U.K. Criminalizes Knife Possession; Result? Knife Violence Increases

**European Knight** · 07-21-2015, 06:25 AM

It's against the law to carry a knife in England. As you would expect, knife crime is going up.

“Police recorded 26,370 offences in 2014/15, up from 25,974 the previous year,” the BBC reported on July 16.

Specifically, the BBC reports that “possession of knife offences rose by 10%, sexual assaults with knives went up 28%, and knife assaults increased by 13% from 11,911 to 13,488 offences.”

Quick to respond to the uptick, officials on July 17 instituted new harsher punishments for owning a knife.

According to the BBC report, the new laws mandate that “adults in Englannd and Wales convicted more than once of being in possession of a blade face a minimum six month prison sentence and a maximum of four years.”

The head of a British victims advocacy group believes that the way to end the increase in knife-related crimes is to teach people how dangerous it is to carry blades.

“After years of success in driving knife crime down, this rise is a worrying development and efforts to educate people about the dangers of carrying knives must be stepped up,” advised Mark Castle, chief executive of Victim Support.

History isn’t on the side of those who think banning a weapon will lead to a decrease in violent crime committed with that weapon.

U.K. Criminalizes Knife Possession; Result? Knife Violence Increases