Differentiation in the representation of Knife crime within different types of newspapers. How i propose to get the producers of the newspapers ideas.

Representation of the growing epidemic of knife crime within London; within newspapers, has been portrayed in several different ways depending on the type of newspaper it is. Based on my research, i have primarily focused on tabloids such as The Sun and it is evident that their representation of news is presented in a biased, exaggerated and generally negative way to create moral panic and keep the readers engaged in their views on the situation, therefore influencing their opinions based on stereotypes, and resulting in the increase of sales of their paper. Although once doing this, i decided to look at other newspapers such as my local paper; the Ilford Recorder, and it was clear that their presentation of the same information that was also publicized in The Sun, was much more factual, to the point, easy to understand and far less exaggerated. Both newspapers target audience are working-class individuals, and it is believed; stereotypically speaking, that they are much more easily influenced by what is presented in front of them, of that from a upper-middle class background; who are generally readers of broadsheet newspapers; which are factual but consist of a much more advanced vocabulary, which may put off working-class people, therefore they are prime targets for moral panic; due to the type of newspapers targeted at them. But in contrast to this, newspapers such as The Recorder make attempts to present news without encouraging moral panic. I have now decided to take my research further and contact both The Sun and The Ilford Recorder, and see if their responses to my query differ in the same way the newspapers do. I propose to structure a letter and it will consist of me asking about the papers views on knife crime, do they think the way their paper represents the information about knife crime influences the readers based on their views, or do they feel that their paper represents the crime the way it is, with justification of their choice; although i fully aware they may not be honest and may use the same techniques they use whilst writing their articles. I also want to include the topic of influencing factors of what knife crime is presented in their newspaper; for example knife crime within domestic violence isn't really seen in the media although it clearly does happen. Also i wish to ask if race is a determining factor of what is publicized and how it is reported on; as it is a big topic of debate, and i wish to see how they view this. Finally, the topic of stereotypes around knife crime shall be raised, and i wish to find out about how they feel about the stereotype of teens and knives, and if their response supports the stereotype.

Once i have structured my letter; i intend to send the same letter to both newspapers, i shall post it on the blog, so you can see what i say...... Feedback is welcome =]!

"Disarming"

Channel Four are going to launch a gun and knife crime season, starting on Monday 30 June 2008 in attempts to raise awareness and help fight the growing epidemic. Channel 4 takes an unflinching look at the increasing use of violence and weapons by young people on the nation's streets.
Facing up to some uncomfortable truths about gun and knife crime, the season explores the effect of this disturbing trend on offenders, victims and society at large.

The season involves:
Dead Ends
A 3D game produced exclusively for the Disarming Britain season. You can play on both sides of the law as Keith Wilcox, a new gang recruit caught in a deadly situation he can't handle, or as Detective Jameson, an officer investigating a gang killing that's turning up nothing but dead ends.

Fallout
A feature-length, gripping drama, adapted by award-winning playwright Roy Williams from his acclaimed stage play. Fallout is a passionate and powerful reflection on race and law and order in the wake of the murders of Stephen Lawrence and Damilola Taylor.
Actor and writer Lennie James, who will star in Fallout, has written an open letter to knife carriers.

Dispatches
Helen Newlove is the widow of Garry Newlove, who was kicked to death outside his home in Cheshire. This film follows her search to find answers to problem of youth crime in the UK and abroad. As she meets police officers, politicians and young offenders, will it change her view that young people are now offered too much protection at the expense of the rest of society?

Kids, Knives & Broken Lives
Hear the personal testimonies of teenagers from across the UK as Channel 4 explores what led these young men and women to arm themselves. How have they become so comfortable with casual violence? Looking for answers, the film asks those who carry weapons, and those who fear them, what they think the solutions might be.

Eye 4 An Eye
AJ Nakasila is a 17-year-old from the East End of London. He has made six short films about gangland revenge and how it affects the everyday lives of the friends who make up his close inner circle.

The trailer..... although it does seem primarily focused on gun crime rather than knife crime.

Murdered teen- too close to home?

A solicitors interpretation and opinion on the representation of knife crime within the media

This solicitor talks about her encounters with youths in particular and having to deal with their cases; and how the stereotypes and representation of teens within the media affects the defendant. She mentions in particular that the tabloids are to blame for this; along with the government.

http://www.solicitorsjournal.com/story.asp?sectioncode=3&storycode=12600&c=3&eclipse_action=getsession

Knife crime..My primary focus within this research

I primarily intend to focus upon the representation of the growing epidemic of knife crime; in London within tabloids, and why it is represented in such a way. Also, i intend to find out how they create "moral panic" within their representation and why this is the reaction they want to achieve; along with how it influences and to what extent it affects the public opinion on this topic, based on what they read.

