Knife Crime: The Modern English Plague

In England in 2008 a plague of knife crime claimed 277 lives. What is being done to combat this growing criminal menace to calm public fears?

Congratulations America! To many Brits, England has supplanted ‘good ol Uncle Sam’ as the crime capital of the free world.

The main reason for this public sentiment is an apparent uncontrolled plague of knife crime. During 2008, 277 lives were lost in England as a result of a fatal stabbing – that is an average of 5 murders each week.

This bleak trend started some years ago in the London hinterland with young, black males the most likely victim and but also the most likely perpetrator. The bad news is that during the last 12 months the problem has spread to the English regions.

Such is the public concern about this pointless waste of life that strategies for combatting knife crime have come to occupy a prominent place on the political agenda alongside the war in Afghanistan and the woeful state of the British economy. So what is the United Kingdom government doing to tackle knife crime and to calm public fears?

The Government’s solution is in two parts – winning young peoples’ hearts and minds and where this fails, harsher penalties for convicted offenders.

Winning hearts and minds is based on a £3 million marketing campaign aimed at young people. There has been a national billboard campaign backed up by radio and web advertising encouraging young people to show their support for the fight against knife crime. So far there have been over 9.6 million hits on the designated websites and 2.8 million people have heard the radio adverts.

For those not persuaded by the marketing campaign, the police have been given extended powers to stop and search a person in the street where they are suspected of carrying a knife. When convicted of carrying a knife, a defendant now faces much stiffer court sentences including custody or ” Community Payback ” requiring them to participate in community projects for anything up to 18 hours each week and to be subject to a curfew.

It remains to be seen whether the public will be reassured by these measures aimed at combatting this modern English plague. The best possible outcome would be that by the end of 2009 there will be a lot fewer than 277 families grieving about the senseless loss of a young life through knife crime.