Youngsters carrying knives for protection

Young people are carrying knives because they fear police and parents cannot protect them, a report warns today.

According to the Commons powerful Home Affairs Select Committee, young people lack faith in “natural protectors” like police and parents to keep them safe.

And so efforts to reduce knife carrying should be directed at these causes.

The report says: “It was unanimous from all 18 participants that the police and their parents could not protect them, but a knife in some circumstances could

Several boys mentioned that rather than their parents protecting them, it was their job to protect their mothers and younger siblings.

Worryingly the report also revealed the number of knife crimes per head in Greater Manchester are similar to that of London with 9.7 per population in London compared with 8.8 for Greater Manchester.

The report found that the recent increase in knife violence corresponded with street violence between groups of young people in the poorer areas of larger cities.

Government should adopt a “public health” approach to the violence and intervene at a much earlier stage in areas of deprivation and where youngsters experience or witness violence in the home, it said.

MPs heard how a child as young as seven was found to be carrying a knife, but believe it is at 11 — in line with the transition from primary school to secondary school — the problem begins.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz said: “We are seeing a spiralling of the arms race as far as knife crime is concerned. Young people carry knives because they fear that others are carrying knives.”