UK crime facts- Knife crime

When we first added this Web page to our site in 2006, the intention was to present the "Facts" about the apparently growing problem of knife crime in the UK, without sensationalising the issues as is often the case with news reportage.
Over the last two years, we have spoken with many dedicated and wonderful people and voluntary groups, working hard within their local communities to tackle the problem. Such efforts have often been undertaken without official funding or much in the way of practical support from the government, but hopefully when the governments Violent Crime Action Plan is published, things will change.

How is 2008 shaping up for knife crime?

- well the first fatal stabbing in 2008 occurred just hours into the new year! ..with at least three more fatal stabbings in the UK being reported in the first week.

In 2007, there were 27 teenagers stabbed to death in London alone

...in the first 10 weeks of 2008 there have been 9 fatal stabbings in London...


The many recent high profile fatal stabbings that have dominated the media, have raised public awareness of the UK' s growing knife culture
Most people seem to agree with the government, police and other law enforcement agencies, that it's time to act to stamp out the growing menace of knife crime.

Which is why initiatives such as "Operation Blunt" (Metropolitan Police) and "Operation Shield" (British Transport Police) are generally welcomed


some knives collected during an amnesty!
Is knife crime in the UK on the increase? - a brief update

Since this page was originally produced in June 06, it seems that hardly a week has gone by without at least one high profile stabbing being reported in the press or on the national news.

In producing the original page, our intention was simply to draw attention to the apparently growing issue of knife crime, although, to be honest, we have been somewhat astounded by the number of visitors that the web page has attracted, and the positive feedback received.

Newsflash 28th October 2007 - Channel 5 news;

Figures obtained under the freedom of information act show that there is a knife crime committed in the UK every 24 minutes!

- in fact the figures show that there have been 5,500 serious knife crimes in the UK in just 3 months.

So, some 12 months or so on from the original posting on this site, how do things look now?

Frankly, just as confused ...in March 2007 following the fatal stabbing of Adam Regis (and 4 other fatal stabbings within the previous week), the then Home Secretary Mr John Reid finally admitted that we don't know enough about knife crime, and ordered police forces to start collecting statistics on the use of knives in crime, as the Government does not know enough about the scale of knife violence! This must be viewed as a positive step (if somewhat late in the day), as current statistics are simply unreliable.

As an example, based on one survey, a worst case projection indicates that 60,000 young people (predominantly male) may be stabbed and injured in the UK each year, whilst a rather more conservative estimate could be 22,000. The discrepancy in the two figures should not really be surprising as the figures were derived from the questioning of around 600 under 25 year olds, who were asked whether they had been knifed or stabbed, and then extrapolated to provide a "National Statistic" (Governments Offending, Crime and Justice Survey - OCJS).

Whatever the actual numbers, it is clear that the persons most likely to be at risk from knife violence are; young, black or Asian males, living in high crime inner city areas, ...but as is all too evident from the events of the last year, young or old, ordinary citizens, solicitors, police officers, etc., no one is exempt!

Hard facts - The murder of 14 year old Paul Erhahon on 6th April 2007 was reported as the 7th under 16 year old to be murdered in London in 2 months (and that's just London). During March, 30 year old Kevin Platt and at least two other youths were fatally stabbed in separate incidents in Manchester, whilst the string of reported deaths and stabbings have continued throughout April and into May. The most recently reported deaths (as @ 20th May 07), being the fatal stabbing in Sunderland of 22 year old Kevin Johnson and in a separate incident in Sunderland on the same night, the non fatal stabbing in the chest of another male.



The Issues, Statistics and General Information relating to Knife Crime

Few would argue that anyone has a need to carry on the streets of Britain, the sort of lethal weapons pictured above, and it's illegal to do so (generally speaking, the carrying of any knife other than a folding pocket knife with a blade length of less than 3" is illegal in the UK).

Below we have attempted to provide an overview of the current state of affairs regarding knife culture in Britain, related crime statistics and the practical measures which are being taken to improve the situation and make our streets safer. The information is presented in good faith and believed to be accurate. As explained below however (see information sources), the often conflicting nature of official statistics, etc. means that some interpretation and filtering of published information has been necessary.

Knife crime national statistics

Gun and knife enabled crime in London

What is gun and knife crime?

The police record crime into different offence categories, e.g. robbery. If a weapon is
used to assist a crime the offence will also be classified as a gun or knife enabled
offence, e.g. a knife enabled robbery.

Owning or carrying an illegal gun or knife is an offence in its own right, even if it hasn’t
been used to carry out a crime.

Are crimes involving guns and knives common?

Gun and knife enabled offences are uncommon. In London during 2004/05, only 2
percent of all recorded violent crime involved a gun and 5 percent involved a knife.

This said, in 2003/04 more gun-enabled crimes were recorded in London than any other
region in England and Wales: around 40 percent of the national total1. This may seem a
large figure but it equates to around 6 offences per 10,000 Londoners per year.

