Knife crime isn't as common as you think...

The media today seems to be full of stories concerning knife crime in young people, however i found an article arguing that maybe it isn't as common as it used to be.

The British Crime Survey claims that overall violent crime has decreased by 41% since 1995. Knives are used in 8% of these crimes and that figure has remained about the same for the last decade.

However, it is hard to determine whether these statistics can still be considered as they don't include under 16's.

Knife crime seems to be a huge problem in young people and young adults and it affects many under 16's with lots of victims and criminals being that of a young age.

Does drilling the facts into these young people persuade them to drop the knives?

I read an interesting article on the BBC news website that discusses 'The Be Safe project' that is traveling around schools nationwide to tell young people and teenagers the many dangers in carrying a knife, for you, your friends, your family etc.

Here are some useful quotes from the website that i may be able to use in my notes for the exam;

"At the end of each Be Safe weapons awareness course, pupils are asked if they would like to hand in their blades, or leave knives under their seats.

Hundreds have been left behind at the courses which have been running mainly in London and surrounding counties since 1998. The Be Safe project also teaches people to run the courses, and there are now 330 trainers working nationally with young offenders and in schools."

"Be Safe organiser David Morris says: "If we are working in a school - an inner city school anywhere in the country - around a third of a class of 30 pupils will put up their hand and say they have carried a knife at some point."

But few grasp the implications of using one. Mr Morris, a former police officer, says young people tend not to think beyond putting the knife in their pocket or bag.

"Most say they are carrying it for self-defence, but [their] knife has never been used for this and never will be.""

"First up is there's no such thing as a "safe stabbing"."

Full article here.

I think this article does highlight that the government is trying to do something about knife crime in the younger generation, even though many people suggest that they aren't, and this seems to be a very good idea if it can grow and be able to visit schools quite regularly.

Surveying it

I decided to devise a survey to be taken by some teenagers that range in age to get their thoughts on knife crime in the young people and to help me to think about what type of experiment i would have to do.

1. What sex are you?
Male Female

2. How old are you?
10-13 14-17 17-20 21+

3. Do you or anyone you know carry a knife?
Yes No

4. If yes, why do you/they carry a knife?
Protection Peer pressure To look 'hard' For respect Other, please state_______________

5. Do you think the media glamourises knife crime in young people?
Yes No

6. If yes, in what way?
Causes young people to feel the need to carry a knife for protection
'If others are carrying knives, then so should I'
Other, please state__________________

7. Do you think knife crime has increased or decreased in the past 5 years?
Increased Decreased

These are the questions i have thought up so far as a draft, i will possibly add more or work on them a bit

Planning the hard work

As i have already stated in my first post dedicated to Critical Research, i am going to be looking at the topic of young people involved in knife crime under the heading of Crime And The Media.

For my research, i plan to look at many newspaper articles in both tabloid and broadsheet newspapers to see how they differ in reporting the news and how they may portray the victims and the criminals. When looking at the newspapers, i will also be looking out for how the victims are introduced with the statement 'the victims are always shown as innocent' fresh in my mind. Using the articles, i will try to either support or give evidence against this statement.

I still don't know what i can do for an experiment, however i will use my own research in the project to add debate and facts to it. I will devise a survey to be taken by a certain amount of teenagers and young people ranging in age regarding their thoughts on the issue, whether they know anyone who carries a knife or if they infact do carry one themself and what they think is causing the increase.

I will act on my experiment when the results for what the teenagers think the cause for the rise of knife crime may be.

Some drafted questions have been produced to consider within the project to answer such as;
- Does the media advertising the knife crime affect the increase in teenagers carrying and using knives?
- Has knife crime in young people really increased or is it just in the limelight now for the media to comment more on?
- What is causing young people to kill others out of no respect for their life?

New Subject - Critical Research

The start of a new year means a new course in Media Studies.
So this course is about 'Critical Research'.

Out of the few topics given to the students to choose from, i have decided to make a go of starting with 'Crime And The Media'
With the news filling up with many negatives now, crime seems to be one of the main stories in a media product every day, whether it is in a newspaper or a broadcast.
My main area of focus still hasn't been decided yet as i am still to think of a hypothesis over the next few weeks, however i am thinking that it may be best to stick to teenagers or young adults and their connection with injuries or murder throughout the nation.
The point of discussion that made me consider this particular topic was the talk of Gordon Brown wanting to lower the age of prosecution of carrying a weapon from 18 to 16 years old as already there have been 34 teen murders throughout the nation, 16 of these being in London by knife.
I feel this area of debate is an open one and will be one to go on for a very long time as it dominates the media now and most likely will until something is actually done about it.
I would also like to explore whether the media change some facts or fiddle with the actual truth for a better news story, such as making out the victim to be totally innocent when they most likely weren't and involved in gang crime which brought their death upon them.

The type of media can have an effect on the audience as well with certain tabloids describing attacks such as being 'brutal' and other newspapers, like broadsheets, subtly commenting on the actual attack. This can also be mirrored in broadcasting as well as the news reader is a lot more 'posh' and well read so the information is given to the audience but descriptions of it are, again, subtly hinted.