Knife crime

Today’s reporting of the knife crime statistics show how this is a complicated issue. While, of course, it is to be welcomed that knife crime as a whole is down, it is deeply sad that so many are still dying. I fear that a police led operation aimed at reducing knife crime amongst teenagers will not deal with the root causes of the issue – remember “dealing with the causes of crime”!

The book we published last year based on interviews with boys who had been involved with knife crime gave some pointers to how to work imaginatively to reduce the need for them to carry knives in the first place. We gave written and oral evidence to the Home Affairs committee based on the book. The stories of many of these events is that boys carry to knives because they fear they must and then when they get into a confrontation, the knife is used. We must work to reduce the fear in the first place and make public and social space safer for teenage boys in the inner cities.