Source: MPS recorded crime and Povey, D (2004) Home Office

Is gun and knife crime increasing?

Long term crime trends between April 2003 and August 2005 show consistent levels of
gun and knife enabled offending in London. Monthly fluctuations occur but the number
of offences have not increased or decreased significantly over this period.

Recent trends, comparing the July to September quarter for 2004/05 with that of
2005/06, indicate that there have been increases in gun-enabled violence (14 percent)
and also increases for gun enabled homicide and knife enabled homicide (4 more
offences for each compared to period in the previous year).

Source: MPS recorded crime

What types of crime involve guns and knives?

It is important to note that crimes involving guns and knives do not always result in
physical injury; guns and knives are also used to threaten, and damage property.

The following tables list the types of gun and knife enabled crime in order of
prevalence.

Gun enabled offence Percentage
Criminal damage 46
Violence against the person 30
Robbery 20
‘Other notifiable’ offences 3
Burglary 2

1
There are also large concentrations of gun crime in Greater Manchester and the West
Midlands metropolitan areas.


Knife enabled offence Percentage
Robbery 29
Violence 29
Illegal possession of a knife 25
Criminal damage 4
Theft and handling 4
‘Other notifiable’ offences 4
Burglary 3
Drugs 1
Source: Metropolitan Police Authority (2005, Report 10)

What types of weapons are used to commit crimes?

The following table list the types of guns used to commit crimes in order of prevalence
for England and Wales.

Gun type Percentage of gun enabled crime
Air weapon 57
Hand gun 23
Imitation 8
Unidentified 6
Other firearm 3
Long barrelled shot gun 1
Sawn off shot gun 1
Rifle 0
Source: Home Office 01/04 (2004)

Different types of blades and sharp implements can be used to threaten and attack
people although the statistics here relate to incidents involving actual knives.

To what extent are victims of gun and knife crime harmed or killed?

Victims of any crime suffer a certain amount of trauma. The involvement of a weapon is
likely to increase the severity of an offence and also increase the risk of serious physical
harm.

A threatening situation involving a weapon can escalate quickly and become violent.
Weapons increase the likelihood of someone being killed, be it the intended victim or
the attacker themselves.

The probability of serious injury is four and a half times greater when a knife is used to
assist a crime. The risk of serious injury is more than twice as great for knife-enabled
crimes than for gun-enabled crimes.

It is important to consider these statistics in context however: gun and knife enabled
homicide is very rare and accounts around 1 percent of gun and knife enabled violence
each year.

Source: MPS recorded crime and MPA report 10

Who is committing gun and knife crime?

In the three months to September 2005, those legally proceeded against for a gun or
knife enabled crime tended to be male (90 percent), predominantly aged between 18
and 25 (53 percent) and were mostly either Black (47 percent) or White (38 percent).

Those aged between 10 and 17 accounted for over a quarter of those accused (28
percent).

Source: MPS recorded crime

Which areas in London have highest levels of gun and knife crime?

Generally neighbourhoods with high levels of deprivation and social exclusion have the
highest rates of gun and knife crime.

The following table indicates which London boroughs have the highest and lowest level
of gun enabled offending when taking different population sizes in to account.

Borough list Rate of gun offences per 10,000 population
Hackney, Lambeth, Southwark 10 - 12
Haringey, Waltham Forest, Lewisham,
Brent 8-9
Tower Hamlets, Newham, Islington,
Greenwich, Ealing, Barking & Dagenham 5-7
Hammersmith & Fulham, Enfield,
Camden, Wandsworth, Redbridge,
Croydon, Merton, Hounslow
4
Havering, Westminster, Barnet,
Kensington & Chelsea, Kingston,
Hillingdon
3
Bromley, Harrow, Sutton, Bexley,
Richmond 1-2
Source: MPS recorded crime 12months Oct 2005

....A tabloids interpretation of the increasing knife crime in London

Britain seeks to curb knife crime after slayings

By JILL LAWLESS Associated Press Writer
Article Launched: 06/05/2008 12:06:52 PM MDT

LONDON—Arsema Dawit is the latest name on a somber list.
The 15-year-old schoolgirl was found dead in an elevator at a south London apartment building this week, the 16th teenager slain in Britain's capital this year. Most, like Dawit, were stabbed to death—and most of their killers were other young people.

The deaths have sparked fears of a knife crime "epidemic" among Britain's young, and spurred the government to announce tougher penalties for teens caught carrying a blade.

"Carrying a knife is completely unacceptable," Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Thursday announcing an end to Britain's system of issuing warnings to some teenagers caught with knives.

Until now, warnings were given to most of those under the age of 18 found with knives. With the change, anyone 16 or over who carries a knife with a blade longer than 3 inches will be prosecuted. Those convicted face a penalty of up to four years in prison.

"Young people need to understand that carrying knives doesn't protect you, it does the opposite—it increases the danger for all of us, destroys young lives and ruins families," Brown said.

