News
Knife Crime
A knife's being used in street crime every eight minutes in England and Wales, a new study says. Ever been a victim? The figure has doubled to over 60,000 in just two years.
On average there were 175 knife robberies per day on the streets in the last year according to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies.
But the Home Office says the number of people killed in knife attacks hasn't gone up. Have you been on the other end of a knife?
Young People and Knife Crime
Since the start of the English summertime barely a week has passed without some media report about knife crime or, in particular, children and young people carrying and using knives. The Government response has been to rely heavily upon a national knife amnesty, planned by the police before those high profile incidents, and measures contained in the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 – due to come into force soon.
Neither approach is likely to be successful. Government action has been constructed hastily in response to media pressures and without any meaningful appreciation of the nature and extent of the problem. In reality, the need to be seen to be doing something, anything, has hijacked any hope of a useful and considered response that properly acknowledges some basic realities about young people, knives and interpersonal violence.
WHAT IS THE EXTENT OF THE PROBLEM?
One of the major issues in considering and ‘dealing with’ the involvement of children and young people in knife carrying and knife offences is that there is simply not enough relevant research currently available.
Everyone says the problem is growing and there exists a good deal of anecdotal evidence to that effect, but little specific research has been conducted.
What we do know, from the two best, yet inadequate,studies of youth offending and victimisation, the Home Office’s Offending, Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS) and the Youth Justice Board-MORI Youth Survey (MORI Survey), is that significant proportions of young people carry knives, but often this is innocent or innocuous.
The 2004 OCJS, found that
- 4% of young people said they had carried a knife of some sort in the last 12 months either 'for protection, for use in crimes or in case they got into a fight.
- carrying of knives was, according to the respondents, most common among 14- to 21- year-olds (6%).
The 2004 MORI Survey found that:
- just over a quarter (28%) of children in mainstream schools and 57% of excluded children said they had carried a knife in the last year.
- a large proportion of the knives being carried are penknives, which are usually legal and may be carried for entirely innocent reasons.
It is not, however, possible from this research to know how often children were carrying knives – only once in the last year or daily – or whether the knives were carried ‘as a weapon’ or whether the ‘carriers’ intended to use them.
Consequently, the picture provided is fragmented – parts of the puzzle are missing.
As for children and young people using knives in crime or to cause injury, very little data exists.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) does not include in its sample those under 16 and police recorded crime statistics are of little help either.
What the BCS does tell us, however, is that use of knives in violent crime and to cause injury has declined over the past decade – although admittedly the last year has seen some significant increases.
What is needed is high quality, specific, reliable, longitudinal research on the nature, extent, motivation for, frequency, cause and possible growth of knife carrying and the use of knives in crime, particularly with regard to young people. Despite this, the Government has not undertaken such research and has been quick to react to the proliferation of media reports.
THE GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
In addition to the laws currently on the books restricting the production, sale and possession of knives, the Government, via the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006, plans to:
- raise the minimum age at which a young person can buy knife from 16 to 18;
- introduce a power for head teachers and other members of staff to search pupils for knives;
- create a new offence of using another person to mind a weapon, and include an aggravating factor in sentencing if the person involved is a child;
- increase the maximum sentence for possession of a knife or sharp instrument in public to the four years already available for possession on school property.
What is clear from the Act, however, is that the ‘knife problem’ is attributed to young people almost exclusively and the focus, almost exclusively, is young people as perpetrators and not as victims.Read More
Doctor Stabbed
A GP was recovering in hospital last night after she was stabbed three times in the stomach while at her surgery. Dr Helen Jackson, 56, was assaulted at her Glasgow practice yesterday morning. The GP was taken to the Western Infirmary for treatment to her wounds and was last night described as being in a stable condition.
Strathclyde Police said a 62-year-old man had been arrested in connection with an alleged serious assault and a full report would be forwarded to the procurator-fiscal. The man is expected to appear before Glasgow Sheriff Court today.
Dr Jackson, a well-liked and respected GP, was stabbed at her surgery in Hyndland Road, in the upmarket Hyndland area of Glasgow, at around 9.50am. In a statement, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said: "We are shocked and concerned about this reported assault on a GP at a Glasgow surgery".
A full police investigation is now under way and we have been in touch with the surgery to offer our support and assistance.
"The GP is receiving treatment at the Western Infirmary and, because of the ongoing police investigation, we cannot comment further except to express our deepest concerns about this disturbing incident."
Dr Jackson, who has been a GP for 28 years, was stabbed three times in the stomach, with one of the wounds being described as "serious". The married mother of two grown-up children was taken to hospital after being treated at the three-doctor practice where her brother, Paul, also works. Read more
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