Contemporary Issues in Crime, Safety, and Security: Knife Crime Theory

This essay delves into the contemporary issue of knife crime, exploring its increasing prevalence globally, particularly in the UK, and its disproportionate impact on vulnerable populations. It examines the government's focus on broader crime issues, highlighting the need for specific attention to knife crime. The essay investigates the problem through statistical data and studies, such as the Edinburgh study, and discusses the role of media in shaping public perception. It then analyzes knife crime through the lens of criminology, specifically biological and sociological theories. The essay explores the behavioral aspects of knife crime, emphasizing the psychological factors and the impact of environmental conditions. Furthermore, it critiques the behavioral theory and presents sociological perspectives, focusing on social exclusion, economic disparities, and the influence of media portrayals. The role of social theories, government policies, and group dynamics is also discussed, concluding with an emphasis on the need for education and uniform social structures to address this pressing issue.

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Module Name: Contemporary Issues in Crime, Safety, and Security
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CONTEMPORAY ISSUE
IN
CRIME, SAFETY AND SECURITY

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Assignment Title: What, if anything, can a theory of your choice usefully add tour
understanding of a contemporary crime, safety or security issue of your choice.
Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Understanding the problem........................................................................................................2
Theories related to the knife crime.............................................................................................3
Preventive measures...................................................................................................................6
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................8

Introduction
The crimes in which knives are involved are understood as Knife crime. There is significant
enhancement in the crime rate all across the globe. Even the safer societies have converted
into crime infected societies. Knife crime rate in the UK and in other developed nations are
increasing tremendously. Elderly people, women and children also known to be as the
vulnerable segment in the society are the segments within the social spectrum which have
been effected the most due to increasing knife crime incidents (Palasinski and Riggs, 2012).
Increase in the incidents of crime against these sections which has been reported in the media
is a challenge for the local administrations. In spite of various initiatives taken by the UK
government there are many areas which requiring attention to be given so as to safeguard the
safety and security within the society. UK’s government policies are more focused towards
bigger crimes such as women protection, gun related crimes and terrorism but a lesser
attention is towards the crimes such as Knife crime (Reiner, 2010). It is considered as crime
for the people that is under the age of 18 and carries or buys offensive weapons such as knifes
(NIDIRECT, 2019). This also involves intimidating anyone with a knife or illegal possessing
of a banned blade. It also includes manslaughter crime where an individual was stabbed
through knife or use of knifes in the case of robbery or burglary.
In most of the incidences there is increase in the use of knives which was actually used on the
regular basis in the home or kitchen. There had been increase in the numbers of high-profile
cases where the teenagers have been killed or have got injured and most of them become the
high profile cases (Wei, 2011).
Understanding the problem
Government of Scotland conducted an survey related to the justice and crime where it was
found that in the last two years the use of knives have increased and in the coming years it is
going to reach to 23% of the overall violent crimes in Scotland (Scottish Government, 2019).
However it is not the concluding statement as statistics on recorded crimes and offences by
Scottish Police forces for the year 2013-14 had illustrated that there is decrease by 5%
(Berman, 2012). Knife crimes are often related to crimes that are associated with young

juveniles. The ‘Edinburg study’ also considered to be the major longitudinal study conducted
on approx. 4,300 students who have attended secondary school in 1998 within Edinburgh
illustrated some of the results. The results showed that around 38% of teens in the age of 12-
17 years both male and female had faced trails for carrying bladed weapons in any point in
their lives (Nair, et al. 2011).
In this the media’s role is highly crucial. This is because of the fact that media focuses more
on the tropical and spectacular crimes disproportionately especially when compared with
other kinds of crimes. Due to this some crimes are given more attention and hence building a
particular perception about the lesser bigger crimes like knife crimes. Researchers in the
criminology makes use of more panic for defining response of media towards a particular
crime that are media responses to crime that are sensationalist and out of proportion to a risk
posed (Moore, 2014).
Theories related to the knife crime
Crime is known as phenomenon that is multifaceted that is passing across the societal values
over time. Societal structure and Culture behaviour has a significant part in altering criminal
domains. In order to understand different types of crimes within the society the use of
criminology theories can be effective. There are two major areas of discussion in terms of
theories which are Biological and Sociological theories (Stone, 2015).
Biological theories exemplify the fact that criminals might be born through genetic makeup
as they are physiologically dissimilar from the ones who are from a non-criminal blood line.
Cesare Lombroso advocated this theory more notably. Lombroso put the idea and elucidated
that with ancestral hereditary criminal minds comes up as they have an under-developed or is
mal-developed minds. It might occur because of Neurophysiological dysfunction,
abnormalities or genetic inheritance or lack of intellect and hormone disparity (Muncie,
2014).
Sociological theories illustrates that criminal misbehaviour is formed by the marginal
influences that is occupied by an environment of individual; family, their neighbourhood
involvement, or the same age group of people. Clifford R. Shaw and Henry D. McKay were
the two major advocators of this theory. Both of them utilised spatial analysis for studying the
distribution of juveniles across a neighbourhood who have been some point of time faced the
court charges. Their evaluation illustrated that crime statistics is largely concentrated towards

