Knife Crime, How To Tackle The UK Knife Crime Epidemic

UK Knife crime has become a phrase that haunts houses as news channels seemingly report on another stabbing of a young adult or teenager. With currently four reported knife related deaths a week in the UK. But the phrase knife crime or London knife crime is part of the problem. As by trying to tackle UK knife crime as a whole, rather than categorising the different types of knife crime, it creates a mountainous task with no real hope of even slowing the statistics down, never mind reducing them.

THE CATEGORIES OF KNIFE CRIME 

It’s only when you start to categorise the different types of UK knife crime, that you can effectively start taking any potential measures to reduce the amount of knife related incidents, and their severity. The four main types of knife crime are:

• Gang on gang knife crime
• Individual young adult or teenager on Individual young adult or teenager knife crime
• Street robbery based knife crime
• Substance dependent knife crime

Gang on Gang Knife Crime

Gang on gang knife crime is where this knife crime epidemic started and has developed from. With media reporting the gang on gang violence which has seemed to dramatically escalate in the numbers of knife crime related incidents that are being committed. It seems like it’s London knife crime, but realistically the same type of gang on gang incidents are happening throughout the bigger cities of the UK. Although with less media attention.

Gang on gang UK knife crime or London Knife crime is almost within its own bubble. It’s gang on gang violence and it’s rare that members of the public are directly involved in the incident. Although seeing an incident or the aftermath can cause mental health problems.

The gang on gang knife crime is generally down to turf wars for the sale of drugs or to assert dominance. A retaliatory attack for a previous physical incident. Or based on one person causing another person embarrassment or a loss of status that needs rectifying in their mind.

The issue with gang on gang crime is that knives are the norm now, so to address a previous incident or assert dominance you have to use a knife. As anything less would not achieve your aim. Sadly, using anything less is very unlikely. But to step up the means to address a previous incident or assert dominance, the next step is a gun. Therefore the UK is likely to see an increase in gun related gang on gang incidents. Just as the UK knife crime epidemic gradually increased, the same will happen for gun use.

There are other external factors that further fuel the unlikelihood of gang on gang knife crime related incidents reducing. Such as grime music, an aggressive style of music that glorifies the use of knifes and stabbings as a way of building status within gangs and in communities. This music has an associated grime style voice sound and dialect. Which sadly has now become the voice of the UK’s working and even middle class youth, not just that of London knife crime centric offenders. Who see this glamorisation of knives and drugs also as a way to build status and assert dominance within their own local communities. Which has sadly led to an increase in Individual young adult or teenager on Individual young adult or teenager knife crime related incidents.

Individual young adult or teenager on Individual young adult or teenager knife crime

The saddest part of the increase in UK knife crime that we are seeing, is the dramatic increase in knife use amongst young adults and teenagers. This problem isn’t London centric and has touched many parts of the UK who previously thought themselves safe from knife related violence. 

For most people who aren’t gang related, UK knife crime means a stabbing. But the term stabbing doesn’t do the scale of the incident justice. In 2024, in Horsforth, a village consistently voted one of the nicest places to live in the country, a 12 year old bled out outside a school after being stabbed in some form of retaliatory attack from a similar aged person. A level of injury that you might expect to see on the battlefield, not outside the gates of a middle class school in full view of departing pupils and parents. 

The knives are being carried by young adults and teenagers as a status symbol, something to show bravado, or as a deterrent against bullying or getting involved in a physical fight. These young adults and teenagers don’t want to use the knives that they carry. You can see this on the CCTV when you watch two young adults or teenagers square up to each other and brandishing a knife. They’re not fighting, they’re almost dancing or going through a fencing routine with the knife at arms length. Both trying not to really hurt the other, or themselves get hurt. Normally resulting in both backing down and walking / running away unscathed. But unfortunately in these situations, at some point you’ll step forward as another person does, and one of the two gets seriously hurt.

In the cases of one young adult or teenager stabbing an unarmed young adult or teenager, it’s unlikely that they understand the severity of what they are about to do. Stabbing and killing just isn’t real to most people who haven’t been around that level of violence or that bare witness to the media reported London knife crime problem. Maybe it’s the glamorisation of knives through grime music, or the impact of social media algorithms feeding impressionable young adults and teenagers a constant stream of videos that show the bravado of knife use, but not the impact. So young adults or teenagers just don’t understand the potential immediate damage a knife can do.

When you have a physical fight in a playground or a park after school, no one really gets hurt. You might get a broken nose in the most extreme circumstances. But mostly it’s a few cuts and a bruised ego.  As soon as you bring a knife into the situation, there’s always the potential for serious injury. Did the offender in the 2024 Horsforth incident really mean to slash a jugular in the neck of the victim. Which even with the most advanced medical teams in attendance quickly, meant a horrific public death. With not only the life of the victim ruined, but the lives of the young offender and family on both sides changed forever.

