Recent reporting has highlighted a disheartening rise in the number of knife crimes, particularly in England and Wales. Cuts to police numbers, higher secondary school exclusion rates and the increase of drug dealing operations are likely among the contributory causes.
Photograph: Chris Reynolds.
Courts in England and Wales dealt with 21,101 knife cases in June 2017-June 2018 alone. Places such as Staffordshire and Hertfordshire have experienced the tragic increase in knife crimes, soaring by 88% and 89% respectively. Lord Hogan-Howe, former leader of the Metropolitan Police force, stated that UK’s youth are increasingly at risk given that there has been a 93% rise in the number of under-16s stabbed over five years.
Existing regulations, regarding minimal custodial sentences for illegal possession of a knife, are set out in section 28 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. On 17th of July 2015 a new minimum prison term for those carrying a knife came into force. Before the new rules were introduced, people who were found guilty of a repeated knife possession were usually given a non-custodial sentence.
Now, punishments have become more severe and adults convicted more than once for a knife possession face a minimum of 6 months imprisonment which can go up to 4 years. New regulations also provide that young offenders aged 16 and 17 will face at least 4 months in detention with a training order.
Increasingly common knife crime cases have also prompted supermarket chain Asda to remove single kitchen knives from sale. Responding to the announcement by Asda, the Home Office stated: ‘We welcome retailers playing their part in preventing young people accessing knives.’ Poundland has also followed suit after a man was stabbed in one of their stores.
Police officials have begun to demand emergency funding that would facilitate the protection of those in high-risk situation. Civil servants, including the chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council, Sara Thornton, have described this as a national emergency.
Although this assertion should be taken to some degree with a pinch of salt, it does reveal thoughts that an increase in public spending could reduce the effects of this violence-driven epidemic.
In fact, Sadiq Khan, London’s major, has backed this proposal when he addressed this issue in a Whitehall meeting. The country, as a collective, urgently needs to ‘improve cross-government efforts to tackle violent crime’, he states.
It has also been rumoured, from members such as the former chief constable of the Thames Valley police, Francis Habgood that a sharp decrease in police numbers has led to the increase in knife (?)crime. Theresa May, however, continues to deny such a correlation. In light of the alarming records, her words remain questionable.