Drill music and drug-use have been blamed for the sudden increase in knife crime. Not only are these assumptions as to why kids carry knives wrong, they still don’t seem to explain the complex behaviour. One reason why people are driven to carry knives is because they fear being attacked by a knife. There is some truth in this. Weapon-carrying is mainly caused because of being involved in violence rather than because of fear. Recently on the 2nd of March Jodie Chesney was found dead at a park in east London. The cause of death was a fatal stab wound. Jodie’s death was then a week after the death of Che Morrison who was stabbed outside Ilford train station in east London. Police are currently investigating but no arrests have been made for Jodie’s death.
After speaking to local police officers, the consensus is that front line policing, predominantly uniform officers, have been affected by the cuts to funding imposed on police over the last few years. They believe this may be a contributing factor to the rise in knife crime. Less police are out on the streets monitoring the acts of people. Police only get involved after the crime has occurred what association to violence drives people to carry knives?
People joining gangs are associated to knife crime. People join gangs for many reasons including wanting respect, peer pressure, need of protection and making money. Young people living in poverty are most likely to join gangs. People carrying knives because of protection carry them because someone may pull one out first. Some don’t have intention of killing but merely see it as an act of protecting themselves.
Another problem police face is a code that most gangs and people follow. No snitching. People don’t snitch on others and not telling police this important information makes it hard for them to carry out investigations. If a gang member is stabbed the gang like to follow their own rules and go after the person who stabbed the member by themselves even if it means breaking the law. Knife crime is a serious problem we need to address and prevent these crime rates increasing in future.