For a major city, London has a low murder rate. Police say there were 159 homicides from April 2007 to the same month this year, about a third the number in similarly sized New York. But the number of victims under age 18 has risen. According to police figures, 17 teenagers were killed in London in 2006, 27 in 2007, and 16 so far this year. Eleven of the 16 were stabbed to death.
Many young people say pressure to carry—and use—knives is growing.

"It's increasing. It's stupid things like 'you have spoken to my girlfriend, I'll slash you up,' or 'If I see him out, he's having it,'" said Monique Morrison, 21, one of a group of young people who met with the prime minister Thursday to discuss the problem.

The grim regularity of stabbings over the past few months has alarmed Londoners.

The victims include 18-year-old Rob Knox, who had a small part in the upcoming film "Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince," and was stabbed to death while trying to break up a brawl outside a south London bar on May 24. A 21-year-old has been charged with his murder.

Knox's smiling photo and his grieving parents appeared on the front of newspapers and on television news bulletins. Two weeks earlier, it had been the face and the family of Jimmy Mizen, a popular 16-year-old stabbed with a piece of glass outside a bakery. A 19-year-old is accused of his murder.

A 21-year-old student has been charged with killing Dawit, an Eritrean immigrant who sang in a church choir and had complained to police about an earlier assault.

"It's not even a shock anymore" to hear about stabbings, said 16-year-old Vogue Huell, a student from Bromley, the south London district where Knox was killed. "It's the whole gang culture, I think. As soon as one person gets stabbed, someone goes after another person."

London's new mayor, Boris Johnson, has also vowed to crack down on knife crime. His proposals include airport-style metal-detecting arches at train and subway stations. London police recently began an aggressive new program to search anyone they wish for knives without having to justify their suspicions beforehand.

Some experts, however, say the measures are little more than political posturing.

"I'm skeptical about whether the latest measures will have an effect," said Enver Solomon, deputy director of the Center for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London.

He said most teens who carry knives do so because they have been the victims of crime.

"The clear message from research is that kids carry knives because they don't feel safe," Solomon said. "Unless you address that feeling of insecurity, you are not going to have a big impact on the number of kids carrying knives."

An interpretation of the knife crime on the "streets"

Why knife crime cuts us to the quick

Why knife crime cuts us to the quick
The deep insecurity in our society has fuelled a national panic, despite the UK having one of the world’s lowest youth homicide rates.

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Why are so many young people carrying knives; why are there so many youth killings; why is our society so ‘broken’ and out of control? To judge by media and political debate, you might think that these are the Big Questions facing Britain today. But here are a couple of alternative questions: Why have we blown up knife crime, the ‘knife culture’ and anti-social youth into such a defining issue of the age? And isn’t there a risk of this panic becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy?


‘Kids killing kids. Families in fear. It’s time to say NO MORE’, declared the front page of the Sun newspaper on Tuesday, announcing that ‘The nation is in the grip of an epidemic of deadly youth violence’. These sentiments are not restricted to the tabloid press. The Sun shares its ‘Broken Britain’ slogan with Conservative Party leader David Cameron. The Metropolitan Police chief has compared the problem of youth violence in London to the threat of terrorism. New London mayor Boris Johnson has even talked about ‘the culture of stabbing’, as if it were endemic among young people in the capital. Little wonder that one TV news presenter felt able to pose the rhetorical question, ‘Is London the knife capital of the world?’

As the panic has reached a new pitch in recent days, media reports have lumped together isolated and unconnected incidents - an Asian youth beaten to death in Yorkshire, a young actor stabbed on the south-east London/Kent borders, two young Africans shot in north London - as evidence of an alleged ‘epidemic’. The particular focus on knives and youth stabbings in London has been sustained by constant coverage of the brutal killings of 16-year-old Jimmy Mizen (who died from a wound made by broken glass from a shop door) on 10 May and the 18-year-old actor Rob Knox a fortnight later. The drawn-out reports of the two deaths and their aftermaths has created the impression of an almost daily death toll in the city.

It is time to put these events in some perspective. Our aim should in no way be to belittle the crimes, or play down the tragic suffering of those involved. It is a question of treating them as just that: individual offences and tragedies, rather than symptoms of any social epidemic.

Believe it or not but it is true: as a leading Met officer said this week, ‘Statistically, knife crime remains a rare event’. Although there are always disputes over different crime statistics and surveys, there is no evidence of any boom in knife crime in the UK. And one thing we can know for certain - since murder is the crime that definitely does not go ‘under-reported’ - is that knife killings, and youth homicides, remain extremely rare.

