Children carrying knives as a status symbol
SCHOOLCHILDREN are carrying knives in their rucksacks at school to copy what they see on social media, one of Wales’ top police officers has warned.
South Wales Police’s Chief Constable Matt Jukes said it is resulting in knife crime in “place you wouldn’t necessarily expect”.
While reported stabbings are going down, it is still around an incident every day in the force area, he said.
He’s warned that coupled with county lines gangs spreading further into Wales, the “significant shift” means knife crime in cities like Cardiff and Swansea is at a critical point.
Chief Constable Jukes said: “The police have faced challenges for decades but the issues we face have seen a significant shift.
“It’s horrible to see a young person arriving on a train from London having been exploited by county lines gangs. But equally horrible is seeing kids in schools in the leafy suburbs, which you wouldn’t associate with knife crime, carrying knives in their rucksacks.
“The pattern of knife crime is focused on the city, but the supposed kudos and fear that comes with knives spreads with social media, so we are seeing it in places you wouldn’t necessarily expect.”
Asked why children are choosing to carry knives, he says he sees three reasons.
“One, to carry out other crimes. For instance, you often see knives used in robberies.
“Two, to protect themselves because they feel they are at risk, which is often drug-related.
“And thirdly, tragically, because they think they get some sort of kudos for it or it’s copycat behaviour. It’s not because they are involved in other crimes. For some reason, they have in their minds it’s a status piece.”
He says knife crime is an issue that seems to be more prevalent in young people, and recent cases had served to only intensify that.
Any decision by a young person
to carry a knife on a street in Wales is a “tragedy” he said.
ONS figures show that serious offences involving a knife or sharp object have doubled in the South Wales Police force area since 2010. In 2010-11, there were 382 such offences in the area. In 2018-19, that number was 737, up from 621 the year before.
“From July to July, we have seen a 4% increase, compared to 38% increase in 2016.
“For this year so far, up until August, the number of wounding offences is 167, which is down on 186 for the same period last year.
“Stabbings are starting to go down, but at the same time, it is still around an incident nearly every day. I am not complacent, but what is encouraging about the numbers is that the rate of increase is slowing down,” he added.
“Our level of knife crime is not the level we see in other parts of the UK. It’s all down to good law enforcement – we have carried out 10,000 stop searches this year.”
The Chief Constable says it is about more than numbers.
“We need to understand what’s happening and the numbers help with that, but any murder is also the loss of someone’s child, someone’s brother, sister - numbers can’t record that individual loss,” he said.
“What I want to understand is what path that child has taken to get into that situation, and that’s the tragedy. The bottom line for me is, regardless of how these children become involved, they are children. Often, they are vulnerable and have been exposed to other risks in their early life.”
He wants to see earlier action. “I am concerned to see the number of school exclusions, which have risen over the last few years,” he explained.
“There is a massive over-representation of people who have been excluded from schools in the prison population. I want young people to know that they have a choice, and there is the opportunity to make a better choice.”
However, austerity and cuts to services are not easing the “longterm work” needed to do that.
There is a relatively low risk on the street for most people, he stresses. While knife crime tends to focus on street violence and young people, a much larger proportion of knife crime involves domestic cases, which happen behind closed doors.
There are around 30,000 domestic abuse cases each year, compared to around 700 knife crimes.
“We have to balance reassurance against spreading that fear ourselves,” he explained.
“We need to inform young people about the risks, but not to alarm them. They need to know they can protect themselves by making better choices.
“It’s about focusing our efforts on where it is most needed and, believe me, there are communities crying out for us to be alongside their young people. But at the same time, responding to other harms in our community that are behind closed doors, someone like your next-door neighbour.”
The change has also resulted in a change for officers, and more knife tactics have been introduced in training. We have doubled the number of officers carrying tasers,” he said.