ANALYSIS:Knife crimes may involve illegally held daggers but many are committed with ordinary kitchen knives, writes PAUL CULLEN
WHILE RECENT crimes involving the use of knives have caused widespread and understandable concern, the figures show that the number of knife killings fell sharply last year to 15, from 37 in 2007.
Detections of possession of knives increased by 34 per cent in the past two years. However, it isn’t clear if this is due to increased searches by gardaí or a rise in the number of people carrying knives.
The term knife crime embraces a wide range of illegal activity, but one major distinction is between crimes carried out by people who were carrying a knife offensively and those carried out by people who resorted to a knife because it was the nearest weapon to hand.
Over a quarter of all knife crime happens in the home and most of this probably involves the use of kitchen knives.
Knife crime is associated in the public mind with young people, but this is only partly borne out by the statistics.
Almost one-third of fatal and non-fatal knife attacks are carried out by those under 20 years and one in seven victims is under 20.
Men are the main offenders, accounting for 90 per cent of convictions, and the main victims – 70 per cent. Two-thirds of knife crime occurs between 5pm and 5am, with 9pm to 11pm being the most dangerous period. One-third of incidents happen in public places, and one in six attacks occur in shops.
The number of assaults causing harm involving knives has increased steadily since 2003 and the number of knife murders increased steadily from 2003 to 2007, before falling off last year. In Britain, knife crime is a huge issue, but the murder rates on either side of the Irish Sea are broadly comparable. Five people a week die by stabbing in Britain, but the overall figure of 252 last year was down from 270 in 2007.
Robbery offences involving knives also declined slightly. Interestingly, people perceive knife crime to be greater than it is, according to the British Home Office, probably because of the media spotlight.
Following a spate of knife attacks last year, including four murders over Christmas, Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern promised new measures to deal with the problem.
The Criminal Justice Miscellaneous Provisions Act, which passed into law last June, increases the maximum prison sentence for possession of a knife from one year to five years. It also gives gardaí extra powers to allow them to search without a warrant whenever they have reasonable grounds to suspect a person is carrying “any article” for illegal purposes. The effect these changes has on the problem will not be apparent for some time.
Gardaí have also launched an awareness campaign aimed at discouraging young people from carrying knives. The How Big Do You Feel? campaign highlights the fact that those who carry knives are much more likely to be stabbed themselves.
Criminologist Dr Ian O’Donnell cautions against interpreting a cluster of crimes into an overall trend and is sceptical about the effectiveness of the new measures.
Many knife crimes, he points out, are opportunistic, often carried out in domestic settings.
In this context, he suggests, a simple crime reduction measure can be used of redesigning most kitchen knives to remove the sharp point, as in most cases this is not needed.
Satisfying the public’s demand for immediate measures to tackle knife crime won’t be easy, he says, because we know so little about the people who carry out such crimes and their motivations.
More research into the problem would help identify the areas on which policing and resources need to be focused.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy has expressed concern about the rise in young men carrying knives and every member of the force has been issued with an anti-stab vest.
“There’s no doubt about it, young people are prepared to be aggressive,” he said earlier this year. “It seems that frequently in recent times it’s been taken to a higher level, particularly with a number of stabbings taking place.”