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Youth and knife crime

Naked Eye joined up with Westminster Council and The Kids Are Alright Foundation to better understand youth and knife-crime. It is an issue that we care about and wanted to show how ethnography communicates the real issues affecting people’s lives.

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Research Overview 2011: Current intelligence and action addressing young people and knife crime

Overview of current situationⁱ

After a highly publicised spike in violent knife crime in 2008ⁱⁱ, and a growing number of teenage deaths on city streets, knife carrying became a topic of public and governmental concern. It was increasingly apparent that this would need to be addressed by policy as well as papers, and there was a call for specifically targeted police and legislative action.

Although it appears to have decreased since the worst period of 2008 there is widespread recognition that it remains a serious problem in inner city areas across Britain. It is a topic that has continued to be prominent in the media through 2009, and there has been a raft of youth knife crime and fatalities for headlines to home in on.

Males in their late teens and early twenties constitute the majority of perpetrators and victims of violent knife crime, although the number of under-18s affected has risen in the last year, provoking serious worry over escalation of the problem. Eleven seemed to be a key risk age for first carrying a knife, probably linked to the transition from primary to secondary school. Boys are far more likely to carry a knife than girls, although girls are often caught up on the peripheries of gang conflict. Surveys suggests nearly a third of children in the UK have been affected by gun and knife crime.ⁱⁱⁱ

The organisation Kids Count has estimated that knife-enabled crime costs £1.25 billion a year. There are mixed views over the adequacy of the government response, but the public voice seems to be calling for more to be done.

July 2008-March 2009 the government piloted a scheme addressing knife crime among 13-19 years olds in 10 police areas^iv. Results of the Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) showed that in those areas there had been some improvement in certain respects^v, but admitted that it was hard to tell what affect it had really had due to a lack of robust monitoring and comparative data. TKAP Phase 2 has now been in play since summer 2009, and it remains to be seen what difference it is really making.

In the gaps left by comprehensive and convincing government response numerous pockets of local community organisations and charity work have sprung up to try and tackle the problem in specific areas. These range from web-based sources of information and advice to local clubs for youth activities. Although positive work is being done, these efforts are often small scale, struggling for funds and isolated from each other. The value of site-specific action tailored to a local population is clear, however such fragmented efforts mean missing out on the chance to pool information effectively and provide the clout for pushing through a nationwide strategy.

It appears the Home Office is beginning to recognise the necessity of good community-level work as support to it’s campaign, reaching out to local activists and providing supportive materials, advice and publicity, but have a long way to go in helping coordinate efforts. At present government action seems to be focused on police activity and advertising and communication campaigns^vi. A Home Office statement claims they are “sending out a clear message that knife carrying is unacceptable.”

But who is it that’s really going to listen to that message? Voters and crime victims looking for tougher action, or the youth carrying a knife? There is real question over whether they are really reaching the youth on the streets at a preventative level, or just stopping and searching them. The very people who won’t listen to that message are the ones that need to be reached.

Backing on the ground is needed from people who understand the communities and culture that need to be addressed, and know how to talk to them. Insights into regional and local sub-cultures that provide the contexts for particular types of knife crime “tend to be lost when national statistics and reports merge several distinct patterns under a single generalised ‘umbrella’.”^vii

A serious problem in addressing the issue has been gaps in intelligence. The recording of knife crime as a separate incident classification is still new (and was not featured in the Annual Data Requirement before April 2007) and there has been a lack of uniformity over how the crimes are classified and defined, meaning that it is difficult to draw useful conclusions. As a result there are large discrepancies in statistics and ‘facts’.

For example, based on the “Police Recorded Crime Statistics” report of 2008, around 22,000 incidents of knife crime were recorded, however based on the “British Crime Survey”^viii the figure is estimated at around 130,000 incidents, a variation of 108,000 between the two.^ix

There also appears to be a lack of in depth qualitative research into what constitutes and drives the culture of knife crime and without agreement on the basic facts and parameters for a field of investigation this is not surprising. Weakness in understanding and defining the problem means there is a lack of hard evidence and deep insight on which to build solutions. In addition, a lack of clear monitoring of current anti-knife crime initiatives, both local and government-led, means it isn’t clear what is making a difference and what is merely wasting time, resources and deepening public fear and youth isolation.

Breakdown of information sources and action being taken:

What are the sources of information currently available and where are they falling down?

Police reports

• Knife Crime has only recently become a separate classification and even then only “serious” crimes are usually reported. Cases where no charges are pressed may result in the nature of the crime going unrecorded altogether
• There is an absence of an agreed definition of knife crime
• Lack of agreed data collection method nationwide and statistics gathered in ways that do not reflect the issues.^x
• Many available statistics are out of date. The official homicide statistics do not come out until the January after the financial year in which they were collected so Apr 07 – Mar 08 information was only made available in January 2009.