Total murders in London were down in 2007 for the fifth year in succession, from 222 in 2003 to 160 last year. Within those figures, the numbers of teenagers killed did rise - by ‘over 50 per cent’ as some reports put it. In hard numbers, however, that was an increase from 17 deaths to 26. The rate of youth homicides in London this year - 14 teenage deaths so far - would, if it were sustained to the end of 2008, represent a far smaller rise. Reports that the number of killings nationally in which both the victim and assailant were under 18 had ‘trebled’ last year also need to be put in some perspective; that was an increase from 12 killings in 2006 to 37 in 2007.

Each and every violent death of a young person is of course a bitter tragedy, and, as we all know without being endlessly lectured, even one killing is one too many. But these relatively modest figures suggest that there must be something else behind the current panic. And a brief international comparison makes any talk of the UK as the knife or murder capital of the world look as stupid as it is irresponsible.



The most trusted global survey remains the World Health Organisation’s first World Report on Violence and Health, published in 2002. The WHO report estimated a global total of 199,000 youth homicides in 2000 - a worldwide average of 9.2 killings per 100,000 people aged 10 to 29. Within that average, however, the regional and national variations were the most striking.

Across Latin America there were 36.4 homicides per 100,000 young people; Colombia topped the table with 84.4 killings per 100,000, followed by El Salvador and Brazil. Across Africa the average was 17.6 killings per 100,000 young people. In Russia it was 18 homicides per 100,000. In the USA the comparable figure was 11. And in Western Europe? France had just 0.6, Germany 0.8 and the UK only 0.9 killings for every 100,000 young people.

If anything, the trends since 2000 seem likely to have widened rather than narrowed the youth homicide gap between Western Europe and the developing world. I recently heard tell of a British expert who went to an international conference where speakers from Latin America reeled off figures of tens of thousands of youth homicides a year. When it came to his turn to address the conference, he had some trouble explaining how the comparatively tiny UK statistics for similar killings could be seen to constitute a national crisis.

Why then has knife crime become such an all-consuming image, a centrepiece of Britain’s self-image, with top-level talk of it ‘spiralling out of control’, of a ‘deadly epidemic of youth violence’ and a ‘stabbing culture’? This would appear to have more to do with the diminishing sense of solidarity among adults than any rising tide of crime among the young.

It is not so much that our streets and cities are more unsafe, but they are certainly more insecure. There is a deep sense of insecurity in communities where many feel isolated from one another, and especially from young people. In a world of strangers, it is little wonder that the fear of ‘stranger danger’ can take such a hold.

This insecurity helps to explain why incidents of violence can be interpreted as proof of a major social problem, confirming people’s worst fears about others. It is why many refuse to accept any reassurances about the real levels of crime in society, even including murder. It seems simply beyond the comprehension of many that things are not getting worse and worse, so deep are they buried within their personal bunkers of the psyche.

Against this background, cold facts cannot compete with emotions. It is the lack of solidarity in our communities, not the shortage of stats, that feeds the sense of insecurity. Thus during the recent London mayoral election campaign, when Ken Livingstone tried to tell a TV studio audience that overall murder rates had fallen in the capital, people tried to shout him down as if they believed that there could be unrecorded piles of bodies hidden about the city. (No doubt in other circumstances Ken would have been the one trying to drum up fear of rising knife crime.)

And youth violence is an issue that captures our society’s state of mind better than most. The needless death of a teenager will always be a terrible and emotive event. But the impact is far greater today when young people have become the focus of so many of our insecurities, so that adults project their hopes and fears on to them, stereotyping youth either as victims or villains.

The official response to the knife panic only makes matters worse. Politicians often pay lip service to the fact that ‘fear of crime’ is far more widespread than crime itself. Their answer, however, is to try to calm public fears by staging high-profile law-and-order ‘crackdowns’ that do little to alter anything but only confirm people’s worst fears about what is out there. New Labour’s repeated attempts to restrict access to knives – a pointless exercise unless you can put a policeman on every kitchen drawer – have been a case study in how to stoke insecurities in the name of public safety. The Conservative mayor of London’s latest stunt, supporting the installation of hi-tech scanners known as ‘knife arches’ at train stations, will stand as a physical symbol of the unsafe city.

And so to the other question I asked at the top. Could the panic about something like knife crime be self-fulfilling? If adult society is so insecure, might that not be transmitted to young people? There is really nothing new about teenagers drinking, fighting and upsetting their elders, and many middle-aged commentators today seem to suffer from amnesia about the world in which we grew up. But if knives and weapons were to be more prevalent today, couldn’t that be connected to our social insecurity? When the adult world appears scared of its own shadow, and grown-ups who act like frightened infants offer little sense of community or leadership, it should surely be little wonder that some adolescents say they carry knives for protection. Indeed, when some paranoid parents start sending their children to school in stab vests, the wonder might be that more don’t start ‘carrying’.

Knife crime is real, not an invention of the media. But the panic about knife crime is a problem of a different order. It is important that we maintain a sense of proportion, and locate the real problem where it lies. There is no ‘epidemic’ of young people determined to stab each other. But there is an insecure society where many feel so cut off from one another that they can see the lowest rate of youth homicide in the world as the biggest danger facing Britain. That is a dagger pointing at the heart of our civilisation.