Street robbery based knife crime

UK Knife crime really started to be shown in the media and come to the attention of the wider public when large zombie style knives were being used in London street robberies. Particularly in tourist areas such as Soho, or around the high end shops and restaurants of Mayfair and Knightsbridge. Where balaclava wearing youths dressed in black and riding out of control e-bikes would brandish a Rambo style zombie knife in order to forcibly take an expensive watch or jewellery off an innocent victim.

These London knife crime offenders do not want to stab or slash anyone either. The zombie knife itself is used for its intimidating size, so that victims will hand over expensive watches or jewellery without a fight. Allowing the robbers to achieve their aim with minimal effort.

The zombie knife is also used as it makes the offender feel safe. As they feel it’s intimidating look will be enough to deter their victim from fighting back. The offender doesn’t want to get hurt anymore than the victim does. 

The issue comes when the victim does try to resist or fight back. At which point you’ve got a huge bladed article in play and it doesn’t take much in a scuffle type scenario for the victim to be inadvertently be slashed or stabbed.

Substance dependent knife crime 

An area of knife crime that most people won’t have any idea about are the knives carried by substance dependents, often homeless people. Unlike London knife crime, it’s not something that you will see in the media.

The knives are carried for two reasons. Firstly for protection against the uncertainty and often lawlessness of the homeless community. Where having a knife is a deterrent for anyone who may be thinking of attacking you. It gives the carrier confidence that if they should get into an altercation, they can potentially use the knife as a deterrent to prevent the incident escalating. The positive about this level of knife crime is that these people tend to be older. So they understand the severity and impact of using a knife. Which deters them from brandishing and using a knife unless absolutely necessary.

The second reason that substance dependents carry a knife is to use as intimidation if necessary when they are shoplifting to pay for their alcohol or drug addiction. Again though, similar to the street robbery based knife crime, these people do not want to use the knife. It is there as a deterrent only to deter shop workers from trying to stop them from leaving the store with their stolen goods.

Similarly to the street robbery based UK knife crime, the issue comes when a shop worker ignores the knife and does try to prevent the substance dependent shoplifter exiting the shop. At which point the substance dependent will brandish the knife with aggression to try and get out of the store. Even at this point the substance dependents still don’t want to really use the knife though. Between 2010 and 2020 in Asda stores, on occasions where a knife was brandished and used, all injuries were slash injuries on the extremities of shop workers such as hands, fingers, and thighs. Where the substance dependent is slashing at arms length to keep people away. Rather than trying to stab and injure someone.

WHAT CAN WE DO TO STOP THE KNIFE CRIME EPIDEMIC 

There are a number of potential options to try and stem the increase in knife crime and knife crime related injuries and death. Each of which will have a different impact on one of the four main knife categories.

Stopping the sale of zombie knives 

Zombie knives are readily available from online retailers across the UK from as little as £20. From both specialist sites, but also from market place sites such as E-bay and Amazon.

There has being endless discussion at government level on the banning of zombie knife sales. With legislation so far being full of holes to the extent that there are still hundreds of sites legally selling zombie knives.

It’s likely that if gang members did not have access to zombie knives that the gang on gang related violence would continue. But with other smaller bladed weapons. Which potentially means that the impact of using a smaller bladed weapon would be less, with injuries less severe and the number of deaths reducing.

Stopping sale of zombie knives would have minimal impact on young adult and teenager related knife crime. As this category of knife offenders are more likely to carry knives from the kitchen drawer.

It’s likely that if zombie knives were less available, that you would see a reduction in street robbery. As the deterrent factor of using a smaller bladed weapon to intimidate and instil fear is much less. So victims are less likely to hand over expensive items, than they would be if threatened with a zombie knife. Equally, without a zombie knife, the offender is less likely to commit such an offence, as they don’t have the safety of carrying a zombie knife which means that potential victims are more likely to fight back.

This issue needs Donald Trump style robust leadership to ban all zombie knife sales immediately. However, there would still be a lot of legacy zombie knives still available to those that really want one.

Rounding the ends of kitchen knives

Rounding the ends of kitchen knives always provokes interesting discussion. For the vast majority of the general public, the point on a kitchen knife is never used. So by rounding the ends of a kitchen knife, it would stop stabbing based knife crime, which causes the most severe injuries and death. Leaving offenders to slash only, which causes much less severe injuries than stabbing.

This wouldn’t have much affect on gang on gang London knife crime or gang related crime across the country, as they favour a zombie knife approach. Equally it wouldn’t have much effect on street robbery, as they also favour the zombie knife as a weapon of choice.

However, it could have a significant impact on young adult and teenager knife crime. The young adults and teenagers don’t really want to hurt each other. So by reducing the potential use of a knife to slashing only, you also reduce the potential impact of the injuries should the knife be aggressively or accidentally used.

