Is England’s knife crime problem really a national crisis?
England and Wales have seen a sharp rise in knife crime since 2010, with an average increase of 45.7%. Since the start of the year, 9 teenagers in London, Birmingham and Manchester have fallen victim of this new epidemic. The murders of Yousef Makki in Manchester and Jodie Chesney in London has prompted police officials to appeal for at least £15m to be spent on tackling this national emergency.
However, what role does Scotland play in this new epidemic?
Since 2005, Scotland has seen a decline in knife crime.With Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit being set up to deal with its rough history with crime and violence particularly in its central belt. Compared to England, Scotland has not seen any major outcries of knife attacks since the new year. As said before, Scotland has seen a major decrease in knife crime over the previous years, with statistics showing that during 2017 out of 35 deaths by knife on young people none were in Scotland.
London as seen has had the biggest increase in knife crime compared to other central points in the UK. Over the previous years 2018 was the bloodiest year London has had in almost a decade with the number of homicides reaching 135. Which leads us back to the question of whether knife crime is truly a national problem or an English crisis. Police and politicians in England are calling to Scotland for advice on how to tackle this issue. According to the Sun, “the number of homicides including murder and manslaughter, have risen from 649 to 730 -an increase of 14 per cent” with the number of knife crime “increased by 8 percent”. The Sun also states that “the number of admissions to hospital for assault involving a sharp instrument have increased by 15 per cent”.
The amount of crimes caused by knifes in England has now made life for young citizens shockingly scary as one Oxford teenager says:
“I live in fear of knives”
- by Katy McNair
- Sources: BBC News, The Sun, The Guardian, The Economist
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