By David Williams
05 June 2009
A Commons committee has called on the government to adopt a ‘public health’ approach to knife crime, with early intervention, more education and more support for offenders.
Knife crime, published by the home affairs select committee on June 2, said a climate of fear and a lack of faith in the police was leading to an ‘arms race’ among some teenagers.
The MPs recommended targeting knife-carriers separately to violent offenders. They called for more diversion activities for young people, better information-sharing between authorities, more outreach programmes in schools and better victim support.
They also advocated identifying and working with babies and toddlers who are at risk due to deprivation, lack of family support or violence in the home.
Despite supporting jail sentences for knife possession, the report concluded that custody fails to stop re-offending. It recommended more work be done in prisons, along with help for young people at risk of falling into more serious offending.
Committee chair Keith Vaz said: ‘[There is] a spiralling of the arms race as far as knife crime is concerned. We cannot escape the fact that at its roots this is about education and inclusion of young people before it is about criminal justice, and we strongly recommend that government invests resources in prevention.’
The number of knife deaths rose by 27% between 2005/06 and 2006/07. The number of stab-related hospital admissions for under-16s rose by 63% between 2003 and 2007.