NHS reporting hospital admissions

• Can be misleading as people are reluctant to report cause of injury in case of repercussions
• Only 61 hospitals currently working with the government to share data

Government surveys

• The need for the government to put a good ‘spin’ on a contentious a media topic makes many people skeptical of research
• Has suffered from lack of agreed parameters and definitions
• There does not seem yet to be the level of cooperation and coherent effort between all the parties who hold pertinent information to pool resources

Independent surveys

• Can be badly designed or biased (often being commissioned and by charities, pressure groups or political organisations)
• Information gained is wasted by limited means to act upon it
• In the main these surveys may hold important local information that is not coordinated with a wider scale effort, thus having limited power to effect change and support conclusive argument for action

News media

• There is strong argument both for and against the role of media. Clearly it has drawn attention to the issue and helped to apply pressure on the government for action. However it can be sensationalist, inaccurate and misrepresentative, leading to widespread public fear and further alienating youth.
• It can be argued that many government actions are addressed more to the public eye than the real problem.
• Reports on crime statistics can be misleading as increased focus in police efforts may make statistics go up and so make it appear as though it is getting worse
• Headlines may work directly to increase number of knife-carriers, fueling fashion and/or fear among young people
• Prevalence of media debate and messages can make it harder to get to the underlying issues when talking to young people
• Lack of good information to feed reporters fuels the conjecture, misleading reporting and resulting confusion and myth

This last point is connected to a much wider issue. Crucially, information needs to be shared more effectively between agencies. If, for example, young people are involved in a knife-related incident at the weekend and picked up by the police, it is not always the case that their teachers and youth workers will be aware of this.

What is being done?

Home Office: Tackling Knives Action Programme Phase 2:

Police Intervention

• Increased stop and search (Operation Blunt 2^xi): Seen as a short term measure, and runs the risk of damaging police/community relations (especially among young black males)
• Knife amnesties. Makes big headlines but knives will always be available in the kitchen drawer. Does it really make a difference? A recent government report points out that “even the 90,000 knives in the May 2006 national amnesty equated at most to just 0.0041 per cent of knives in England and Wales that could be used in a crime.”

Changes in legislation

• Increased Prison sentences and increased likelihood of sentence^xii. While this does seem to serve to address public demand for a tough stance there is no clear evidence that it works as a deterrent. Many young people do not think about the consequences of their actions, and may not think about results beyond ‘getting caught’. Is filling our jails with young people really going to tackle the problem?

Youth Justice Board

• Education and advice for offenders. Offenders and families are often unaware of the law around knife crime or how the justice system operates with young people.^xiii

Schools and colleges

• Educational and awareness raising role.
• Police presence and education in schools.
• NHS workers visiting to educate about consequences of knife crime.
• Although this seems to have positive results it often occurs that schools are reluctant to take on the responsibility or increase the fear factor by giving the problem profile. Many teachers feel that the curriculum is over-crowded and that there is little room to address the misuse of knives and other weapons effectively.

‘It Doesn’t have to Happen’ anti-knife crime publicity campaign

• Posters, stickers, adverts, social networking communications aimed at raising awareness in young people and addressing the trend of knife carrying. These are made available as tools for independent action groups to utilise in their own work.
• Argument that this will in the main only preach to the converted

Community work in partnership with/with support from government

• The Government have pledged a £4.5m Community Fund to 150 small groups over the next three years that are working to tackle guns, gang and knife crime.^xiv This is welcomed as a positive recognition on the government’s part that intervention has to go way beyond and start long before police intervention becomes necessary. It also represents the recognition that local action and insight is vital. This aspect is however limited in support and funding available.

Community-led and charity work

These may be split into 3 main types:

• Open sources of advice and information. This takes the form of a centre, website or phone line which people with questions and concerns can use. Some websites also provide a database where nationwide and local efforts to tackle knife crime are recorded and linked to. The sites are also often interactive; you can join online discussions or contribute stories or information.

  These have the limitation of being only for people who actively choose to look at the site. A number of these are run by families of victims and focus on the victims point of view, limiting it’s power to effect change in offenders.

• Mobile educational/workshop teams. This consists of teams travelling round schools and colleges, inviting speakers who have experience dealing with knife crime, including offenders, victims and youth workers. It also includes youth workshops aimed at increasing awareness around knife crime and promoting anti-knife crime message.

  Some organisations are broadening the workshop format to include youth projects that produce their own anti-knife crime content (recorded or performed), which is then used to spread the message. Media/platforms include filmmaking, music/rap composition, spoken word and social networking. This encourages the young people to become champions themselves and positively influence their peer group (a kind of inversion of the common perception of peer pressure)

• Organisations organising/facilitating alternative activities for young people. Organisations that don’t so much focus their message/action on knife crime itself but on positive youth activities that can be an alternative to criminal or violent behavior on the streets. These can be seen as having a more positive message, concentrating less on the negatives of knife carrying and involving youth in finding lifestyles or activities that draw them away from behaviour that puts them at risk. Music and sport are the two most common activities.

This entry was posted by Ed on 03/06/2010 at 17:41 and is filed under Featured video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.