Knife crime and how London is more dangerous than Baghdad.

Knife crime and how London is more dangerous than Baghdad.

It's strange, isn't it, how it takes the death of a 16-year-old middle-class white teenager for the media in general to suddenly decide that it's time to talk about how the world is ending under the threat of the blade once again, or at least is in London.

Last night Newsnight treated us to four "experts", which in reality meant a mother who'd lost her child and now fronts one of those brilliantly named "Mothers Against" groups, as if all mothers aren't against murder, violence or noise music; the new deputy mayor of London, who despite his record in helming a young offender's institution said nothing of any worth whatsoever; Damilola Taylor's father; and err, Melanie Phillips, that well-known expert on all things concerning teenagers and youth crime.

Their solution? Zero tolerance, of course. It doesn't matter that this zero tolerance which so many espouse is based itself on a flawed prospectus, that those who are meant to have implemented it didn't intend to then be extended across the board as politicians and newspaper columnists in this country now demand, or indeed that it was not the "zero tolerance" which had the effect but rather the crime mapping, the keeping of detailed, regularly updated statistics and economic and demographic change, it's become a simple cure-all solution which has supposedly worked and therefore must be tried.

One of the chief proponents of zero tolerance, the Sun, even goes so far today as to claim that New York is now safer than London, as well as talking nonsense about new sentencing guidelines when the judge still has the discretion to impose up to a four-year sentence for someone brought to court for carrying a knife:

Yet even as the latest victim took his final breath, new punishment guidelines were being slipped out which amount to a slap on the wrist for carrying a blade.

Despite ministers’ repeated pledges to crack down on knives, they will allow yobs to get away with just a fine or community sentence.

The ruling to courts flies in the face of evidence that soft penalties — like Asbos and electronic tags — are worthless.

Thirteen young men and boys have been slaughtered on the streets of London so far this year.

The capital is now more dangerous than once-notorious New York.


Of course, the Sun is ignoring the actual evidence which proves that New York is actually more dangerous not just than London, but this country as a whole, despite others now claiming that the once notorious city is now some kind of shining beacon of peace and security. It's true that crime has fallen substantially in New York, but unless you disbelieve both the police figures and the British Crime Survey, it's also been falling here for around ten years also.

I've gone into the nitty gritty of the figures in depth before, so let's just deal with the one that can't be argued against: murder figures. In New York in 2006 there were 921 murders. In 2005/6 in London there were 168; in 2006/7 there were 162; and in 2007/08 (financial year) there were 156. Across the entire country in 06/07 there were 755 murders.

Let's continue with the Sun's leader:

Ministers wring their hands and Home Secretary Jacqui Smith refuses to venture out at night.

Parents are terrified every time their kids leave home.

And teenagers walk in fear of being killed by lawless savages who are ready to kill for a laugh.

Fines and community sentences will do nothing to stop this massacre.


And nor will importing failed policies from across the pond.

Knife crime: Police seize 200 weapons in stop and search blitz

The kitchen knife is the most common weapon used in teenage stabbings, Sir Ian Blair said today, as he revealed that close to 200 weapons have been seized since officers stepped up stop and search measures in response to a spate of recent knife crime.

The Metropolitan police commissioner said his officers had carried out more than 4,000 operations and more than 200 people had been arrested during the two-week blitz in an attempt to stem knife crime in the capital.

Officers with metal detector arches and hand-held scanners targeted 10 London boroughs, including Southwark, Lambeth and Croydon, and searches had revealed several six-inch carving knives, along with kitchen blades, craft and pen knives.

Blair said Operation Blunt 2, the name given to the anti-knife blitz which is part of the wider Operation Blunt initiative launched in November 2004, was targeting areas where weapons are used and where those who use them live.

The campaign, which will cost the Met up to £1m this year, has deployed officers on 185 priority schools and colleges and each of the 59 units for excluded pupils across London.

"The Met has stepped up its operations with the support of the community … you are now more likely to be stopped and searched," Blair said at a Scotland Yard briefing today.

"If you are stopped and searched, you will be arrested if you are carrying a knife. If you are arrested, you are likely to be prosecuted.

"To parents, it is tough love time. In addition to conversations about drink, drugs and relationships, there are now conversations about knives.

"The most common knife involved in these deaths is a knife from the kitchen and we must have conversations about knife crime with teenagers."

There have been 15 teenagers killed in London since the beginning of the year, 10 from knife attacks, and the bank holiday weekend was marred with violent incidents.

The aspiring actor Robert Knox, 18, who had a role in the latest Harry Potter film, was stabbed to death in a fight outside the Metro Bar in Sidcup.

