Tackling knife crime: different approaches

One of the biggest schemes to combat knife crime is Operation Blunt, implemented by the Metropolitan police in November 2004 across 12 London boroughs. According to Met figures, the scheme led to a reduction in the number of knife-enabled offences soon after its launch. As a result of this success, Operation Blunt was rolled out across 32 boroughs in December 2005, marking the first time that every London borough had simultaneously targeted knife crime.

The policy included:

>educational programmes
>Knife search operations - metal detector arches & "dispersal zones"
>High visibility policing was increased
>Test purchases - where shops were checked for illegal knife sales

The operation also worked collaboratively with the British transport police and Transport for London to prevent people travelling on public transport with offensive weapons.

In May this year, the Met launched Operation Blunt Two – again using special search powers in high-risk areas and airport-style metal detectors. The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, announced a £5m package to tackle violent crime. Since then, 27,000 people have been searched, 1,200 arrested and 500 knives seized. Of those arrested, 95% have since been charged with weapons offences, the Met said.

DAMILOLA TAYLOR TRUST

Operation Blunt followed work done by the Damilola Taylor Trust, launched in November 2001 on the first anniversary of the death of the 11-year-old Nigerian boy after which it is named.

The trust tackles problem cycles facing todays youth such as:

>School expulsion
>Learning and behavioural difficulties
>drug and alcohol abuse
>Poor parenting

The Damilola Taylor centre, in Peckham, provides facilities such as football, dance, discussion forums and yoga to help to enfranchise young people and encourage them to pursue successful careers. The trust also helps support victims of crime.

CHICAGOS CEASEFIRE SCHEME

Some youth charities are starting to look to the US for ways to deal with knife crime. Some parts of America suffer far greater levels of gang-related violence than does the UK.

Gary Slutkin a doctor, has an approach which involves the stabbing "epidemic" as – an epidemic and a disease that can be treated.

His scheme, CeaseFire, launched in 1995, has been highly successful. While it is focused primarily on gun violence, the biggest problem in areas such as Chicago and Boston, Slutkin says the type of weapon is immaterial and the CeaseFire principles can be applied to all violent disputes on city streets.

The approach has two stages:

1st - as if fighting a contagious disease, CeaseFire locates the people who are the most "infectious" in spreading violence and hopes thereby to prevent its transmission.

2nd - longer-term step is likened to treating Aids among intravenous drug users and sexually promiscuous groups in that it tries to change the behaviour of whole groups – mainly youth gangs – so that stabbings become unacceptable.

The operation centres around the use of "credible messengers" to stop the transmission of violence. Partly the approach involves using infamous former gang members with status and knowledge of street gangs to influence youngsters where outreach workers and police might not be able to.

>In addition, "interrupters", as the programme calls them, spend a lot of time rushing to hospitals following stabbings to catch family and friends of a victim and prevent retaliation.

A three-year, $1m (£500,000) study by the US justice department found that six out of the seven neighbourhoods in which CeaseFire operated saw a 17-24% reduction in gun violence. In the first year of CeaseFire's activities in Chicago, shootings dropped by 67%.

ZERO TOLERANCE IN NEW YORK

Crime in New York City spiked in the 1980s, hitting a peak by 1990. More than 2,000 murders were fuelled by the crack epidemic that hit the city. During the administrations of Mayors Rudolph Guiliani and Michael Bloomberg, shootings and stabbings have fallen markedly. Rates of both petty and serious crime fell significantly and murders are now under 500 a year.

Some say its the New York police adopting the CompStat system which involves:

>executives attending weekly meetings with local precinct commanders to discuss policing strategies and improving quality of life in locally.

"Broken windows" policing derives from the criminology and urban sociology theories of George Kelling and Catherine Coles, from their book published in 1996. The authors compared successful crime-fighting to repairing broken windows, saying there was a tendency for vandals to do further damage if crime was left untreated.

>Giuliani's wove this approach into his "zero tolerance" policy. Police strictly enforced relatively minor laws to preempt more serious crime. Subway fare evaders were arrested, drinking and urinating on the street prevented and squeegee merchants clamped down upon.

Critics say Giuliani's policies in fact had little effect and that crime mainly fell because of the increase in policenumbers. New York now has the lowest crime rate among the 10 largest cities in the US.