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Young person, Loughborough

Locking up more young people won't reduce knife crime, say charities

Thursday 5 June 2008 


In a joint response to the Government's plan to prosecute 16 and 17 year olds carrying knives, young people's charity Rainer and crime prevention charity Crime Concern said:
 
"We support the Home Office campaign highlighting the injuries caused by knives and the emphasis on prevention work which stops these crimes before they happen. However, measures which simply lead to more young people entering an already overstretched criminal justice system will do nothing to halt knife crime. It merely diverts police time and resources from where they could be more effective.
 
"We should not expect these new measures to deter young people from carrying knives.  The minority of young people who do so tell us that they are more worried about their immediate safety than a potential court appearance. 
 
"Instead, we need to be focusing on those young people who are at risk of carrying knives or getting into trouble and making sure they know that knives do not offer protection. Rather, they increase the danger of getting injured or killed yourself.
 
"We can identify the young people who are at risk of carrying weapons.  We need to be working with them, their parents and the local community at an earlier stage so that we can challenge behaviour and change it.
 
"It's about helping young people, parents and communities taking responsibility for this problem together. For example, those excluded from school are more than twice as likely as other young people to say they have carried a knife, yet often it is this group who are just left to their own devices and drift into further problems.
 
 
Ends
 
Notes to editors

  1. For further information please contact the Rainer press office on 020 7336 4814 or 07734 022409 or Crime Concern Media Relations Manager Jane Edmonds on 01793 863520 or 07795 428338
  2. Crime Concern is a national crime prevention charity working to reduce crime and create safer communities. Crime Concern delivers more than 50 prevention programmes in over 70 neighbourhoods across the country and offers a range of offender management services. To find out more log onto www.crimeconcern.org.uk
  3. Rainer is the national charity for under-supported young people.  We have contact with more than 18,000 young people and young adults in 115 communities across the country - including those who are at risk of family breakdown, in or leaving care, caught up in the criminal justice system, homeless, or outside education, training or employment. www.raineronline.org
  4. On 23 April Rainer and Crime Concern announced their intention to merge and create a new charity. From July 1 the new charity will be known as Rainer Crime Concern.