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Comment: yes, knife crime can be tackled
Evening Standard03.06.08
The fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old girl at a block of flats only minutes from the Houses of Parliament is a grim backdrop to the emergency debate on knife crime in the Commons this week. Although this tragic case does not fit the pattern of stabbings that are linked to gang violence or to the trend of carrying knives supposedly in self defence, it brings the reality of knife crime physically closer to the Palace of Westminster and to Scotland Yard.
The Home Secretary is belatedly responding to the problem today with the promise of more resources but both the Home Office, the Met and the previous Mayor of London were too slow to realise how fast the problem was spreading. This newspaper refuses to accept that knife crime cannot be tackled. We have published a charter of measures ranging from more effective policing through more rigorous approaches to charging and sentencing to wider initiatives aimed at changing the behaviour of young people through action in the community, in schools and in prisons. We want to see the greater use of targeted stop-and-search powers by police - for which there is support even among sections of the community which previously considered this to be harassment. We also want more search arches and scanners at transport hubs, and increased police presence at priority schools and pupil referral units - and the money must be provided to pay for these.
We support the Met's call for parents to confront children over their carrying of knives. We also want to see children taught in school about the dangers, where appropriate through the kind of peer mentoring schemes that have a record of success.
And when the knife carriers are caught, they must be charged, not let off with cautions. The Met and the Crown Prosecution Service's more robust charging policy must be delivered consistently and witness protection provided where needed. The courts must also recognise their role. Naturally they do not wish to imprison young people but absolute and conditional discharges will not reverse the spiralling trend towards carrying knives. Those who do go to prison must be shown the impact of their crimes and how to manage anger in future. As our interviews with young people demonstrate, those most at risk from knife crime are crying out for solutions.
