Being 6 feet under feared more than 6 years in jail

This debate includes the need to address the risk of youngsters having weapons with them to make them feel safe; young offenders who feel there is inadequate protection offered them by adult protectors such as teachers, police and parents, and that there’s nothing really that can be done to turn back the tide of knife crime. Also, as number of fatal stabbings rise, the effectiveness of the criminal justice system and harsher prison sentences is questioned

Shortcut? 2006 saw first national knife amnesty for 10 years; during first week 17,715 weapons were handed in. At start of amnesty Dorset saw 800 bladed weapons handed in (above) but are knife amnesties effective? Why are children as young as 11 carrying knives for protection?

Knife crime has been one of the hot policing topics
throughout the UK over the last year. Major cities experience the vast majority of knife crime and London is on top of the list. In 2007 there were 16 fatal stabbings of teenagers in London and a further 22 London teenagers have been fatally stabbed up to October 2008.

The police, Home Office and local authorities have all contributed ideas as to why such serious crime, generally committed by young people, should be on the increase and new policies have been introduced to address this problem.

Whilst most of the focus has been on policing, it seems the problem starts long before police involvement or contact. Poor parenting plays a major part on how a child grows up and if parents fail to set clear boundaries children will resort to dangerous
activities.

Years ago teachers played a major part in setting boundaries but today their hands are tied and the police can’t take strong decisive action without being
criticised by human rights groups, the media and parents.

At one time, policing was the final boundary for those who failed to respond to the best efforts of parents and teachers but now police efforts have been so undermined by red tape and political correctness that their effectiveness has been substantially lessened.

Stronger laws and tougher sentencing has also been tried but with the shortage of prison spaces, prison as the ultimate deterrent no longer has the desired effect when teenagers know that if they get sentenced to detention or prison it is unlikely they will serve their full sentence – and some may serve no sentence at all.

Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes debate on youth
violence and the victims
On a wet day in July this year I was standing in my constituency with a large number of people ready to pay tribute, by laying flowers and saying a few words,
to young David Idowu.

He had died a few days before, aged 14, in the Royal
London hospital, despite the very best efforts of our health service to save his life. He was taken there three weeks earlier after being stabbed in the park, near where we gathered, just next to where he lived.

Having come home from school he had gone out to join
other youngsters to play football, as any 14-year-old might be expected to do in the summer.

He had no history of violence and had been a model pupil; his family were a loving, Christian family whom I knew. Suddenly, David was attacked and stabbed and within three weeks he had lost his life.

The South London Press, not because it seeks to glamorise such things, had the headline:“He never stood a chance”, which was followed by the subheadline: “20-year-old killed in gang hit”.

The background to the debate is not, for me, party political: I do not seek to worsen the position but to reflect on the fact that, clearly, as all colleagues know, we have had a terrible spate of horrible violent crimes in London affecting our young people.

Not that other things have not happened elsewhere in the country – I woke up this morning to the sad news that a youngster had been killed in Merseyside in a similar way.

I want to share reflections on the position and to suggest that among all the extremely good work that is being done, there are signs of hope and how, together, we can ensure that it does not simply carry on, and that we are not fatalistic about it.

As well as being a lawyer, I was a youth leader in Southwark just off the Old Kent Road before I came into politics.

Look sharp:In 2006 PC Alan Hancock of South Yorkshire gave teenagers a lesson in dangers of carrying knives; Howard League for Penal Reform says targeted investment in education is vital to tackle knife crime

I learned the value of working with young people, and of doing things that turned them from becoming adult troublemakers to being good citizens.

I can think of many people who were pretty rough characters in their teens, for whom there was a high risk that things might go wrong, who turned out to be
absolutely model citizens in our community – I have known some such people for 25 or 30 years.

One of the helpful briefings that were sent to me ahead of this debate was from the Greater London authority.

The GLA officers, on behalf of the Mayor of London and the London assembly members, make the point, which I want to make early in this debate, that
although we have youth violence in Greater London, it is perpetrated by only a minuscule proportion of our young people and that, mercifully, only a small proportion of our young people are victims – the mayor and the GLA put the figure at one per cent.

One key message that I hope we will get across is that almost all our young people are good, upright, law-abiding, well-behaved people who want to live full adult lives without criminality. We have to support and encourage them.

The worrying thing, from the evidence, is that many more than one per cent of them are worried and fearful that they are not safe.

There is an increasing climate of fear about the lack of
security for young people that we need to address because if youngsters do not feel safe there is a risk that they will do what they think necessary to make
them safe, which may involve taking weapons out with them. In the end, that may make them far less safe than before.

Offenders asked why they carry a weapon
The Howard League for Penal Reform recently published a book that examines teenage knife crime in London by interviewing young people themselves.

The author of Why carry a weapon?, prison governor Nicola Marfleet, conducted interviews with under 18s in custody at Feltham prison and young people who had been excluded from school and were attending two pupil referral units (PRUs) in Haringey and Hackney.

The book’s findings demonstrate that children start carrying knives early, with London boys significantly at risk of entering into weapon-carrying from as young as 11 years.

