Kids, Knives, Broken Lives

The media has responded to the huge increase in the knife crime culture with reports and documentaries to attempt to get the facts out to the people causing it.

This particular youtube video has clips from the recent programme 'Kids, knives, broken lives' that was part of the Disarming Britain season on channel 4.


The video is quite interesting as it is teenagers commenting on the recent sour in knife crime and gaining their opinion through the media may just be enough to calm the public down.

More detail into the Deviancy amplification spiral

I have already explained how deviancy amplification is the phrase for when the media creates a hype and moral panic with the public, usually involving a crime.

Examples of the media doing this may be;
- A shooting spree by an adolescent
- A gruesome murder involving cannibalism or mutation
- A shocking act of corporate fraud

The dramatic increase in knife crime can be questioned as to whether there is a real problem or if the problem is copycat behaviour. With others reading or watching coverage on the television, they may be tempted as they see the crime as desirable and an act of rebellion.

Deviancy Amplification Spiral

Mr White recently directed me to this which is incredibly useful in my research.

Deviancy amplification spiral (also simply called deviance amplification) is a media hype phenomenon defined by media critics as an increasing cycle of reporting on a category of antisocial behavior or other undesirable events.

This is a perfect explanation of exactly what is happening with the media hype in knife crime at this current moment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deviancy_amplification_spiral

My letter

I created a letter to be sent on to some newspapers today, I am hoping to gain a response from people to add to my critical research.

Can this count for primary research by the way??

Knife crime can be seen as a very common thing now creating moral panic amongst the public. But although it could be a number of reasons that teenagers feel the need to carry knives in public, could one of the reasons possibly be the media coverage it gets? Although we may not think it, but there are some people in the world who get a kick out of knowing their crime has made it into the national news, elsewhere other teenagers are worried that they may become a victim themselves and want to carry knives for 'protection'. With knife crime being everywhere, in films aimed at teenagers, newspapers and television, teenagers may feel the media is advertising knife crime so to speak causing the numbers to increase.

that ok?

www.ntk.org.uk

I found an interesting website on the Disarming Britain website that cries out for people to make a pledge to say No To Knives. I made a pledge myself, by making a 'tag'. Using your creative skills to spray paint online and write a message to be viewed by other people browsing the wall.

Hopefully 1million people will make this 'pledge' not to carry a knife and can be made into one big voice.
This website is just one of many that have been added to the internet to try to reduce knife crime or hopefully stop it.
To find my pledge, type in this code on the 'pledge wall' ntk5f1. It might take a day or two to be up on the wall though.

I mentioned Disarming Britain before.
This is a season on channel 4 that has so far been on for the past 2 weeks and features facts, acted out stories and much more to awaken Britain to what is happening and hopefully to get the public to put down their weapons.
I couldn't find anything on the knife crime yet on youtube, but here is an interesting trailer for the season using guns in it.


this video made me cry though :( NO GOOD!!!

I will be watching the rest of the season with much interest.

Finally got a hypothesis!!!!

After thinking (and worrying) for weeks and weeks that I haven't yet decided on a hypothesis, I spoke to Miss Ward about my research so far and she came up with the question 'Can we argue the media is glamourising knife crime?'

I feel this is a good hypothesis as I have said in previous posts that the media may be advertising the culture in some way to teenagers. With the recent increasing rise in knife crime and the coverage of it in the media, the question is one that can have many debates.

I feel I can discuss the way newspapers present their stories on knife crime and the fairly recent film 'Kidulthood' and the more recent 'Adulthood' which shows the brutality of London streets in a gang culture, featuring knife crime and possibly answering questions as to why the stabbings are increasing.

writing a letter...

After Mr White said i should write a letter to a newspaper to voice my opinion, i have decided to do so.
I will send the letter into a few newspapers consisting of different types of readers such as The Metro and The Times hopefully to gain different reactions from the public.

I will devise my letter of opinion tonight and it will include my voice of opinion about how the media presents knife crime.

What are the reasons behind the escalating knife crime figures?

After research into the figures of growing knife crime in teenagers, my mind has been going over and over why these figures have increased and what can be done about it.

Knife crime goes back quite a few years with gangs being active and stabbings between members happening every now and then, however the scenario has worsened as the streets are being ruled by gangs fueled by drugs and alcohol and a sharp weapon in their pocket to be used on someone who may look at them in the wrong way like 14 year old Martin Dinnegan or for simply trying to help break up a fight like 18 year old Rob Knox. The fast growing numbers of teenagers dying from stab wounds have created a moral panic in the public, causing parents to worry every time their children step out of the house and wondering if they will get a chilling phonecall or a knock on the door from police saying their precious child has had their life taken away by an evil person who decided to carry a knife.

