Knife crime

Jul 15 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

KNIFE crime has become one of society’s greatest concerns. Tackling it represents one of this Government’s biggest challenges.

It is the Government’s job to put forward potential solutions and then, working with the police, put them into action.

Making offenders meet the families of stabbing victims was always going to be a non-starter, fraught with difficulties.

Deterring young people from carrying knives is paramount – but ultimately those who persist in doing so need to know they will get a mandatory sentence behind bars.

The only true solution is for the courts to hand down harsher first-time penalties to those carrying or possessing illegal weapons and increased sentences to re-offenders.