Reasons given by the young people interviewed for carrying knives were based around protection, fear and the anticipation of being attacked, as well as experiences of personal victimisation.

Other reasons revealed by the interviews include poor
parental ties, which had arguably been replaced by the strong social ties of a gang. Gangs also offered the young people protection.

The children interviewed described how they felt there was inadequate protection offered them by “natural” adult protectors such as teachers, the police
or their parents.

One focus group in a PRU unanimously said “no” when
asked “do you think the police can protect you?”

Nicola Marfleet questions the effectiveness of the existing criminal justice system, knife amnesties and harsher prison sentences. Two boys currently serving prison sentences in Feltham described why prison
sentences for knife possession did not deter young people.

“Marc” said: “They only say four years to stop you but it doesn’t. No – ‘cos you can’t just stop carrying a knife because you might get four, five years. You’ve got worries… I’d rather have a shank and flick it out and start wetting man than get stabbed myself…

“OJ” said: “He wouldn’t be thinking about six years in prison, he’s probably thinking he’s going to be six foot deep if he don’t carry one.”

Nicola Marfleet said: “My book suggests that using prison sentences to deter knife possession have, at best, a limited impact on whether young people
carry knives.

“The young people I interviewed spoke about their ‘enemies’, who all carried knives and about how they were always anticipating attack, living under a constant fear of reprisal from other gangs who were armed and, therefore, they also needed to be.

“Several young people spoke honestly about their desire to live in a world where they didn’t need to carry a knife, but most felt that it had ‘gone too far now’ and that there was nothing really that could be done to turn back the tide of knife crime.”

Director of the Howard League for Penal Reform, Frances Crook, said: “There has been a huge amount of investment by the Government in policing, enforcement, the court process and custodial sentencing.

“However, when we are talking about children as young as eleven carrying knives and a rising
number of fatal stabbings in London, we have to question whether the criminal justice system alone can tackle this problem.

“We are particularly concerned that sending children to prison for carrying knives will only exacerbate their problems and expose them to more hardened criminal behaviour.

“We need to understand why children are carrying knives and tackle the causes directly.

“Targeted investment in health and education, as well as community projects that value young people and the skills they can offer, are vital if we are to find lasting solutions to knife crime.”

This study is interesting as it is based on talks to the young people themselves and its findings suggest that the Government needs to shift its focus to a multiagency approach that goes further than simply the criminal justice sector.

Author Nicola Marfleet is a prison governor at Pentonville prison in London. Why carry a weapon? was written as part of a master’s course in applied criminology at Cambridge University.

She has emphasised that the views expressed in the book are her own and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Offender Management Service. Why
carry a weapon? can be ordered online at www.howardleague.org

Government action
As part of the Government’s wider action on youth crime, an extra £3 million to keep young people safe in the ten Tackling Knives Action Programme police
forces was recently announced by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

Earlier this year the Home Secretary outlined plans to focus a programme of action on knife crime and announced an initial investment of £2 million. The ten
areas taking part in the Tackling Knives Action Programme are London, Essex, Lancashire, West
Yorkshire, Merseyside, West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Nottinghamshire, South Wales and Thames Valley.

The new money will go towards rolling out:

● After-school patrols: a visible police presence on the routes to and from schools
● Safer School Partnerships: a dedicated police officer allocated to a school or group of schools to promote safety and work with young people at risk of victimisation, offending, poor behaviour or attendance
● Operation Staysafe: police using safeguarding laws to remove young people at risk from the streets at night and take them to a place of safety.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: “With more police officers patrolling the streets, we are emphasising our core message that young people do not need to carry a knife for protection – it makes you less safe, not more – and these additional police are there to help protect you.”

Children’s Secretary Ed Balls said: “Schools are one of the places that young people feel the safest and, fortunately, knife crime inside schools is incredibly rare. This announcement will make sure schools remain the safe haven they have always been, preventing young people from being drawn into knife crime outside the school gate.

“We know that prevention is the best form of action in stopping young people from getting involved in bad behaviour in the first place.

“By helping the ten priority areas in establishing Safer School Partnerships, police and schools can work together to educate and inform young people about their responsibilities to be law-abiding citizens.

“The Government cannot tackle youth crime alone but by providing support to communities and by listening to young people themselves, we can all contribute to developing solutions in our effort to deter young people from getting involved in crime.”

DAC Alf Hitchcock, head of the Tackling Knives Action
Programme and ACPO lead on knife crime, said: “Young people tell us that the period after school can be when conflicts arise between different groups and an
increase in police presence and in other visible signs of authority can help them be and feel safe and secure.

“This additional funding will assist the ten Tackling Knives Action Programme forces in further building on the tough approach towards those who carry knives, which ACPO is leading across the Police Service.”

The £100 million for the Youth Crime Action Plan, published in July, is also increasing after-school patrols, Safer School Partnerships and Operation
Staysafe more widely across the country.

The Tackling Knives Action Programme will run until March 2009 and is delivering tough enforcement combined with education, prevention work and
information campaigns designed to keep youngsters on the right track.

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