His death followed the murder of 16-year-old Jimmy Mizen, who was attacked on May 10 with a shard of glass outside a bakery in Lee, south-east London.

"It is of critical importance that young people understand that carrying a knife is not cool and that choosing to carry a knife puts a young person at high risk of killing someone else, of being injured themselves and of going to prison," Blair said.

"Ultimately, the aim is to encourage not only those whom young people respect and listen to champion this approach, but also to find champions among young people themselves."

Cindy Butts, the deputy chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said Londoners must stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the police, adding that the black community supports Operation Blunt.

"What these communities want is increased stop and search.

"What they do not want is for police officers to go out on fishing expeditions where they cast their nets wide and see what they get back."

The deputy mayor of London Kit Malthouse, who advises the mayor on crime, said he was pleased with the police action but admitted the increased stop and search operations could be controversial.

"Some people out there oppose this type of operation but they come with no other type of solution.

"It is incumbent on us to recognise that every one of these knives recovered represents a tragedy averted and a life saved."

Teenage responses to knife crime....

Video games...are they an influence of the increase of knife crime?

Knife City, a spoof computer game in which a hooded youth is stabbed in a fight on a housing estate, is the centrepiece of a campaign created for the Met's latest attempt to reduce knife crime. The action follows a youth as he encounters a gang on the street, a fight starts and, as he is stabbed, animation gives way to live action.

Documentary-style footage then takes over as bystanders watch in horror and an ambulance arrives. The attacker is then taken to a police station where his computer generated self fades to live action as the reality of his situation becomes clear.

It's Not A Game Website



Worried parents are buying body armour for their children in an attempt to keep them safe from street violence according to The Times. A firm that supplies stab- and bullet-proof vests to government agencies around the world has sold 60 jackets to concerned parents after several murders of teenagers on London streets. “They are concerned by what is happening on the streets — the level of violence. A 13-year-old girl has been our youngest customer but most are about 15 or 16. Most of the calls have been from London" a spokesman for the firm is reported as saying.

South London teenage gang Terror Zone (TZ) said in a rap track that they carry knives as if they were £10 notes. The Mitcham-based crew is blamed for the death of Thornton Heath teenager Eugene Attram in a street fight. On 'Got it Good' one member tells how "my niggas roll with shanks (knives) in their pockets like they're tenners". Another says: "I roll with a big shank, any nigga move to me, I push the blade though his piss tank." TZ is said to be involved in a feud with the Stick ’em Up Kids (SUK) from nearby Wandsworth. The violence turned deadly when Eugene, aged 16 and known to his friends as Fruge, was fatally stabbed in Mitcham. Shortly after the killing, an entry on a gang website read: "You can't move to attack TZ. If you move to TZ you will get shanked. Shanking Fruge was a warning." Police say there is no evidence to suggest that pastor's son Eugene was in a gang. A teenager who knows both gangs said: "It was a fight between the crews and Eugene was there with his friends. He didn't deserve to die."
Terror Zone Mixtape


10% of boys aged 11 and 12 are reported to have carried a knife or other weapon and 8% said they had attacked someone intending serious harm. By the age of 16, the figure had risen to 24% who have carried a knife and 16% who had attacked somebody intending harm. 'Fear and Fashion' sets out the the extent and causes of young people carrying knives and other weapons. It deals with some of the approaches being currently adopted to tackle the problem and makes recommendations.
The use of knives and other weapons by young people

Violent street robbery in the UK is often carried out because of a desire to fight, to put right perceived injustice, to increase "street cred" or even just for "kicks". One offender said he was addicted to it. "It weren't even for money. It was just — I had money; it was more like the buzz you get from doing things. I was more addicted to robbing than I was to drugs." One element in the excitement came from overpowering the victim and obtaining dominance. "It's for the fun. 'Cos the point of street robbery is to get them to fight back, innit? I'd give him a couple of slaps and tell him to fight back, yeah. If he won't fight back, we just give him a kick and go." Robberies can also be prompted by anger and the desire to start a fight, with cash being taken only as an afterthought. Here the level of violence used is often beyond that required to secure the victim's compliance. "I picked a fight with someone on the street. They were the first people I come across. I started hitting one of them and calling him names and said, 'What are you looking at?' and stuff like that. Then I can't remember how but I started hitting him and then I just jumped on him. Punched him, turned him over, went through his pockets." Some robberies were committed as a kind of informal justice in which the offender felt he or she had righted some wrong done to them.
The Economic and Social Research Council


What is behind the current knife epidemic? What can be done to stem the rise in knife-related violence amongst young people? Get in touch and let us know your views.


