Government launches tough new anti-knife crime campaign

Featuring hard-hitting adverts, designed by young people for young people, the government is investing £3 million in the campaign over the next three years.

The campaign features national radio, website and mobile phone adverts. It follows discussions between the Home Office and 70 young people aged 10 to 16, which took place in February and March this year.

Mayor Boris Johnson has made tackling knife crime one of his top priorities in London, and on 30 May, Ray Lewis, Deputy Mayor for Young People, and Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing, met with families affected by knife and gun crime.

The meeting followed the launch of the Met Police’s Operation Blunt Two that has seen knife detecting arches put in place at ten areas across London most affected by this problem.

This follows the government’s recent doubling of the maximum sentence for those caught carrying an illegal knife to four years in jail, rather than two.

Results from the Met Police Authority’s new Youth Scrutiny research (PDF) involving interviews with 1,000 young Londoners about their experiences, as victims, witnesses and perpetrators of crime, has been published.

Hear the radio adverts.

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