It may seem that this culture is mostly present in males, however there have been a few cases where females have been stabbed to death like Sian Simpson or a female has infact been the person with the knife like Sian's killer Chelsea Bennett. No teenager in England can be seen as safe now whenever they leave their house and take to the streets for a night out with friends. I know for a fact my own mother worries so much about me now and is constantly texting me and calling me when I am out somewhere just to make sure I am alright and then staying up very late just so she can give me a lift home when I come home very late at night after being out with friends.

The constant involvement of stabbings in the media has caused a crisis in this country causing parents to worry, teenagers to be scared and then even more knife carrying teenagers for either self defence or to follow the 'trend'. One of the reasons behind the ever growing stabbings may be the press coverage that these stories have in the media, with it being talked about every day, teenagers may be tempted to carry a knife themselves to see what it is like. It can be similar to how violent video games may influence teenagers as the media may be seen as 'advertising' knife crime and teenagers may take it the wrong way.

Another reason behind it may be family life in the UK. The traditional family has been attacked and it has got to the point that the family where one parent is at home, and the other is working is the most taxed in this country. Yet it is with the nuclear family that most get the moral guidance from. In addition the rise of divorce has meant that the responsibility to each other that was also present in families no longer is and now generations exist who have not had this basic form of moral guidance. With the emptiness of that one parent that isn't there, teenagers are more likely to be more 'troubled' and the one parent that they do have may not be able to cope handling them or controlling them. Many teenagers may see carrying a knife as fun and it is just a game.

There have been many debates as to why knife crime in teenagers has increased over the last few years but how are we to know what is actually causing it?
Some people blame the video games teenagers are constantly playing such as Grand Theft Auto or Call Of Duty, some people blame the type of music they listen to like 50 Cent who glamourises killing other people and some people just blame the parents for not being responsible and taking control of their child.

Statistics prove that knife crime HAS increased

One of the questions i had asked at the beginning of this project was whether or not knife crime amongst young people had increased as the media had made it out to be, or infact it was worse in the past.

However, figures have revealed that knife crime has infact had a massive increase in the last few years, especially in young people.

Here are the figures:

The number of under 16's admitted to hospital with knife wounds has grown 88 percent from 95 in 2002/2003 to 179 in 2006/2007

The number of 16-18 year olds admitted to hospital with knife wounds has grown 75 percent from 429 in 2002/2003 to 752 in 2006/2007

With these figures being revealed very recently and the number of victims increasing every week, the media seems to always be busy with the issue of knife crime. Focussing on one victim for a few days until the next victim is announced.
It remains a huge and important subject in the media and has been for the last few months due to the massive increase.

Sir Ian Blair reveals Operation Blunt 2

As a result of the recent stabbing of 16 year old Ben Kinsella, London Mayor Boris Johnson and the head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Ian Blair, came together at City Hall to speak about their solutions on knife crime in the capital, especially amongst teenagers.

Operation Blunt would be only one area in which the authorities are working on to make London safer.

So why are the authorities only really gaining interest in what seems like a growing knife culture in what is supposed to be one of the most famous cities in the world that brings in tourists constantly?
Is it the "1,200 people that were arrested on suspicion of possessing weapons and other suspected knife-related crimes between 19th May and 29th June this year"?
Or possibly the "528 knives [that were] recovered as a result of 26,777 searches".

As Boris Johnson kept quite silent throughout the press call in City Hall, Sir Ian Blair finished it up by stating

"Everybody is shocked by the level of violence we are seeing, particularly towards young people in London, and we must all work as hard as we can together to reverse this dreadful trend."

As the authorities are still quite baffled as to what has caused this dramatic increase in knife crime in the capital, teenagers worry that if they step out of the house, will they be coming back?

Full article here.

the latest victim of knife crime

The 17th teenager to be stabbed to death in London has been named as Ben Kinsella, a 16 year old boy who had just finished his GCSEs and was chased by people outside a pub in Holloway in North London. The victim is the brother of actress Brooke Kinsella who used to play Kelly in Eastenders.

The metro newspaper seems to be more focused on the fact that the young victim was the sister of someone fairly famous rather than the fact that he is the 17th teenager to be stabbed in London 6 months into the year.

A similar incident to this one happened not long ago when 18 year old Rob Knox was fatally stabbed outside a club in South-East London and he was fairly famous for just playing a part in an upcoming Harry Potter film.

Now what we really have to ask is....are these teenagers getting what they deserve? Is it jealousy that causes these victims to be fatally assaulted? Or simply no respect for life?