We seem to be in the middle of yet another media inspired bout of hysteria- this time over knife crime. I'm not saying there isn't a major problem here, merely that it's being blown out of proportion. Close attention to the figures published in May reveals that the British Crime Survey- based on a 40,000 strong group of respondents- shows knife crime as stable over the last decade at 7% of all cri...

The menace of knife crime is not confined to cities with rural police forces dealing with hundreds of case, official figures have showed.

Yesterday's News of the World included an ICM poll of under 25s about knife crime. Considering that the British Crime Survey doesn't include juvenile crime, and that while actual stabbing will very probably end up as recorded crime figures, people carrying knives, or waving knives about probably won't, it gives an interesting view of exactly

More than 55% of knife and gun crime attacks in the last year were concentrated in inner city areas of London, Birmingham and Manchester, official figures show

Why is Gordon Brown still Prime Minister ? Both the BBC and The Times quote him, without seeming to notice or care about exactly what nonsense or deceit he was uttering:: Mr Brown told a crime conference in west London: "We face new kinds of crime - especially knife crime, organised crime, e-crime and identity theft BBC: Brown unveils anti-crime strategy The Times:

Dolan Cumming's suggestion yesterday that the UK's politicians and media are in some form of moral panic (or worse, an amoral panic) over knife crime, is augmented by the suggestion that the media is in danger of normalising it by Frank Furedi:The sharp end: how endemic is knife crime? Five years ago, the BBC was asking whether or not knife crime is getting worse. At which time it noted that Micha...

I've written an article for CIF on the knife crime ‘epidemic'. Typically, the audience is so defensive that they think I mean knife crime isn't a serious enough issue (it is), or that somehow I'm excusing the kids involved (I'm not). But it really is amazing how many people buy into the idea that politicians

The debate over knife crime has serious implications for how campaigners can get media coverage of an issue or candidate. The lesson being that if you want to get media pick-up then every topic needs to be presented to the media as punch and judy with a short term fix attached. Knife crime is a great media story. Like all the best stories it really plays to our base instincts. It has knife-wieldin...

Commenting on today’s British Crime Survey figures, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "The Government has failed to roll out effectively the measures that we know work against knife crime." “Hospitals are not yet cooperating with the police in enough areas to highlight the hot spots for knife crime, and there is not enough intelligence-led searching in risk area...

Commenting on today’s British Crime Survey figures, Liberal Democrat Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Huhne said: "The Government has failed to roll out effectively the measures that we know work against knife crime." “Hospitals are not yet cooperating with the police in enough areas to highlight the hot spots for knife crime, and there is not enough intelligence-led searching in risk area...