New funding for anti-crime youth schemes

Mayor of London Boris Johnson has announced £700,000 in funding for three youth projects steering young people away from gun and knife crime in the Capital.

The Mayor made the announcement while visiting the Brixton Road Youth Centre, which is managed by young people – the former centre, The Vassal Youth Centre, closed down in 2007 due to mismanagement by adults.

Mayor Boris Johnson said:

These projects are perfect examples of the youth initiatives we desperately need across London to engage young people. They offer guidance, information and most importantly steer young people away from the lure of gangs and criminal activity.

Tackling youth crime is complex and there are no magic solutions but I am determined to make London a safer city for everyone, including young people, who are frequently victims of crime.

As well as more targeted policing efforts, to combat these issues we need strong community projects, which are relevant and interesting to young people and schemes that widen their horizons as well as raise their aspirations.

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‘Calling the Shots’ will receive £200,000 funding over one year for its work with 16-19 year olds who are at risk of becoming involved in youth violence.
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‘Watch Over Me’ is a project aimed at teenagers that uses educational DVDs and teaching materials in schools, youth groups and community groups to raise the issues of gun crime, drugs, knives and general safety. It will receive £110,000.
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The Kids Task Force ‘Miss Dorothy.com’ primary school initiative will receive £400,000 for work with schools from 2008-09.

The projects will be funded by the Metropolitan Police ‘as part of their commitment in partnership with the Mayor of London to cut crime and make London safer for young people’, said a spokesperson.

“Knife crime” searches on the up

Hitwise, a company that monitors how we use the internet, has some interesting analysis about knife crime.

Research director Robin Goad reports:

Following a recent spate of stabbings in the UK (particularly in London) and the media coverage that these events have attracted, people have become more concerned about the threat of knife crime. As a result, searches for the term ‘knife crime’ have increased noticeably over the last few weeks.

For the 4 weeks ending 19 July, ‘knife crime’ was the top search term containing the word ‘crime’, and also the top search term containing the word ‘knife’. The media coverage may have fuelled the fear, but news sites have also been the primary destination of people searching for ‘knife crime’

Of course, here at Channel 4 we’ve been running our own extensive Disarming Britain project to highlight and investigate the issues. The response from young people, both here on this blog and on our profiles on Bebo, MySpace and Facebook, has been tremendous.

But what happens now that the TV programmes have finished and the Street Weapons Commission has submitted its report? Will knife (and gun) crime remain a big media story?

One thing’s for sure: while teenage murders continue at the present rate, with all the associated fear that this brings, the subject is going to remain at the heart of our everyday lives.

(You can see the stats and charts at Hitwise here.)

Knives Cost Lives

The Argus, a newspaper that serves Brighton and the south coast of England, is running a ‘Knives Cost Lives’ campaign.

There’s an online petition destined for the Home Office that calls for three action points:

1. Minimum sentence of two years for carrying a knife without lawful reason;
2. An end to automatic early release for anyone convicted of knife crime;
3. Greater education to teach the simple message: Respect can not be won waving a knife.

Worth signing if you feel strongly about these issues – and quite frankly, who doesn’t?

(from HoldtheFrontPage.co.uk)

1 in 5 carries a weapon

The Sun reports today that one in five teens admit to carrying a weapon – far more than Government figures claim.

A survey carried out by Portsmouth University revealed that nineteen per cent of the 14 and 15-year-olds polled admitted being armed in the past year.

But Home Office stats released last week said only one in 16 carried weapons.

In the latest poll, 60 per cent said they did it for protection.

Just 20 of the 1,426 youngsters questioned admitted they carried a weapon to attack.

One per cent said they had them only in lessons and 5.1 per cent said they did it both inside and outside school.

Some 71 per cent felt safer in school than out.

Prof Carol Hayden, who led the study, told the Sun:

It provides some reassurance on the majority while raising concern over a minority.

Postcode prosecutions?

The Times casts doubt on the government’s drive towards tougher policing.

According to figures obtained by the newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act, up to half of all people aged 18 and above who are caught in possession of a knife receive a police caution instead of being prosecuted. This apparently flies in the face of government’s expectations that carry a knife (almost) automatically means prosectution.

However, there are big differences across the country. In London, for instance, the charge rate is 90% compared to about 50% in Bedfordshire. Why? Because sometimes, particularly in areas where knife crime is relatively rare, police believe that a caution is sufficient to stop the problem.

Full details in the report here.

Gloomy reading

Research published today based on a poll of 1,000 16 to 24-year-olds paints a depressing picture of young Britain:

• 41% said they are unhappy
• 28% said they “wish they were someone else”
• 63% think young people are more depressed now than ever before

As for violent crime:

• 78% said they do not feel safe walking the streets
• 50% said they feel the UK is less safe than a year ago
• 20% of males under 24 have been threatened with a knife or weapon 4
• 47% of all participants said this has happened to someone they know
• 11% have been asked to join a gang
• 15% felt pressured into carrying a weapon
• 27% know at least one person their age who carries a weapon

That almost 4 out of every 5 young people say they don’t feel safe on the streets is sad and alarming.

News – new figures released

More than 350 knife crimes are committed in England and Wales every day, according to new figures.

The British Crime Survey (BCS) showed nearly 130,000 took place last year – not including offences involving under-16s.

The Government’s priority is to build on what we have achieved so that everyone feels improvement – Jacqui Smith

Someone was wounded or threatened with a knife once every four minutes on average.

More than 22,000 serious offences involved a blade last year, including 231 attempted murders, nearly 14,000 robberies and more than 8,000 woundings.

Nearly one in eight violent crimes involved school-age children and 52 per cent were committed by criminals aged 16 to 24.

But violent crime was down 12 per cent and overall crime levels fell 10 per cent year-on-year to 10.1 million incidents, according to BCS estimates.

Data recorded by the police showed a 9 per cent drop in total offences to nearly five million.

But shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve had reservations:

While we welcome a drop in overall recorded crime these figures cannot hide some very chilling facts.

The fact that violent crime has risen by 80 per cent under Labour and the scale of knife crime on our streets, officially recorded for the first time, is a shocking indictment of Labour’s failure to tackle crime and its causes.

And Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said:

It shows just how slow the Government has been to tackle knife crime that it has only just started recording knife offences and still does not survey crimes concerning under-16s, even though this group has seen rapidly increasing hospital admissions for stab wounds.

Source: ITN

Carrot and stick for “problem families”

Gordon Brown announces new measures to target problem families. Skip to 9 mins 35 seconds.

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Crackdown on knife crime

Here’s Channel 4 News coverage of today’s announcement about new knife crime measures. Evidence that forcing violent offenders to confront the consequences of their actions seems somewhat limited.

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New laws, new solutions?

With the death of seven more people from stabbing over the past few days, pressure has been mounting on the government to announce new measures.Vodpod videos no longer available.

more about “Channel 4 – News – Calls to tackle gu…“, posted with vodpod

And indeed home secretary Jacqui Smith will announce tougher policies over the next couple of days, including – it is reported – compulsory visits to A&E wards for young people caught carrying a knife.

Does that strike you as an imaginative and effective tactic?