Investigate The Factors Influencing The Prevalence Of Knife Crime In Urban Areas In The UK
Research Question
To investigate the factors influencing the prevalence of knife crime in urban areas.
Sub-research questions
Is knife crime getting worse? What are the key factors?
Some factors:
- Policing – racism
- Poverty
- Criminal justice system
- Gender - tara young
Literature:
Elaine Williams knife crime – rethinking knife crime Tara young - shemale gangsters/ gangs
Squires 2009 - knife crime
Background literature
Across the Uk there has been a remarkable public concern in relation to knife crime, including reports emphasizing on the sharp weapons used. Metropolitan regions like London, the West Midlands are reported to be the three areas with highest rates of knife related incidents.Manchester has especially high paces of blade related wrongdoings per capita. London alone detailed a 16% ascent in blade related wrongdoings throughout the year 2023, adding to a disturbing expansion in youth fatalities related with blades 1(www.ons.gov.uk, 2023). While statistics from west midlands areas calculate to around 180 offences per 100,000 of population. This shows a constant rise in the knife violence having influence on safety 2 (Mathers, 2024).
Growing knife crime rates lead to serious implications for community safety, youth development, and healthcare services. Statistics show to have reported over 3,800 hospital admissions for knife injuries in the year ending June 2024, underscoring the financial and
physical toll that knife crime imposes on healthcare resources. Even though this is less than the previous year, the rise of injuries bounces back on the constant risks related with knife violence (www.ons.gov.uk, 2023).
Empirical Study
According to White et al. (2024) explore some key factors that are mainly responsible for the rising knife violence of the younger generation of the UK (White et al. 2024). The author identified that youth violence is the main leading factor and is responsible for the rising death of the 10-29 years of younger population. Lack of proper opportunities for education, gang prevention, and job are the responsible factors for the rising concern of this type of knife crime.
Theory and Models
Adoption of various “models and theories” like “Social Learning Theory Model” and “Starten Theory” helps to identify factor of rising concern of knife crime in the UK.
Strain Theory
Robert Merton first proposed this theory, which describes that people commit crimes when the minimal goal cannot be achieved (Reilly et al. 2022). Adoption of these theories helps to understand the responsible factors like poverty, stress, and absence of opportunities are the key factor for increasing of this type of “knife crime”.
Figure 1: Strain Theory
(Source: https://www.tutorsploit.com/sociology/strain-theory-definitions-examples-and-overview/)
Literature Gap
The literature gap helps to determine the future scope of the research area. White et al. (2024) emphasized only the secondary existing literature that limited the research area. Also, the author failed to identify the main factors that are responsible for the rise in this type of knife crime in the UK.
Methodology
Research Philosophy
Interpretivism is the “research philosophy” adopted in this study because it focuses on issues of observer constructions of knife crime in urban regions. It was used to apprehend the practical aspects of knife crime instead of concentrating on bare numbers.
Research Onion
Figure 2: Research Onion
(Source: Saunders et al. 2019)
Research approach
An “inductive approach” are used, where theories will be formulated to fit the data collected from the work environment (Vulliamy et al. 2022). The study will be non-experimental since its purpose is to find out patterns and themes in order to find out more information concerning the causes of knife crime than to confirm hypotheses.
Research Design
A type of “Qualitative research method” adopted to analyze the social factors relating to knife crime. This is possible since this design will enable the identification of those factors that explain knife related crime with emphasis on the personal meanings as well as their perceptions.
Research Method
Consequently, the study used a “mono-method” which involved Secondary data sources. This method will help in establishing social, cultural, and contextual aspects that might be influential in knife crime.
Data Collection Process
Secondary data are obtained from sources such as Google Scholar, articles, research publications, reputable journals, articles, policy papers, or government publications in order to have a broad perspective of the issue.
Data Analysis Method
The thematic analysis methods are mainly used to determine potential themes within socio-cultural aspects that contribute to knife crime.
Research Ethics
This research did not support any biased analysis and maintain the privacy concern.
Research Limitation
However, this study suffers from the use of secondary data whereby sometimes the information received may be less contextual and timely and therefore may exclude local complexities and experiences that people involved in knife crime go through.
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References list
Journals
Reilly, J.J., Naumann, D.N., Morris, L., Blackburn, L. and Brooks, A., 2022. Injury by knife crime amongst children is associated with socioeconomic deprivation: an observational study. Pediatric surgery international, 39(1), p.8.
Vulliamy, P., Hancorn, K., Glasgow, S., West, A., Davenport, R.A., Brohi, K. and Griffiths, M.P., 2022. Age-related injury patterns resulting from knife violence in an urban population. Scientific reports, 12(1), p.15250.
White, M., Vinnakota, D., Hussain, R. and Sivasubramanian, M., 2024. Exploring the Factors Responsible for Gun and Knife Violence Among the Young Generation in the UK: A Scoping Review. Asian Journal of Public Health and Nursing, 1(2).
Website
www.ons.gov.uk. (2023). Crime in England and Wales - Office for National Statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crim einenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2023#knife-or-sharp-instrument-offences.
Mathers, M. (2024). Mapped: Worst Areas for Knife Crime in the UK as Incidents Rise across Country. [online] The Independent. Available at:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/knife-crime-up-7-per-cent-map- b2534853.html.
