June 2008
Tackling the knife culture -
Knife crime has been very much in the news recently. Tragically the highest profile cases have often involved children. So far this year, 29 youngsters have been killed. Clearly this is of great distress to everyone, not least the parents of teenagers.
The Government has been acting to try and tackle this issue. The maximum penalty for possession of a knife has been doubled from two to four years in prison and the minimum age for owning a knife has been increased to 18.
And here in Birmingham I have been campaigning against methods of selling knives that may appear to glorify or glamorise them as weapons.
One of the largest problems, however, is the type of knives involved. Typically people are not injuring each other with fighting knives or switchblades. Often, the knives involved are those from the kitchen drawer.
You can’t ban kitchen knives and so restricting sales can only be one aspect of the solution. Education is key to combating the knife culture.
That doesn’t just make it a matter for schools. As the Met Police Commissioner has said, it is just as important for parents to have this conversation with their children as it is for them to talk about drugs and alcohol and relationships.
It’s going to be a combination of efforts by different agencies and by people at home that will get knives off the streets and back in to the kitchen drawer where they belong.
