Become a Member
Stephen Pollard

ByStephen Pollard, Stephen Pollard

Opinion

A suggestion for fighting knife crime (The Times)

May 26, 2008 24:00
1 min read

I have a piece in today's Times on knife crime. Here's an extract:

Over the past decade, the number of convictions for carrying a knife has risen from 3,360 in 1997 to 6,314 in 2006. Of those convicted in 1997, 482 were teenagers, rising in 2006 to 1,256. That near trebling in the number of teenagers convicted is bad enough. Worse, however, are surveys showing that about one in five teenagers say that they carry a knife with them.

Given the rapid development of a teenage culture in which carrying a knife is seen as normal, not to say essential for self-defence, it is understandable that there have been calls to toughen the relevant laws. The current maximum sentence for knife carrying is two years, or four years if the knife is carried to school.