The UK Government wants to crack down on knife crime – research can tell us why young people start c
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The UK government wants to crack down on knife crime – research can tell us why young people start carrying weapons
Iain Brennan, University of Hull
The government has lifted restrictions on stop and search powers in an effort to combat knife crime. This approach focuses on people who are already carrying weapons. My research, published late last year, can help explain what happens in young people’s lives before they start carrying a weapon – important information if we are to stop young people becoming involved in knife crime.
Reflecting on his childhood in Baltimore, US writer Ta-Nehisi Coates said that “when you live around violence, there is no opting out”. As a violence researcher, I spend much of my day thinking about why people become involved in violence and, in particular, why someone might carry a weapon. Coates’s words, as relevant to England today as they are to 1980s Baltimore, are never far from my mind. They eloquently remind us that while violence and weapon-carryin...
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