"Tired remedies won’t end youth knife crime"
There is no doubt that knife crime among young people is rising again, after a dip during the pandemic. In the year ending March 2023, there were 50,500 offences involving a sharp instrument, up by 73 per cent since 2015.
Knife crime has a disproportionate effect on young people, both as victims and perpetrators. Teenagers are the most likely age group to be killed by a knife, and often those who carry and use knives have already been victims of knife crime themselves.
Government initiatives such as banning zombie knives are welcome, but don’t tackle the fear that drives young people to pick up a knife as they leave the house because they feel they need protection. And increasing the punishments for carrying, or using, a knife will not deter someone who feels that carrying a weapon is the only way to keep themselves safe.
The Criminal Justice Bill currently being debated in parliament includes provisions intended to address knife crime, mainly focused on increasing sentencing for those carrying and using knives.
This is simply doing more of the same and expecting a different result.
Stop and search is one common method used to attempt to tackle knife crime. And yet evidence shows that it is ineffective at dealing with it and increases tensions within communities. This results in further damage to public confidence in the police, particularly among young people.
In Nacro’s Lives Not Knives report they asked students about their views on knife crime and why people carry knives. Everyone they spoke to knew someone that carried a knife or had been the victim of knife crime, and they said they felt unprotected by the police, and did not believe that harsher penalties would deter people who carry knives out of fear. They also said they had little to do in their spare time and few positive role models. Sadly, they felt that the issue of knife crime is inextricably linked to poverty and lack of opportunity.
Nacro states that the solutions to tackling knife crime and serious youth violence should not begin with the criminal justice system. They say that "there has been a lot of talk about the need for a public health approach, but the reality is we continue to see too much of the focus on harsher sentencing. Tackling the root social causes is much needed".
Their report made several recommendations focused on education and reaching those most at risk.
Funding interventions - that sit outside of mainstream education - is critical to ensuring young people that are most vulnerable are reached. Those programmes should be evidence-based and have personal safety at their core, recognising how fear is often a chief motivator for young people to carry knives.
The Pluggin Marketplace is UK wide, it links supplier social value within public procurement, establishing much-needed resources to focus upon children who have been permanently excluded from school at any point during their education and would fund education intervention programmes and wraparound support that these young people might desperately need.
Impact collaborations between community provisions and the businesses who supply into emergency services, local councils, NHS and criminal justice services, lock social value within supply contracts to support high quality, smaller, alternative provision education units for young people aged 14 to 19, supporting them on the journey to the world of work, academic careers or further education or apprenticeships.
Government funded Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) have taken us so far, and proven the case for a holistic and person-centred solution to support young people away from knife crime. That we need specialists who have the skills and knowledge to engage with them, building trust and having a collaborative approach with young people in the design and delivery of solutions.