Britain’s government yesterday announced new shock tactics to tackle growing concern about knife crime, including forcing young people caught with weapons to confront stabbing victims.
The plans would also involve offenders visiting hospital emergency rooms to see people being treated for knife wounds, meeting the families of stab victims and prisoners locked up for knife offenses, the Home Office said.
The measures, to be outlined as part of a wider crime action plan tomorrow, are part of the response to a spate of horrific attacks last week that saw four people killed in London in just 24 hours.
There is also wider concern about the increasing number of teenagers killed by knives in the British capital this year and fears about a growing violent gang culture among the nation’s youth.
Some 20 teenagers have been killed already this year, the majority of them by knives. Last month, two French students were killed in a southeast London apartment. They had been bound, stabbed more than 200 times, then set on fire.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith rejected opposition calls for anyone caught with a knife to expect to go to prison, describing such a response as “simplistic” and “wrong” to think that punishment behind bars could solve the issue.
Community-based sentences, supervision and curfews were “more likely” to stop children and young people from carrying knives, she said in a statement.
Smith said she had written to all police forces in England and Wales to remind them of their powers, while efforts will be increased in eight areas that have been identified as “hotspots.”
A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times suggested a majority of parents (53 percent) were in favor of a nationwide 9pm curfew for children between 10 years old and 16 years old; 35 percent said a 10pm curfew would be acceptable.
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