It also wouldn’t have much impact on reducing substance dependent knife crime, as this group are slashers and not stabbers anyway.

School Exclusions and ‘Naughty Pupils’

The BBC iPlayer documentary on knife crime, led by Idris Elba examines why so many young adults and teenagers are carrying knives. There was a clear link between those pupils who were deemed naughty, potentially leading to being expelled, and the carrying of knives. The point was made that rather than expel, it might be an opportunity to mentor and support the pupil. Instead of sending them out into a world where their potential to start carrying a knife or getting caught up in gang related activities increases without the structure of education to fill their time or provide some form of discipline.

This wouldn’t have an impact on the other knife crime types, but could reduce the number of completely unnecessary young adult and teenager knife related deaths.

Stop and Search 

Stop and search is a highly effective means to reduce knife crime, but it’s also highly controversial. In the year ending March 2024, the Metropolitan Police conducted 135,739 stop and searches. A 23.2% decrease from 2023, and down by almost a million from 2011. When you see the police conduct temporary surges in stop and search, knife carrying and use drops significantly. Instead, you’ll see an increase in corrosive substance carrying, to be used instead of a knife. Although the injuries of corrosive substances are horrific, it’s unlikely to be death.

Stop and search is highly controversial as it is said to disproportionately target the black community especially when trying to tackle London knife crime. Therefore as the UK’s police forces are still battling to clear their names from being institutionally racist, it’s highly unlikely that we will see a permanent return of stop and search to our streets.

If we were to see a return of stop and search on our streets, it would have a significant impact on reducing knife crime injuries and deaths related to gang on gang violence, young adult and teenager fighting, and street robbery.

Mandatory Prison Sentences

The UK’s prisons are overcrowded. So there is only room for offenders who commit the most serious of crimes. But when knife use has the potential to cause life changing injuries or death, knife carrying and use does sit within the serious crime category type.

There are currently minimum terms that should be imposed for having a bladed article in a public place without using it, which start at 6 months imprisonment. However, these minimum terms just aren’t high enough to really make offenders think twice before carrying and using a knife. Plus there are ways to talk down the sentence to just a fine.

By mandating a prison sentence for knife carrying or use, it could significantly reduce knife crime throughout the UK. If you were caught with a knife, remanded, and sent straight to court the next day, with a minimum of a two year imprisonment imposed, it’s likely that young adults and teenagers would stop carrying knives as the impact of going to prison for them is so scary. It is likely to significantly reduce the amount of street robbery, as the potential rewards of the robbery don’t outweigh the potential of being sentenced to an extended prison sentence. Having mandated sentences would even make even the most hardened gang members deliberate whether knife carrying is worth being removed from their family and children. Or from a glamorised life of cars, clubs, and designer clothes, to the four walls of a prison cell. However it’s unlikely to have much impact on reducing substance dependent knife crime.

By mandating sentences, it also means that you get a captive audience within the prison where you can try and educate them effectively about knife crime. To hopefully reduce the likelihood of them reoffending.

So can we tackle the UK’s knife epidemic?

Realistically it will be very difficult to slow down the UK’s knife crime epidemic, never mind reducing it to an acceptable level. It will take strong robust leadership, the type of which hasn’t been seen in the UK for decades.

We need to think about impact and how putting control measures in place will effectively reduce or slow down knife crime for the four main types of knife crime. 

Stopping the sale of zombie knives seems like a no brainier. There’s literally no real need to have them terrorising the UK’s street. They serve no legitimate purpose at all. The UK government need to step up and do the right thing.

Rounding the end of kitchen knives will certainly make a significant difference to young adult and teenager knife crime, and the horror stories that we have seen of young people up and down the country having their lives devastated by stupid spur of the moment stabbings.

Trying to educate pupils within schools seems like a good idea, but do our schools really have the capacity to do this in a consistent and effective manner. It’s unlikely given the current climate of teaching and wider education.

Stop and search could have a huge impact on really slowing this UK knife crime epidemic down as we have seen previously when it is used consistently. But there’s no way with the current state of UK policing that any government would be able to sign this off until significant change has happened within police forces throughout the country to reduce the institutional racism.

When you manage risk, you are looking for impact, and the one measure that would have the biggest impact on reducing the knife crime epidemic is mandatory sentences for carrying a knife. For the three main knife crime types, gang on gang, young adult and teenager on young adult and teenager, and street robbery, this measure could almost stop it immediately. If the sentence was mandatory and long enough to be a real deterrent. It would then also allow the prisons to provide the education and mentoring to those people imprisoned for knife crime, to effectively reduce the likelihood of them reoffending when released.

Knife crime is a complex issue to address, but with strong robust leadership, there is the possibility to bring it back under control and reclaim control of our streets.