In 2017, 39 children and teens in England and Wales were killed by knives, and on New Year’s Day we reported the news of four fatal stabbings in London over the preceding 24 hours, making 2017 probably the worst year for nearly a decade.

The Guardian has been reporting on the lives and deaths of the young victims in its Beyond the Blade project but we want to continue to highlight this problem in 2018. To properly understand knife crime we felt it was important to reach voices that are beyond our usual readership, so we set up a callout asking people to share their experiences with us.

We have heard from those whose family or friends have been caught up in knife crime and also from workers on the frontline trying to tackle the issue. Many responses tell the same story: that fear and desperation among young people may be fuelling an increase in the number carrying and using knives. Here, we share some of those experiences.

Beyond the blade: marking the death of every child and teen by a knife in 2017 Read more

Jude Lanchin, senior associate, criminal defence at Bindmans LLP

It seems knife crime is no longer just a “gang” thing – if in fact it ever was, given the questionable definition of a gang used by the police (another issue that needs looking at urgently). That’s very concerning. There seem to be so many young people carrying knives now – they may have got into an unexpected conflict and never thought they would be going down that road, but now have a knife for protection. Even those who haven’t had conflict are scared of being attacked and might take a knife out with them. These are kids who are going to college or university and living ordinary lives, but they’re still carrying knives.

Many young people involved at a deeper level have such a fatalistic view. They don’t think they will make it to their 25th birthday, or if they do, it’s likely to be in prison. It’s become a way of life, driven by “kill or be killed”.

I work as a lawyer and community activist, and from what I see, things are definitely worse than before. I often feel pessimistic about the future. Although there is currently a lot of government talk about “knife crime”, those at ground level in the community, with different ideas and possible solutions, aren’t really listened to or given the resources to take things forward in any meaningful way. And it’s so clear that the punitive approach to knife crime taken by the government simply isn’t working.

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Jay, student, north London

People don’t get into crime because they want to, most of the time. You live on the estate, Mum can’t pay the bills – are you going to do nothing? Most would sell drugs – thankfully I never had to. Once you get into that, you have to protect yourself and that’s where the knives come into play. Even if you don’t need the money any more, it’s going to be very hard to leave that life. You may not be able to.



If you want to join a gang, you sometimes have to do initiation. Once you’re there you can’t leave. They know your family, where you live. At the end of my road someone was beaten to death. When that happens you’re going to be scared. You learn to show respect, show you’re not involved in anything. If you’re asked for a phone you just give it to them. You never know if someone has something.



The biggest problem is that people feel they are in danger. They don’t feel safe when they go out. My parents still worry, my mum calls when I go out. I’d rather stay at home. I didn’t go out and play football because the parks were thought to be more dangerous. I think it’s getting worse. I’d be out a lot when I was younger, when I was too stupid to be safe, though I made sure I was out with friends.

A metal detector was brought into our school, everyone had to go through. It came one morning, it was a bit random. One guy at school got stabbed, and then we had a few days off.

The people that sold drugs in my year were the smart kids, very polite. No teachers had issues with them. They were good in class, in the top sets. They’re still dealing.



Most people I know don’t like university. Uni is so boring, there’s such a lack of culture. Where I live is so much more interesting. It’s like Stockholm syndrome, we all want to come back. We know it’s dangerous but everyone still does it. People want to do bad stuff, they’re tempted by the thrill.



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Student, London

As a young man, I seriously think that knife crime is getting out of control in London and the crime rate is rising a lot. I live in a dangerous area, and I have heard and seen a lot of things that I shouldn’t have.

Knife crime is rising because young people are being influenced by other young people into living the life of a “roadman” or selling drugs. This type of thing happens from a young age. Many secondary school students start getting into gangs there. Schools might think everything is safe and that their students are great but outside of the classroom they are very different. I’ve seen it many times.



To really stop knife crime you have to do something about gangs or young people who want to have a “gang life”. Kids are killing each other because of very stupid things and that is 100% not acceptable. The way things are going it will just keep getting worse.

Youth worker, London

I am a single female parent of Caribbean descent and my three children and I have done well. Now I work with young people because I understand not everyone is as lucky as we are. My work is about addressing the reason young men carry knives, and helping change their reasoning. When my son was in his mid-teens he thought he would be safer with some kind of weapon when he went out. Even young people from safe, secure homes can carry knives, so imagine what it’s like for those who don’t feel safe at home.

I spoke to a young person recently who was exceptionally articulate about why he carried a knife. I felt his fear and his feeling of helplessness that the inevitable would happen to him if he did not protect himself or at least put up some show of strength. Often it’s not the tough ones that get hurt, it’s the ones on the periphery because they’re more scared.



Child knife deaths in England and Wales set for nine-year peak Read more

I do understand their fear. I’m a black woman, I have a son and I worry about the police. My son’s been stopped and searched and you can go from stop and search to being dead – if my son steps out of the door, I’m afraid. We’re afraid for our children and they’re afraid.



When he was younger and went out, I couldn’t sleep. I was so scared all the time that after a while I had a breakdown. It’s better now he’s an adult.



Government funding for youth provision, school policies, parents and police all have roles to play in combating knife crime. The way the media report knife crime perpetuates the feeling of fear in adults and young people, and then people who are afraid protect themselves with a knife or with prejudice.



