In the wake of the Daily Record front page today – The Media’s Alarming Influence on Knife Crime Perception

stewartb

From a UK charity with a mission to reduce knife crime and improve community safety – https://knives4lives.co.uk

‘The Media’s Alarming Influence on Knife Crime Perception’ (November 15, 2024) – ‘The media holds significant power in shaping public perception and policy around knife crime in the UK.

‘While its role in raising awareness is vital, media outlets need to offer balanced reporting. Their reporting should be nuanced and precise. By doing so, they can help foster informed public discourse. This approach can also reduce fear and stigmatisation.’

And on what media influence could facilitate: ‘Furthermore, it supports the development of effective, long-term solutions to this pressing issue. For the community at large, understanding the media’s impact on knife crime is crucial. This understanding aids in advocating for positive change. It also supports efforts to create safer, more resilient communities.’ (my emphasis)

So has the Daily Record in its latest article on knife crime passed this charity’s tests of providing nuanced and precise reporting which helps foster informed public discourse – given its amplification of emotive language; its focus on reporting highly personalised attacks on the FM; the absence of context in the article; the absence of perspective, either by, for example, reporting objective, statistical evidence from within Scotland or from elsewhere in the UK or internationally; the absence of information or insight on the wide range of actions being taken in Scotland , including with Scottish Government support, on this and cognate issues, including initiatives widely praised by informed third parties outside Scotland?

The answer seems blindingly obvious! The underlying reason as to why – based on this media outlet’s track record – may be only too obvious as well!

The Record’s ill-informed call for more stop and search

The Daily Record article on knife crime amplifies demands for the use of ‘stop and search’ powers by Police Scotland. It takes untill the very last sentence of a long article for the reader to be told that “In relation to stop and search, police officers have the power to carry out stop and search and this is an operational matter for Police Scotland.” (Justice Secretary, Scottish Government)

But no reporting of current and recent trends in the use of ‘stop and search’ in Scotland and whether it is effective or not, no indication of what further powers are wanted by advocates; and no mention of the following – all of which would have ‘fostered informed public discourse’!

The Independent (November 25, 2018) ‘Stop and search has no real impact on reducing knife crime, research suggests – Exclusive: ‘Attempts to punish and prosecute our way out of knife crime are doomed to failure,’ researchers say.’

Here we learn: ‘Researchers from the Centre of Crime and Justice Studies examined data including a study commissioned by the Home Office – and concluded there was “limited evidence of the effectiveness of stop and search in reducing crime”.’ (my emphasis)

‘A Home Office study of targeted weapons searches in London found no statistically significant reductions in crime as a result of the intervention, and a College of Policing report looking at 10 years of Metropolitan Police data “found only a weak relationship between stop and search and overall levels of the types of crimes the practice aims to reduce”.’

And from the College of Policing (January 1, 2019) Interventions to reduce knife crime (https://www.college.police.uk/guidance/knife-crime-evidence-briefing/interventions-reduce-knife-crime )

‘Analysis over a ten-year period suggests stop and search has a marginal deterrent effect on violent crime rates overall (Tiratelli and others, 2018). An evaluation of a stop and search initiative aimed specifically at knife crime found no statistically significant crime reduction effects (McCandless and others, 2016), although the authors were not able to consider local targeting. Focused police patrol activity, including stops and stop and search, has been found to reduce crime in targeted violence hotspots in the US (Ratcliffe and others, 2011; Weisburd and others, 2015; MacDonald and others, 2016)’

Knife crime reduction – what actually works?

The same College of Policing briefing referred to above, which casts doubt on the efficacy of ‘stop and search’, also states this on tackling knife crime:

‘… the best available evidence suggests the most effective approaches tend to be multi-faceted and involve prevention at the earliest opportunity and multi-agency collaborative working. In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the value of public health approaches to addressing violence (Bellis and others, 2012), for example in Scotland.‘

‘In Scotland, the development of an approach involving the police, social services, youth and community services, offending and probation teams, the NHS and local voluntary organisations, seems to be achieving results – with violent crime reaching a 41-year low in 2017 (Linden, 2018).

