UN: Big rise in knife crime despite tougher penalties
Date: Aug 10, 2006 7:29 AM

*******Until the perpetrators of crime are dealt with effectively
no amount of regulating the instruments they use will
deter crime. This is not rocket science.*****************************

FYI (copy below):
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/crime/article1217822.ece

Big rise in knife crime despite tougher penalties
By Nigel Morris, Home Affairs Correspondent
Published: 09 August 2006

Levels of knife crime have soared over the past year,
figures published today show, prompting claims that the
Government has failed to tackle the menace of violent crime.

The number of muggers using knives leapt from 24,290 to
42,020 in 2005-06, an increase of 73 per cent. And the
total of other robberies in which knives were brandished
jumped by 59 per cent, from 25,500 to 40,430.

A criminal justice thinktank, which released the figures,
calculates that as many as 57,900 young people could have
been stabbed over the past year. The research said a
“significant minority” of schoolchildren and young adults
carried knives and “this problem may be growing”.

It stressed that knife crime had fallen since the mid-1990s,
but had experienced an unexpected upturn in the past 12
months.

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCSJ) warns that
tougher penalties for carrying knives and the recent weapons
amnesty may be futile in combating violence on the streets.

Ministers are accused of lacking a coherent strategy for
dealing with knife attacks, resorting instead to
eye-catching initiatives that fail to tackle the underlying
causes of crime.

The stinging report follows the recent murders in London of
the schoolboy Kiyan Prince and the off-duty special
constable Nisha Patel-Nasri.

The Home Office announced tougher penalties for carrying
knives and more than 100,000 blades were handed in to police
stations in a summer knife amnesty. But the CCSJ protests
that there has been little research on why young people
carry weapons, and no evidence that recent initiatives will
have any impact on crime rates.

Chris Eades, the author of the report, said: “The
Government is constructing responses without any credible
evidence that they will be successful. Knife amnesties will
have a negligible impact since knives will be available as
long as there is unsliced bread.”

He said the Home Office should investigate the “root causes”
of the crime – “the inclination or desire to resort to
violence”.

The CCSJ warns that carrying a knife is “not unusual”,
particularly among young men, but little more is known about
its frequency. It says the level of violence involving
knives has fallen over the past decade, with a rise in the
past year. It says that what little research exists
suggests that people living in poor areas and members of
ethnic minority communities are more likely to become
victims of knife crime.

David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, said: “This is an
indictment of the Government’s failure to tackle the growing
problem of knife crime. It completely undermines Labour’s
claims to be tough on crime.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “Tackling knife crime is a
government priority. That’s why we pursue a coherent
strategy with three strands: prevention, education and
enforcement. Carrying a knife is illegal and will not be
tolerated.

“People may think carrying a knife makes them feel safe, but
in fact it increases the risk of having it turned on them.”
The Government has said it will increase the maximum penalty
for carrying a knife in public without good reason from two
to four years. It is also increasing the minimum age at
which knives can be bought from 16 to 18, and is giving
headteachers the power to search pupils for dangerous
weapons.

Richard Garside, acting director of the Centre for Crime and
Justice Studies, said: “This report points out just how
much we still don’t know about knife-related offences, their
causes and solutions.

“Knives are but one means by which people assault and injure
one another. We need to address why individuals get into
violent confrontations with each other, and not simply
fixate on the weapons they use.”