criminal activity in regions that were categorized by poor housing, transient population, poor
health, and socio-economic lagging (Astrup, 2019). Crime in this theory is illustrated as a
function of dynamics in the locality with individual players not being the common dominator
for their actions.
Behavioural theories acknowledge that it is the psychology and behaviour of the person that
plays an essential role in converging the person’s mind-set that might lead him/her to do any
crime. For knife crimes, it is the individual’s psychology that carrying a knife can safeguard
him but it results in some other ways. Individual’s personal traits changes when they have a
weapon in their hands. They consider themselves safeguarded against others or they feel
themselves to be more powerful when they have knife in their hand (Pitts, 2013). It also
generates a feeling where people get motivated to do some crimes especially against others.
This is critiqued by the sociological theories where it is illustrated that the crimes are
motivated by the external factors rather than internal psychology. This can be understood by
the fact that psychology of the individual can be an important determinant in understanding
his criminal behaviour but it is not always the same (Bursik and Grasmicj, 1993). The
increase in the social crimes in the society has forced people to carry some weapons that can
protect them. So it’s not actually the behaviour of the individual that promoted him to do so
rather it is the fear from outside world that has actually promoted him for the same.
According to the behavioural study people say that they have increased trust when carrying a
knife because they don’t know when other people might have the same weapon or they don’t
know when they might encounter criminal activity hence they want that they are prepared for
such eventualities. This is critiqued by the social theories in terms of the fact that there is an
enhancement in the numbers of people who carries such weapons with them and hence this
changes the behaviour of others as well and they also purchase such weapons. Since it is not
easier to get the license of the guns and other dangerous weapons and carry it all the time
hence the use knifes have increased. As the behaviour theories suggests that it is genetic that
some of the people carry knifes is false because there are only few people who wants to
actually carry such weapons most of them are forced by the environmental conditions to do
so (Thompson and Gartner, 2014). It also undermines the behavioural theory in term of the
fact that it is not the genes that actually led to increase in such cries rather the positioning of
the family i.e. it is seen that in the poor families where there is lack of basic needs it is quite
often that people choose such criminal options. Most of the theft that is done by the people is
the ones who did not have good financial conditions. The economic barriers in their growth

have led people to think that they might actually face the problems. With the enhancement in
the gap between the two sections of the society where rich becoming more rich and poor
becoming poorer the problem widens. The barriers such as discrimination in the society play
a bigger role in that. For instance behavioural theories will explain that it is behaviour of
certain people from different parts of the world that actually promotes them to make such
crimes such as black people are often considered to be involved in more such crimes. But the
major problem is that black people are more deprived of resources and good lifestyle and due
to this they are facing social discrimination which actually has impact on their involvement in
the crimes such as social crimes. Media has also played a major role in this where it is
portrayed that certain people or group are actually the problem holders (McLean, 2018). This
makes the situation more evil where they started feeling that we have been portrayed as such
and hence they usually do not feel bad when they actually get involved in such crimes.
Since knife crimes are not so much broadcasted in the news emphasizes a lack of awareness
and teaching from a societal prospective. This is the major reason why the numbers of people
who are involved in these incidences, most of them are youngsters. The basic behavioural
understanding about this is the fact that youngsters are more furious and lack understanding
in terms of how to deal with their emotions. Hormonal imbalances are most common in them
as they are unable to deal with the challenges that they are facing in their life which results in
behavioural changes (Sccjr, 2019). On the other hand social theories suggests in the other
way where it is illustrated that it is the social exclusion of some of the teenagers who have
some desires that leads them to crimes. The increase in their desires and not able to fulfil
them plays a negative role in the development of such crimes. In this regards the role of
government is actually bigger as they have the role of bringing uniformity in the social
structure (Clement, 2010). There is a need that these sections of the society are treated
equally and at the same time they actually get proper education and the repercussions of
crime. The social theories also explains that it is not the behaviour of the individual that
creates hormonal imbalances rather it is the external environment across the individuals that
makes changes in their approach towards the crime (Goddard, 2015).
It is also the time when individuals are more conscious about the power. Since obtaining a
license to own a bigger weapon such as guns can be difficult, in turn channels individuals to
carry a knife as a weapon to take control of the power so as to threaten someone or
sometimes for threatening the things that threatens them. Today’s societal environment
students are living under more anxiety hence that criminal psychology is developing in them

