Arguably, there is something of a national moral panic going on in the UK, stoked by the tabloid media, about young people and knife crime. However, left realist sociologists and criminologists, the police, community leaders and politicians are also likely to point out that talking about a knife crime ‘panic’ is a luxury that middle-class commentators can enjoy, because they do not live in the types of neighbourhoods where such behaviour is a very real problem.
Despite sometimes justifiable anxiety about crime levels, with fewer than ten murders per million people (Office for National Statistics 2018), statistically England and Wales is actually one of the world’s safest places. However, a recent increase in criminal fatalities in urban areas has focused the attention of the media and politicians on the prevention of knife crime and has prompted strategic responses by government.
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