UK to go for shock tactics

2008-07-13 11:02

London - Britain's government on Sunday 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 being taken to hospital emergency rooms to see people being treated for knife wounds, meeting the families of stab victims and prisoners locked up for knife offences, the Home Office said.

The measures, to be outlined as part of a wider crime action plan on Tuesday, are part of her department's 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 flat. 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 added 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 so-called "hotspot" areas where the problem is seen as particularly acute.

Licensing and trading standards authorities have been ordered to crack down on under-age drinking and sales of knives to minors, while hospitals have been urged to report knife-related injuries.

A YouGov poll for the Sunday Times suggested a majority of parents (53%) were in favour of a nationwide 21:00 curfew for 10- to 16-year-olds; 35% said a 22:00 curfew would be acceptable.

- AFP