at much higher regularity. At high school levels and college levels, it is seen that many of the
students are indulged in group formations. These groups are made for demonstrating power
and in case of any incidences they are using it as a weapon to threaten others (Clarke, 1980).
Since at young age there is fashion about gaining power hence people try to have some form
of weapon that can give them advantage. In behavioural criminal psychology it can be said
that there is change in the way in which people react to the suppression or any threat. This
can be understood in terms of the fact that suppression forces people to think in a very
different manner (Phillips and Bowling, 2017). On the other hand sociological theories
explain that it is the social orientation that gives power to some people or groups and not their
behaviours (Ristroph, 2010). In societies where the power distribution is highly uneven the
problem related to the management of crimes are also higher. Students get influenced by this
the most (Bradley, 2019). Behavioural theory suggests that there are certain motives of the
person that forces them to use such weapons while the social theories explains that people are
having such motives but they only come out when they are suppressed under any certain kind
of external pressure (Lukas, 2016).
Since the behaviour of the individuals is dynamic i.e. it changes with time to time and
according to the situations hence social theories have more space to explain the knife crimes
and the conditions that lead to increase in the knife crimes. Behavioural theories are good for
explaining the condition for specific type of people but social theories explains the overall
condition of the society and hence the reason for increase in the knife crime (Agnew, 2016).
Sociological theories also highlight the fact that with the mixed culture within the modern
day society hence one group needs to understand others and their behaviour. Using crimes as
a tool to supress others might also lead to getting same treatment from the other sides. This
will generate religious or ethnic goons who will have more probability to use such weapons.
Since behavioural theories talks about parents who cannot be changed by the individuals
hence it is not very correct approach to understand the knife crimes (Holligan, 2015). On the
other hand sociological theories will give a better representation of might a society may
change in the future and what course of actions can be taken against it.
Preventive Measures
It is critical for the governments to have an understanding about the facts that what is
increasing the knife crime. Preventive measures have to be taken on the basis of the theories.
Since behavioural theories underlines that it is the behaviour of the people that leads them to

commit this crime hence the government could take up educational programmes where from
the childhood good values and understanding about the crimes is being implanted within the
people (LÖsel and Bender, 2003). However the major role of their come from the
sociological theories where they need to develop a society where there is lesser amount of
crime. Since it is difficult for the governments to change the behaviour of the entire
individual hence it is more understandable that government works towards removing those
factors that actually made such situations for certain people (Farrall, et al. 2010). This can be
understood in terms of the examples related to unemployment and equality in the society.
This can again be explained in terms of the fact that if there will be more unemployment
there will be more scarcity of economic resources which again might lead to enhancement of
such crimes. The social theories need to place with more importance rather than behavioural
theories in the time of taking preventive measures. Social exclusion of the people also needs
to be removed so as to make sure that everyone feels safe and secured.
Conclusion
A conclusion can be drawn from the report that enhancement in the knife crimes. It is the
behaviour of the people and the social orientation that both leads to knife crimes. Behavioural
theories explains about the fact that how genes and other traits of the individual might lead
them to get indulged in the knife crime while the sociological theories explains that people
are from different segments of the society and faces different social situations which forces
them to commit particular crimes. It is not that certain people from criminal blood-line will
get indulged in these crimes rather the situation that they are facing plays a critical role in
developing these behaviours. Social theories are also capable of describing the mass
behaviour rather than the behaviour of the individuals.

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