ministers would "review every aspect of our work to mend our broken society".
He pledged a "concerted, all out war on gangs and gang culture", which he said was a "major criminal disease that has infected streets and estates across our country".
"Stamping out these gangs should be a new national priority," he said - adding that a cross-government programme would look at "every aspect of this problem".
Home Secretary Theresa May will chair a meeting on Monday afternoon with ministers and Acting Met commissioner Tim Godwin to discuss tackling gang culture.
The PM also criticised parents who did not even attend court when their children faced disorder charges and said he wanted a "family test" applied to all domestic policies to ensure they did not undermine or "stop families from being together".
Plans to improve parenting would be accelerated, including work to target "troubled" families - the prime minister said his ambition was that the government would "turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families in the country" by the next general election in 2015.
More police officers were needed on the streets he said, pledging to cut bureaucracy and arguing that those demanding he reverse government plans to cut police funding were "missing the point".
He wanted to push "further, faster" on plans to strengthen school discipline and said ministers would look at the Human Rights Act and health and safety legislation - which he argued had been "twisted" and misrepresented by some in a way that had undermined personal responsibility.
And, following concerns from senior police officers about his plans to take advice from US "supercop" Bill Bratton, he said the US had been dealing with the problem of gangs for longer and it was right to listen and learn to "inspirational" police chiefs, adding: "I don't anybody should be worried about that."
Downing Street said that officials and ministers were "looking at a whole range" of options before deciding whether benefits should be cut for rioters and looters given non-custodial sentences - something raised by cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith earlier.
The PM's official spokesman said two new policies had been announced - extra powers for the police to remove face coverings from rioters and the extension of gang injunctions to the under-18s.
But in a speech at his old school in north London, Mr Miliband warned against "knee-jerk gimmicks".
"The politician's instinct - reach for new legislation, appoint a new adviser, wheel out your old prejudices - will not meet the public's demand for real answers and deep rooted, lasting solutions," he said.
"We've heard it all in the last few days, water cannon, supercops, a daily door knock for gangs and today, more gimmicks. A prime minister, who used to say the answer was to hug a hoodie, now says the answer is to reform our health and safety laws.
"Day by day the prime minister has revealed himself to be reaching for shallow and superficial answers, not the lasting solutions the country needs, based on the wisdom and insights of our communities."
'Inconsistency'
He urged a "national conversation" about the causes of the riots - arguing that commissions had been set up after previous major disturbances to look into the causes.
And he accused ministers of undermining police forces with "an unseemly attempt by government to take credit for operational decisions that went right and blame the police for those that didn't work out".
The police and the government have clashed over the handling of the police response. Home Secretary Theresa May said it was her job to tell the police what the public wanted them to do, as acting Met chief Tim Godwin accused MPs of "inconsistency of guidance".
The Police Federation said on Monday that Mr Cameron was "wrong" to suggest "back office" police officers could be freed up to increase police numbers on the streets - pointing out that many did important roles in child protection and domestic violence units.
Some of the Conservatives' coalition partners have also warned against "knee jerk" responses - Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes has warned against treating rioters in social housing differently to others by removing housing and benefits.
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