Why has knife crime in the UK increased over the past decade and how should we tackle it?
Over the past decade, knife crime has become prevalent across the UK, particularly London, inciting a tide of violence and aggression. As of 2018, knives are the most common cause of death in homicides with a staggering 39% (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42749089 accessed 2/9/18). This concerning rise has caused distress and harm towards the community. This spread like wildfire has been ignited by numerous factors such as gangs operating in the UK, social media influence, England’s police budget cut, racism, ‘relaxed’ knife law and the upbringing of children.
Firstly, one cause of the rise in knife crime is gangs. There are over a hundred gangs operating in the UK. The majority of gangs carry knives in means of ‘protection’ or dominance over other gangs sparking rivalries for territory and superiority. Also, members of a gang may be pressured into carrying a knife as the rest of the gang may have one. Another reason why gangs increase the rate of knife crime is due to the fact they mock rival gangs using social media. They provoke their rivals by mocking them online so they may commence a brawl with each other. Furthermore, gangs influence young people into carrying knives, as young people may be concerned about their safety when they hear about knife crimes involving gangs in their local area.
Secondly, social media has influenced many youths and young adults to carry out crimes with knives. Rappers on social media such as YouTube and Instagram, post rap videos or ‘drill music’. ‘Drill music’ is a type of rap, which first originated in the USA and was posted on YouTube to outrival other gangs. The artists posed with guns and knives and used colloquial language and hand gestures with the majority of the lyrics translating to graphic threats particularly associating them with knives and glamorizing violence. This genre has spread to the UK and most gangs perform this type of music on their social media to humiliate their rival, therefore, inciting there rival to attack the gang and to influence the youth who spend their day on social media and be educated by the vulgar lyrics in the video which they have no knowledge about the true meaning of the lyrics.
Thirdly, racism and religious discrimination play a major role in the rise in knife crime in the UK. Racially motivated attacks are being performed on people mainly based on their ethnicity and faith. Few gangs in the UK have members who are of the same ethnicity or believe in the same faith. The most notable racially motivated attack in modern Britain is on the victim Stephen Lawrence. Stephen Lawrence, who was an 18 Black-British teenager, was stabbed to death by a group of white youths based on Lawrence’s ethnicity. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Stephen_Lawrence Accessed 2/10/18) Also, to neutralize knife crime in the UK, police services target black people due to their race and the common stereotype that they carry knives. This is considered to be a huge waste of time for the police as they are investigating the wrong people, who are innocent and unarmed, whereas the police should be searching for a real crime instead of targeting people, whom they suspect are armed with a knife, based on their ethnicity. Multiple cases have occurred on people based on their faith over the past few years resulting in injuries and even death. Numerous gangs are established mainly based on their faith with a few being an Islamic gang or a Christian gang. The fact that some people with religious beliefs oppose others with different concepts and religions incite violence among other gangs.
Furthermore, the rise in knife crime is not only to blame on the culprits but also the law enforcement in the UK to prevent this sort of crime. When Theresa May became Home Secretary of the UK in 2010, she has annually decreased the UK's police service budget. This cut has led to an increase in knife crime as this cut has led to fewer officers to patrol the streets and the deactivation of many CCTV cameras across London to survey potential criminals. Also, stop and searches performed by the police have declined from 90,000 searches year to less than 20,000 in just 8 years. In addition, people as young as 13 are purchasing knives without any license or jurisdiction indicating the ‘relaxed knife laws’ in the UK. Many of the knife crimes are committed with long pointed kitchen knives, which are easy and accessible to purchase without any suspicion from anyone. These knives are bought in particular as they have a longer blade length than the majority of kitchen knives, which extends the deepness of the wound inflicted on a person than most knives. (Hern, Glazebrook, Beckett. EH, WG, MB. 2005. Reducing Knife Crime: We need to ban the sale of long pointed kitchen knives. Volume 330. Page 1221)
Moreover, knife crime has increased due to younger people becoming more confident and resilient to law enforcement. This is mainly due to the poor upbringing of children. Many people have been brought up in harsh and crude environments with a lack of education. This has resulted in people becoming arrogant, anti-social and in some cases, violent. Young people are now more inclined to carry knives because of growing confidence mainly due to a lack of education to respect their superiors i.e. the police. In addition, due to the number of knife crime happening in an area, and in order for them to feel safe and secure, they carry a knife around with them, then the young person has to have one to feel as if they are part of it and not left out, and in case anyone tries to stab them or attack them with a knife he or she has something to use against the assailant.
However, Parliament has come up with solutions on how to approach these problems and prevent the causes by increasing the police budget, remove influence and provocation on social media, apply stricter knife laws and consequences.
Due to the increase in knife crime, multiple MPs and citizens of the community have become concerned and numerous debates have been conducted concerning the police budget. Many advantages in increasing the police budget could ameliorate the rate of crime such as more stop and searches and more frequent police controls could be conducted to find and investigate any potential crimes occurring. Also, the government is considering on installing fake CCTV systems across a wide range of towns, cities and boroughs to fool potential criminals, as it seems like they are being monitored to, therefore, prevent knife crimes.
In addition, staff from social media, the police and the Internet have removed, blocked and shut down multiple links to the cause of the rise in knife crime. In 2018, multiple video shootings of ‘drill music’ were shut down by police officers and the people involved were arrested. This is due to the fact that they possessed knives and intended on posting a video to influence anyone that watches it. YouTube has already deleted more than half of videos and blocked channels that produce videos targeted by the Metropolitan Police in a dedicated operation against ‘drill music’ which police say ‘incites violence’ among other gangs. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/drill-music-stabbings-london-youtube-violence-police-knife-crime-gangs-a8373241.html Accessed 5/9/18)
Ever since there has been a distressing rise in knife crime, numerous anti-knife crime organizations and charities have been deployed to prevent and tackle knife crime. Their aim is to educate people about the impact of knife crime on families, communities and mostly criminals. They do this by establishing workshops across community centers. Also, some charities have made ‘knife-dispensers’ where knives are placed by people into the dispenser and are sent to the appropriate authorities.
Moreover, knife laws have become stricter along with more serious sanctions if these laws are broken. Now, purchasing a weapon under the age of 18 can lead to 4 years prison time and an unlimited fine demonstrating that potential criminals would highly consider the consequences and not take the risk of purchasing a weapon. Furthermore, the government and the police service have restricted certain knives and sharp instruments, such as swords, ‘butterfly’ knives and disguised knives etc., to be imported into the UK as they are deemed to be more lethal than regular knives. There has also been a debate in Parliament suggesting we ban the importation and sale of long pointed kitchen knives to reduce accessibility of purchasing knives in the UK, would drastically reduce the availability of knives in the UK. In addition, such legalization would make it harder to justify carrying such knives and prosecutions easier. (Hern, Glazebrook, Beckett. EH, WG, MB. 2005. Reducing Knife Crime: We need to ban the sale of long pointed kitchen knives. Volume 330. Page 1222)
In conclusion, the knife crimes occurring across the UK are unnecessary and are just giving the UK a bad name. These crimes are affecting people’s lives; people who live in the UK are distressed over their safety and tourists/visitors who intend on visiting will think twice to do so. This mindless, primitive tide of violence should be silenced and should be resolved in peaceful, diplomatic ways. We should tackle this to break the cycle of violence and reduce the impact that it has on communities, families and the individuals doing this.