A schedule for phasing-out knife crime

Abstract Knife crime has become a prominent and seemingly intractable problem in England & Wales. Theory and evidence indicate that reducing crime opportunities is an effective means of crime control, including restrictions on lethal weapons. While public debate has centred on zombie and other ‘...

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Main Authors: Graham Farrell, Toby Davies
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2024-12-01
Series:Crime Science
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-024-00241-7
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author Graham Farrell
Toby Davies
author_facet Graham Farrell
Toby Davies
author_sort Graham Farrell
collection DOAJ
description Abstract Knife crime has become a prominent and seemingly intractable problem in England & Wales. Theory and evidence indicate that reducing crime opportunities is an effective means of crime control, including restrictions on lethal weapons. While public debate has centred on zombie and other ‘status’ knives, the most prevalent homicide weapon is a kitchen knife. Here we argue that replacing lethal pointed-tip kitchen knives with safer round-tip knives would reduce knife crime with little or no displacement. Drawing on the approach to remove fossil-fuel vehicles from roads, we propose a phased removal of lethal kitchen knives that we estimate will cut knife-related homicide in half, reduce other knife crime and criminality, and prevent thousands of non-criminal knife-related injuries.
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spelling doaj-art-6b4ebf3138b943579a5636ea7ffadbec2025-08-20T02:31:44ZengBMCCrime Science2193-76802024-12-0113111110.1186/s40163-024-00241-7A schedule for phasing-out knife crimeGraham Farrell0Toby Davies1School of Law, University of LeedsSchool of Law, University of LeedsAbstract Knife crime has become a prominent and seemingly intractable problem in England & Wales. Theory and evidence indicate that reducing crime opportunities is an effective means of crime control, including restrictions on lethal weapons. While public debate has centred on zombie and other ‘status’ knives, the most prevalent homicide weapon is a kitchen knife. Here we argue that replacing lethal pointed-tip kitchen knives with safer round-tip knives would reduce knife crime with little or no displacement. Drawing on the approach to remove fossil-fuel vehicles from roads, we propose a phased removal of lethal kitchen knives that we estimate will cut knife-related homicide in half, reduce other knife crime and criminality, and prevent thousands of non-criminal knife-related injuries.https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-024-00241-7
spellingShingle Graham Farrell
Toby Davies
A schedule for phasing-out knife crime
Crime Science
title A schedule for phasing-out knife crime
title_full A schedule for phasing-out knife crime
title_fullStr A schedule for phasing-out knife crime
title_full_unstemmed A schedule for phasing-out knife crime
title_short A schedule for phasing-out knife crime
title_sort schedule for phasing out knife crime
url https://doi.org/10.1186/s40163-024-00241-7
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