A NEW ‘Knife Crime’ Report will be unveiled in Parliament today that will call for current and potential knife carriers and users to be actively targeted in primary and secondary schools with urgent preventative education and mentoring campaigns.

The Report, which will be published by Kids Count, a grass-roots think tank that aims to find practical solutions to the broad spectrum of issues that affect children and young people in urban and rural communities, has identified vulnerable at risk children and young people and called for education to be applied both in school and in the community for those most at risk of involvement in knife crime.A full list of the recommendations and members of the ‘Kids Count Knife Crime Group’ can be found at the end of this press release.

The Report will be launched following a meeting of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Child and Youth Crime who are currently holding an Inquiry into young people carrying knives and bladed weapons in conjunction with Kids Count. The Inquiry will today hear from a group of young people from across the UK who will work with a panel of MPs to identify actions and practical solutions that the family, youths, schools and the Government itself can take to stem the tide of growing knife crime on our streets.

Kids Count has for over three years been investigating the foundations of the knife crime crisis currently gripping the UK. The Think Tank has teamed up with a number of voluntary organisations and young people from across the UK to develop the “Knife Crime : Bringing the voice of the Street to the House” Report.

The Report will also call for the Office for Criminal Justice Reform to liaise with Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs) to consider giving specific authority to target knife crime as this process empowers all elements of the LCJB to work robustly together so that police action, CPS review and action and courts prioritise this area of criminal offence.

Linda Lawrence, Founder and Director of Kids Count said, “This report is distinctive in that it combines established current research evidence from a wide variety of sources, including parents’ and young people’s accounts of the impact of knife crime whether as victims or perpetrators and the views of small community organisations who have first hand knowledge of tackling the problem on our streets. There have been numerous reports looking at the issues of knife crime in recent months, but far too often, the issue has been viewed from a narrow vantage point and a ‘big vision’ has been lacking. The pinprick solutions offered have proved too limited.”

Lawrence continued, “This publication provides some potential answers. It is the fruit of a unique collaboration that has brought together a great concert of expertise. The views of victims’ families, youth groups, relevant charities, senior police officers, council activists and academics, among others, have united to create a composite vision. It is a crucial first step in identifying the problems and understanding the context. It explores how we have found ourselves in a society, confronted by the steel on our streets and discusses how we can begin to gauge the answers Britain’s young people are looking for.”

The Kids Count Report is also calling for properly funded research and for anti knife crime projects and campaigns to receive Government funding for a minimum of three years with infrastructure costs built in, especially where funding is given to small organisations. Kids Count believes that by bringing together the right combination of experts and real life experience, the right solutions to the real issues can be found.

Linda Lawrence concluded, “Kids Count is determined to continue its work with young people and to search for the long term solutions to these issues. We highly commend this vital study to colleagues in Westminster and to all those in positions of responsibility across the country, and we look forward to the next phase in its timely programme of research and programme pilots which will identify and evaluate solutions.”

For further information

Louise Johnstone, Kids Count Advisory Board – 07793 750374
Linda Lawrence, Kids Count Founder and Director – 07863 200751

Notes to Editors

In the summer of 2006 Kids Count assembled a group of volunteers to form a working group to write a report on preventing and reducing knife crime. The volunteers, from voluntary, private, local authority organisations and youth representatives, all have extensive experience and expertise working directly with young people in community settings aimed at reducing knife crime. Especially important in the work of the group has been the unique contributions made by young people and their families directly affected by knife crime.

The Kids Count report is recommending that:

1. Youth offending and victimization studies be conducted on an annual basis to enable trends and comparisons of the reasons given by young people for carrying a knife/using it to commit violent crime.
2. Alternative and targeted education programmes/campaigns are made available for vulnerable young people at risk of being attracted to ‘gang culture’ and/or arming for self protection.
3. Research is dedicated to investigating the nature, causes, extent, and frequency of knife carrying and the use of knives in crime involving young people.
4. Action research is undertaken to explore further the conditions under which adolescents are motivated to join gangs and carry out violent crimes involving knives. One aim of such research would be to use the findings to implement programmes to prevent such anti-social behaviour and to influence gang members to choose a healthier and more socially acceptable life style.
5. Funding is made available to support community based engagement sessions in order to raise awareness amongst vulnerable young people (and their families) of a) the risks of becoming involved in knife crime and gang culture; b) the consequences of carrying and using a knife and c) the impact knife crime has on its victims and on their friends and families.
6. Current knife carriers and users (and potential carriers and users) are targeted now in our primary and secondary schools. We urgently need preventative education and mentoring campaigns to address these vulnerable at risk children and young people applied both in school and in the community given the high risk of truancy and exclusion amongst those most at risk of involvement.
7. The Office for Criminal Justice Reform (OCJR) liaises with Local Criminal Justice Boards (LCJBs) to consider giving specific authority to target knife crime as this process empowers all elements of the LCJB to work robustly together so that police action, CPS review and action and courts prioritise this area of criminal offence.
8. Within the funding made available to knife crime projects is a requirement for independent evaluation. More widely there is a need for a national evaluation of such projects drawing together the success criteria into a good practice guide for practitioners.
9. A ‘mapping’ exercise is completed to identify voluntary organisations and their contributions as a precursor to exploring how the voluntary and state sectors can combine energies and resources to reduce knife crime.
10. Projects are funded for a minimum of 3 years with infrastructure costs built in, especially where funding is given to small organisations.

Members of the Kids Count ‘Knife Crime’ working group:

Heidi Watson - New Destiny Trust
Linda Lawrence - Kids Count Founder and Director
Mike Penning MP - Chairman All Party Parliamentary Child
Kids Count - Youth Board Representatives
John Birkenshaw - Crime Reduction Manager for Leeds City Council
Jennifer Blake - ELSC
Grahame Bullock - Former Assistant Chief Constable Bedfordshire
Dr Tim Pascoe - Griffin Research & Consultancy
Robin Lockart - TRUCE (NCY TRUST)
Dr Ian Millward - Principal Educational Psychologist, Borough of Newham
Mike Jervis - Damilola Taylor Trust and Defending ‘Da Hood’
Kevin Everard - Be Safe
Kate Broadhurst - Perpetuity Research and Consultancy
Claude Murray - Fairbridge Trust
Joan Oxley - BRE
Michael Hodge - Greater Manchester Police
Ann Oakes Odger - Knife Crimes.Org
Rod McIntyre - Metropolitan Police
Jo Poole - Operation Trident
Ian Gordon - Age Diversity Advisor, Diversity and Citizen Focus Directorate
Dr John Beavis
Dr Lee Rotherham
Graham Robb

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