What Must We Do To End Deadly Love Of Knives?

A high_profile blitz on knife crime has failed to cut the number of people carrying lethal weapons on Scotland’s streets. The Safer Scotland anti-violence campaign was launched in March. At its centre was the country’s first ever national knife amnesty, which saw almost 13,000 weapons handed in over five weeks last summer.

But an investigation by The Scotsman shows that the five-week amnesty made no impact on the number of people caught carrying a blade. The amnesty ran from 24 May to 30 June. In the first half of the year, 1,910 offences of carrying a knife or other bladed weapon were recorded by police. But in the six months following the amnesty, the number of offences increased to 1,984.

And while Strathclyde, which has long been blighted by knife-related violence, recorded a big drop in blade-carrying towards the end of last year, the figures have returned to previous levels, with 222 people charged with carrying a blade in February this year, compared with 223 the previous February.

Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan, who, as head of the police’s violence reduction unit, is responsible for trying to improve the country’s appalling record on violent crime, warned such high-profile enforcement initiatives would make little difference, and insisted it would take “a generation” to make serious inroads into Scotland’s knife problem.

“I wouldn’t say I’m surprised by these figures. The fact of the matter is that too many young men carry knives and if they are carrying them they are going to be using them,” he said.

He said changing attitudes would require heavy investment in nursery education and support to parents to ensure infants were taught the life skills needed to steer them away from violence.

Over the amnesty, members of the public were urged to hand in knives and other weapons to local police. The huge array of weapons surrendered included lock knives, machetes, swords, meat cleavers, bayonets and axes. It included 7,403 domestic knives, 2,982 non-domestic knives and 474 swords.

At the time, the justice minister, Cathy Jamieson, said the amnesty gave people the opportunity to “bin a knife and save a life”.

Mike Nellis, professor of criminal and community justice at Strathclyde University, said the event was worthwhile as a “symbolic gesture” designed to send out the message that knives were dangerous.

“I don’t think we should be discouraged by the apparent failure of the knife amnesty to reduce the number of people carrying knives,” he said, “but amnesties by themselves won’t tackle the root of the problem.”

A Scottish Executive spokesman agreed, saying: “We have continued to stress that enforcement alone cannot tackle the deep-seated problem of knife carrying and knife crime in Scotland. We also stressed when we launched the amnesty, that it alone would not deal with the issue.”