Britain faces growing knife-crime culture

Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week proposed a zero-tolerance policy, but experts say tougher penalties are only part of the solution.

from the June 11, 2008 edition

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But there's another attraction, he says: Knives have become culturally cool, and the challenge will be to break that association. He draws an analogy with the rise and fall of crack cocaine in the US in the 1980s and 1990s. Once thought of as cool, crack quickly became seen as unsavory and undesirable because of effective campaigns, he says.

"In the same way, you have to take the culture of knife crime so the message has to be given out that carrying knives is not cool or clever and there has to be a cultural association made so that young people do not see it as a positive thing to do," he says.

So what can be done to take knives off the street? Police stop-and-search operations use portable knife arches and hand-held wands. Powers to screen and search pupils without consent were introduced last year.

Gordon Brown has signaled a zero-tolerance approach to knives, announcing last week that teenagers as young as 16 years old would face prosecution just for carrying a blade.

'Youth violence is out of hand now'

But tougher penalties are only part of the solution, experts say. Dr. Dasan wants to see more youth education on how lethal a blade can be. Britain's grim new ad campaign is a start.

Another medical expert, Dr. Mike Beckett, argues that it is time to remove sharp knives from kitchens altogether. He says there is no need for the pointed tips that make knives fatal. "What people want in a kitchen knife is the edge," he told the BBC. "The point on the end of the knife actually serves little culinary purpose, but it is the point that kills people."

Uanu Seshmi, who works with troublesome children in the south London district of Peckham, calls for both carrot and stick.

"We need to have zero tolerance in terms of the way we deal with violence, not just knife and gun crime, but youth violence, which is just out of hand now," he says. "But we must also have a comprehensive rehabilitation system in this country that rehabilitates young people by dealing with the emotional problems they have and addressing the challenges of life."

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