We ca n a ll help ta ckle knife crime sta rting in kitchen

Sometimes it can be the simplest idea that makes the biggest difference in life.

For decades knife crime has blighted our society.

Police and successive governments have worked hard to combat this menace.

Tough jail sentences and a drive to tackle the root causes of the issue have, admittedly, had some impact.

But still too many people die each year as a result of a knife attack.

And that’s despite the number of fatalities often being limited by the ever-improving skills and techniques of surgeons up and down the country.

The problem though is that knives are easily accessible.

You don’t have to venture into the dark recesses of the criminal underworld to find one.

You just have to look in a kitchen drawer to find an implement that can cause grave harm.

However, as we reveal today, some experts say that by simply changing the design of a knife you can dramatically reduce the number of deaths.

Introducing an “R”-shaped tip to the blade makes it so much harder to inflict serious damage but doesn’t reduce the functionality of a knife when used in the kitchen.

Yes, it’s that simple. So simple, in fact, we would hope that public bodies in Scotland lead by example and embrace the use of this safer design.

In the 1990s police worked with some success to “design” crime out of homes, encouraging the use alarms, timer lights and window locks.

Such initiatives won’t eradicate violence and break-ins entirely but they do go some way to limiting the scale and impact of incidents.

Perhaps, we, as consumers, could also lead the way for change by replacing our own kitchenware with the safer option.