Weapons crackdown a 'distraction'

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Community leaders must take a long-term view and wide-ranging approach to safeguard people, a review of gun and knife crime strategies found.

Academics said there was little evidence from operations across the globe that police tactics designed to combat the use of weapons work.

They cast doubt on the effectiveness of unpopular stop and search operations and said "zero-tolerance" drives and shock tactics can be counter-productive.

The research, Young People, Knives and Guns, was conducted by academics at the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London. Research director Dr Roger Grimshaw said the Government must take the blame if young people in some areas carry weapons because they are excluded from society.

He said: "If the long-term future of areas and neighbourhoods continues to create the conditions for the repetitive social exclusion of successive youth cohorts, then a core responsibility lies squarely on the shoulders of policymakers."

The report will be read carefully by senior police officers in knife crime hotspots across England and Wales.

A Home Office spokesman said the 10 original Tackling Knives Action Programme (TKAP) areas took more than 3,500 knives off the streets in one year.

He said: "But we have always made clear that tough police enforcement is just one element of our strategy to deal with knife crime. It also includes ongoing work on education, prevention and prosecution to directly address the causes of knife crime. A great deal of TKAP money has been focused on helping young people to feel safer and less likely to carry a weapon.

"Initiatives such as Safer Schools Partnerships, after-school patrols and Operation Staysafe, to which we have so far contributed £3.4 million, have precisely this intention. And a three-year £3 million advertising campaign, 'It doesn't have to happen', developed by young people for young people to make them think twice about carrying knives, has reached millions of 10 to 16-year-olds, with the vast majority of 10 to 16-year-olds surveyed saying the ads made them less likely to carry a knife."