‘The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit has developed a range of interventions focusing on preventing the onset and progression of violence, rehabilitating offenders, developing criminal justice approaches to reduce offending, and changing attitudes and behaviours on a societal, community and personal level.’

And the College of Policing is not alone in its view – ‘Tackling Knife Crime: Current Legislation and Policies’ (January 27, 2025) – from https://knives4lives.co.uk

‘Knife crime is a pressing issue in the UK, affecting communities, families, and young people. To tackle this problem, a multi-faceted approach involving public health strategies, multi-agency collaborations, and community-based interventions is essential. Here are some effective strategies and successful programs from around the UK:

‘Public health approaches to knife crime prevention focus on addressing the root causes of violence and promoting healthier communities. These strategies involve collaboration between various sectors, including healthcare, education, social services, and law enforcement. One notable example is the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (VRU). It has successfully reduced violent crime by adopting a public health model. The VRU collaborates with the police, social services, and youth and community services. It also works with the NHS and local voluntary organizations. Together, they prevent violence and rehabilitate offenders.

‘The Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in Scotland has been particularly successful’.

For another up to date insight into addressing the carrying of knives and any propensity to violence specifically in the context of Scotland’s schools, this may be of interest:

Scottish Government (March 2025) Improving relationships and behaviour in schools: ensuring safe and consistent environments for all. Joint action plan 2024 – 2027, Progress Report.

The chapter entitled ‘Theme 5: Reducing violence and harm in schools‘ outlines the ongoing activities of organisations in Scotland, including button limited to:

  • ‘Medics Against Violence engaging with young people highlighting the consequences of knife carrying and knife injuries in primary schools, youth clubs and secondary schools.
  • The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit work to develop a community of practice for over 100 police School Liaison Officers across Scotland, working directly in schools to engage early with young people and their families.
  • The Scottish Violence Reduction Unit provided training to over 800 teachers in schools to provide young people with key messages on violence, reaching 19 local authorities across Scotland.
  • YouthLink Scotland have delivered various online and face to face No Knives, Better Lives training sessions to 703 practitioners working with young people. In addition, the No Knives, Better Lives programme worked directly with 274 young people.
  • Supporting Education Scotland to deliver the Mentors in Violence Prevention programme, in over 200 schools across all 32 local authorities. This included 5,800 senior pupil mentors delivering 7,733 violence prevention lessons to more young people.’

Could more be done? As in any area of public policy, the answer is – usually is – obvious!

13 thoughts on “In the wake of the Daily Record front page today – The Media’s Alarming Influence on Knife Crime Perception”

  1. knife crime was a major problem in Glasgow about 30 years ago and the medical officer of health discovered that the way to solve it was not through education policing incarceration or any other measure addressing the symptoms but to address the causes.
    By eradicating poor housing, poverty and unemployment knife crime goes away of its own accord

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  2. I’ve said this before, when we were kids in NE England, we told not to go to Glasgow ever. It was were told it was a totally dangerous crime ridden city to be avoided at all costs. Was it not the ‘crime capital of Europe’ as touted by the BritNats.
    My neighbour now in his 80’s wa s school teacher in I think west of Scotland. He told me the kids, mostly boys just did not care about learning, or doing homework at all, they had no prospects why should they.
    Let’s remember that was all happening when Scotland was under full control of England, and would have been when the £trillions worth of oil was about to be siphoned away to line the pockets of US oil companies etc. You don’t keep people content, equal or able to thrive as they should when you are taking their vast resources. Just have to look at what the US did to Latin American countries, and still do, for that.

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  5. This article is about an ITV production which was broadcast on 5 on 8th May 2025.

    https://www.itn.co.uk/media-centre/5-documentary-talks-families-children-murdered-their-peers

    “The nation is facing a chilling new reality: a shocking rise in child killers—and their victims—is gripping Britain. Murder convictions for minors in England and Wales have quadrupled since 2016.”

    continues

    “Social media platforms now play a central role in many youth crimes fuelling grudges, fuelling rage and, sometimes, costing lives.”