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Anonymous, south London

Both my sons have been stabbed. My eldest son was really badly injured: his lung was punctured, it was quite horrific. He was in hospital for two weeks. My other son is more of a street boy than his elder brother. He has been caught up in troubles and stabbed but luckily it wasn’t life threatening. One of his friends was stabbed and killed two years ago. He was such a lovely boy. It was on the high street, it made me so angry thinking it could have been my son.

I think knife crime is happening for a variety of reasons, such as the breakdown of family and the wider community. It’s not our culture: a lot of our parents were married, there are a lot of single parents now. Why would you take someone’s life who looks like you? You don’t think much about yourself – the education system doesn’t teach what’s good about being black. I think the way the police treat young black men is questionable. The community are trying as hard as they can to rebuild the support system. In south London it’s happening to second- and third-generation black British men ... why should these young people be dying every week? Young black males need attention and positive interaction with black men in our community to be shown how to be a responsible man. Many of these young people have no respect for their fathers because they have not been in their lives. These young people lack self regard and are low on self esteem. They’re taking each others’ lives without remorse.

My son’s social media profile was brought to my attention by other parents. My son was involved in something and their son was a target. We got the boys together and they ended up speaking about it and not hurting one another, but this doesn’t happen very often. Parents don’t know how to access social media – I had no idea. Now we’re burying our young people and what’s our future if we don’t do anything?

Anonymous

My brother is on remand suspected of stabbing someone earlier this year. There are others also on remand as my understanding is that none of them will confess or say who did it. He is still a teenager, and has a previous allegation of knife crime too. He was always a sweet young boy who would show so much love and affection. He was intelligent but didn’t really know how to apply it at school – he was always acting the class clown. I never thought he would be caught up in this.



I believe that knife crime is on the rise because it’s easy to get involved in the cycle but difficult then to get out. You must always be thinking: “Is it me next?” The reasons behind a lot of attacks are actually really pathetic: silly words that quickly lead to someone losing their life.



I don’t know how you can stop knife crime because I feel it’s almost become the norm to some people. As scary as it is for me to imagine, I know that carrying a knife is as normal to some people as it is for me to leave the house with my keys, phone and wallet.



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Teacher, south-east London

I was on a jury for a knife crime murder trial. I hadn’t been aware of the issues that exist among young people. For example, how they would wear two pairs of trousers to conceal a knife. It scared me, as a teacher, to think about how these children and young adults felt like they needed to protect themselves in such a way. Although I have not physically been a victim of knife crime, it changed my life and views forever.

These young people are referred to as being in “gangs” but to each other they are their own little families and to risk being excluded from that must be very scary. I genuinely believe that the majority of these young people don’t carry knives to hurt or murder, they carry them because that’s the “done thing” or to protect themselves without considering the stark reality of what it could result in.



The camaraderie between these young people is astounding. They laughed, slept, joked around during the trial like it was a TV programme, like it wasn’t real. I’ve heard and read that some gang members/young people see a jail sentence as a badge of honour, and to some extent that is what I witnessed. That also scared me: how could committing a murder or being associated with one not make you flinch? How have they been conditioned to be like that?



Claire van Helfteren, Capital Conflict Management

I am a specialist in conflict resolution, working with knife crime in London. A serious concern is that gangs are glamourised. Ex-gang members are now celebrities. We should be dealing with kids much younger, at the lower end of secondary school, and also with young people in pupil referral units. We need resources in schools but they can’t afford it.



My organisation set up a mentoring arm three years ago. We’re dealing with about 200 kids. The numbers have gone up and the incidents have gone up but the resources haven’t. Resources have gone down and crime has gone up.



Young people fear for their future. They’re all carrying knives. We see the hopelessness. They feel they have no future and no ambition, and they are more dangerous because they care less. No consequences scare them; they can’t change anything to make it better.



Some of the problems are cultural. For example, in first generation immigrant families, there can be problems if a child’s mother isn’t integrated. The child goes off to school and they then have two lives: their culture at home, and then in school where they don’t feel they fit in. And then comes the third life, where they feel they belong.



Mediation is a win-win. Getting people round a table is the biggest thing through all conflicts – you’ve got to talk to each other.

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Headteacher, London

I grew up close to the school where I now work. It’s always been an area for gang-related crime but not so much as during the last five years. That’s because of a huge range of factors, including the closure of youth services, there being less for young people to do, and the rise of social media and use of smartphones. There are now more ways to communicate negatively and things can escalate very quickly. Lots of threats are now made in a public forum, and even when those threats are minor – such as arguing about Fifa on the PlayStation – it’s a problem because other people can see them. It’s about saving face and avoiding being slighted in any way.

Lots of young people come from families with difficult socio-economic backgrounds and language issues, so they feel isolated. They’re not really interacting or learning those education skills. It’s left to schools to fill the gaps. The school at which I’m a senior leader is for those with social, emotional and mental needs. I completely back social services, but they’re so stretched. Child and adolescent mental health services are fantastic, but they don’t have the resources in our area. They’re massively overworked. The police are fantastic – they follow up on every little thing.

We did have a situation where a threat to stab a pupil was made on social media. The person who made the threat was known to the authorities, as was their family. When the young person arrived at the school, I managed to de-escalate the situation by reasoning with them. It’s only afterwards you think of your own safety and consider: “What if I’d said the wrong thing?”

The myth of gangs is spread on social media, but most gangs are scared teenage boys with lots of bravado. Some kids who get excluded treat it like a badge of honour. I have one young man at risk of exclusion from us, but then he’ll go to a pupil referral unit, and then he’s more at risk.