Knife crime, especially amongst youths, is rife in the UK more than ever before. The issue revolving around this is that knives are so easily accessible and you can get them anywhere and that is exactly what people are doing. 

Children are buying and taking knives from their homes and taking it out onto the streets to get some “street credibility” or for “self-defence”. Children as young as 11 are using these knives to harm other children in acts of self-defence or to just show off without releasing the damage they are causing. These children think that carrying around a knife is all the trend right now and makes them look “hard” when in fact it shows quite the opposite.It is quite literally kids killing kids. It is not right at all. 

In recent events in February 2023, the whole nation saw a result of knife crime amongst children. Everybody knows about the story of Brianna Ghey and the damage that was caused because of knife crime. Another case from the beginning of February 2024 was Renell Charles who was stabbed for no apparent reason other than being stood in a bus stop. This should not be happening and more should be done to stop this. It is so easy to access knives and they can cause so much damage to someone even by just carrying one. There are so many more cases like this that happen every single day across the UK. How would you feel if this was your child getting stabbed for no apparent reason?

On average there is 1 fatal stabbing every 3 days and that is just in England. On a smaller scale, the Cheshire region is at its highest level of knife crime from the past 10 years. There should be more done by the police and more precautions put in place to stop this from happening. We know that it is hard to stop people bringing knives out from their homes but police should be doing searches and safety measures in place. 

Children now are bringing knives out when they go out as an item of self-defence because of this. It is a vicious cycle and there is now a fine line between protection and street credibility. This is where police and parents should be stepping and finding out what our next generation are getting up to on the streets. 

What needs to happen to reduce the rates of knife crime is to have youth empowerment centres which are organisations that will teach children from 11 years old to 18 about knife crimes and the dangers around it. It will also teach them the dangers about “the streets” and how to stop yourself from getting caught in this dangerous cycle.