Knife Crime
The Met are going to spend millions of pounds on an advertising campaign telling kids not to stab each other. (The BBC are amusingly telling the nation that graphic images will be shown on TV and radio…)
I don’t quite understand why people might want to stab each other. But I cannot think why someone who is ready to stab someone would be put off by a bloody image on MySpace. People carry knives because the (wrongly) believe it makes them safer, and they (wrongly) believe that they will not become victims themselves. Adverts of knife wounds are not going to un-twist this logic: the most likely response, if any, will be one of “I must carry my knife, because I might get stabbed”.
Youth knife crime is a huge issue, but the police aren’t helping by advertising on social networking sites. Their time, effort and money would be better spent making teenagers feel safer, not trying to scare them.