My boyfriend was in TZ and moved away before Eugene's death but when he moved away and escaped the trouble TZ weren't happy. I think they will kill him if they see him. Please to any gangs out there, grow up before u get thrown in pen, u don't want 2 liv lives of guilt! — Anonimous


I think that knife crime is becoming more popular due to the media. It seems to be that young kids are not being taught to work hard and make something of themselves. A lot stems from parents not giving their children the fundamental teachings that will make them into hardworking men. Young boys are getting greedy and lazy. They don't want to work but they want money! The media, for example MTV, is influencing kids that it's all about having jewellery and the latest gadgets, but in my opinion these kids are not getting the self confidence to become somebody worthwhile. When kids rebel against the system, I believe it's for attention (negative or positive, it doesn’t matter). These kids need positive influences from a young age. But with so many kids growing up with parents on the dole, and no interest in their future, what chance do they have! There needs to be more free workshops to get these kids to achieve more than street cred. The government need to put more money into the poorest boroughs so that kids have something better to do with their time. Every activity nowadays costs money, some parents including myself can't afford. If the younger generation do not get the attention they are crying out for, it will get a lot worse.— Shelley


Any 1 can stab some 1, it don’t make u bad, it just takes someone’s life away. We need to stop this happening as most stabbings are racially targeted to all colours of man dem out there. Every 1 has feelings inside, no matter what the race, everyone hurts when hit and no man is invincible so drop de knifes. Think of families, mums and dads who suffer when they get that news when they’ve heard their son’s been stabbed through the heart and died. Walk away from conflict cause u get 1 life so enjoy it in peace with every youth out there and try and stay calm and open minded with everything. Don’t hold grudges because only 1 man will get hurt. — Movin South


RIP Jacob... An eye for an eye brings blindness. Put the knife away. Stabbing some one don’t make u hard, it just kills a person. Every day a man dies and yet another life is born, the start to the end. If u use a knife u waste your life. — Tauren


He didn't deserve 2 die. Dats not fair. Gangs is bad. — Y Major

Blog based on knife crime and the racist idealogy that surrounds it

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question570412-2.html

Mothers targeted in the fight against teenage knife crime

By James Slack Last updated at 1:16 AM on 23rd May 2008

An advertising campaign will ask mothers to check whether their teenage sons are carrying knives.

Parents will also be advised to talk to their children about crime in the way they might discuss sex or smoking.

Ministers ordered the publicity blitz after deciding that mothers hold the key to tackling the surge in knife offences.



Ministers have decided that mothers hold the key to reducing the knife crime 'epidemic'

The advertisements, which will cost £3million over the next three years, will be placed in women's weekly magazines.

One reads: 'He already knows about the birds and the bees. You need to talk to him about the knives and the blades.' A

second says: 'It's one thing to find matches or condoms in your son's pocket. But what if you find a knife?'

The text adds: 'Finding a knife on your son is far better than finding one in him.'

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, said yesterday: 'As the mother of a teenager, I know that it sometimes doesn't feel that you're listened to. But all the research tells us that when it comes to the issue of knives, young people respect their mothers more than you might think.


Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said that teenagers will listen to their mothers
'Mums have a big influence on helping their kids to make the right choice – and we need to help mums to talk to their kids about the dangers of carrying a knife.


'The vast majority of young people don't carry knives. But my message to mums is clear – don't take the chance.


'Carrying a knife can lead to fatal consequences and it doesn't have to happen. So talk it over with your kids.'


David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said more police and tougher sentences were needed to tackle gang violence.


He added: 'We welcome that the campaign has posters aimed at parents but, in doing this, the Government are admitting families have a key role to play in tackling violent crime amongst the young.


'Why then have they pursued, and continued to pursue, policies that totally undermine the family since 1997?'


The advertisements were unveiled yesterday amid a raft of official announcements and speeches on crime.


Miss Smith promised £5million to fund pilot schemes aimed at curbing knife crime. She also trumpeted the success of a £1.5million initiative targeting gun violence in four major cities.


Gun injuries are said to have fallen from 93 in October 2007 to 46 in February. It later emerged, however, that there were 13 gun killings during the six-month campaign compared with 12 in the same period the previous year.



To the point: The advert advising mothers to discuss knife crime with their sons

And the level of gun crimes rose in two areas. West Midlands Police recorded 106 offences, compared with 77 in the same period two years earlier. Liverpool also saw a rise from 47 to 59 offences.


Numbers fell in London from 431 to 374 and in Manchester from 123 to 93.


Ministers also announced that guidance is being sent to schools and councils setting out warning signs of gang membership which teachers should look for.


These include pupils wearing specific colours, items of jewellery or clothing. Staff should also be trained to look out for gang-related graffiti and for pupils who suddenly acquire expensive trainers or mobile phones.


Schools which suspect gangs operate in their student body should 'gather evidence' including photos and behaviour records.


The Home Secretary and the Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, renewed a pledge to ensure witnesses who want to give evidence in court against gang members involved in a shooting are given anonymity from the earliest stages.


The knife campaign comes the day after senior judges expressed their concern over the 'escalating and grave' problem of knives and other offensive weapons being carried on our streets.