Why knife crime is spreading among children in leafy suburbs

While such habits have long been associated with teenagers being part of gangs or exploited to transport drugs by “county” rings, a growing number of children with no ties to crime are now suspected of carrying knives simply because that they are afraid.

When the Ben Kinsella Trust surveyed almost 10,000 young people who attended its workshops in London, it found that a quarter of them thought arming themselves with a blade would protect them.

More than a third said they felt unsafe on the streets, two thirds were worried about knife crime in their neighborhood and children under 12 were even more likely to be afraid than their peers. older peers.

At the same time, despite a recent decline in the overall number of knife and sharp object murders involving victims in the 13 to 19 age group, adolescents remain twice as likely to be fatally stabbed as adults. 10 years ago, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

In total, 82 percent of murders among teenage victims involve the use of a knife or sharp instrument. Among victims of all ages, this figure rises to 41 percent.

Malachi Nunes carried a knife. Aged 14 and living in an area of ​​the West Midlands marked by gang warfare between the notorious Burger Bar Boys and Johnson Crew, he says he picked up a gun “out of fear”.

“I was waiting at a bus stop and the gangs were pulling up in their cars and asking me what gang I was with,” he said. “What do you do as a young person when no one is there to protect you?

He carried knives for five years but was never directly involved in violence and chose to disarm after being arrested and cautioned by police. Looking back on that time, Nunes admits to making “stupid decisions” but says he was “confused about how to survive.” He now tries to help young people facing the same situation.

His group Ambitious Lives runs workshops, training and mentoring programs for young offenders and those at risk of criminal exploitation in the West Midlands, which has the highest number of knife crime offenses per capita in England and in Wales.

Even before the Wolverhampton murder, Nunes had mentored young boys carrying knives in the same town. “There was one kid in particular there who was carrying a knife because he had an older brother who was in a gang and was in prison,” he said.

“He felt he had to carry a knife because the gangs would either try to get him on board or attack him. It's a domino effect.