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  6. Today’s Daily Record:

    “How many more kids have to die”

    Teenage Knife crime epidemic“

    This is now apparently something the Daily Record (Paul Hutcheon) have taken up and they say that “John Swinney has pledged to act on youth violence in response to the Daily Record’s plea“. So basically someone, checks notes, Paul Hutcheon has ambushed the FM, after FMQ’s, and asked him what he is going to do about this and obviously he has responded in a positive manner.

    The Daily Record now see this as a political weapon to help Sarwar next year and so it is likely this will not be dropped any time soon, indeed other papers have picked this story up also , that is to temporarily replace the Ferry stories, which as a Ferry story they labelled as being a “fiasco” and a “scandal” , while ignoring the many many fiascos and scandals connected to HQ political parties and so they as a media, never constantly also doorstepped the various branch office managers in Scotland upon these respective HQ’s “fiasco’s” and “scandals”.

    #BranchOfficeSamePartyAsTheirHQ’s

    The Scotsman:

    “Swinney told to be tougher over youth knife crime”

    Apparently Tory Russell Findlay was lecturing Mr Swinney on this yesterday at FMQ’s, when his own Tory HQ party , as the previous UK government, could not get a grasp on how to reduce knife crime in England and also reduce or eliminate serious assaults via knife and gun crime in England when they were in power prior to the Labour party.

    However Mr Findlay does not want anyone, including himself, to recognise the blatant hypocrisy in him lecturing anyone , especially our FM, on what he says is an increase in serious assaults in Scotland while ‘serious assaults’ and knife crime which have tragically led to far far more young people’s deaths in England were all on the Tory HQ’s watch (his party) as the former UK government.

    The Daily Express:

    “Violent Youth crime up 600% on the SNP’s watch”

    (That BTW was a Russell Findlay quote at yesterday’s FMQ’s).

    The Express added in the text of the article that “thousands of parents are now terrified every time their child leaves home”.

    “thousands” ?

    When was this survey conducted on “thousands of parents” who all said they were “terrified every time their child leaves home” ?

    We need to know, as should the SNP be aware of when this survey was conducted on “thousands of parents” , as that really would mean this, as a serious problem, would indeed be of epidemic proportions, which I am not aware that it is at that stage yet.

    Of course any political attack against the SNP is never complete unless BBC Scotland also take up the cause and so make it their top story on their BBC Scottish Politics page:

    “Swinney accused of being ‘weak’ on teenage knife crime at FMQs”

    Did I not state yesterday in my comment on here this:

    “Let’s see if he, Sarwar, jumps on this DR bandwagon, it would be as hypocritical for him to do so just as it also would be for the Tories in Scotland to do as well, the Tories whose own party as the previous UK government saw an increase in knife crime deaths in England on their watch “.

    Lo and behold as sure as night follows day at yesterday’s FMQ’s then what did we then see and here , also what have the BBC Scotland on their webiste now predictably chosen to be their main headline in being their top story on their Scottish Politics page ?

    BBC article included Sarwar stating that:

    ” many parents are asking how the government has allowed things to get out of control” ( “many parents” so not “thousands” then as per the Daily Express article).

    They , the BBC, also noted in their article that Findlay stated: ” “teenagers do not feel safe when they leave the house”

    ( So not just the parents who are “terrified” for the safety of their children when they, as teenagers, leave the house , as per the Daily Express article, but also the teenagers themselves do not feel safe, though it did not state it was “thousands” of teenagers).

    Added onto the article was a ‘analysis’ piece by Philip Sim headed as:

    “Swinney seems more and more keen to talk independence“

    “What’s particularly notable is that Mr Swinney used this as an opportunity to talk about independence”.

    Well they, the SNP, are known to be a party who supports Scottish independence so it is hardly unusual to talk about it, just as the opposition parties (and the media too) all incessantly talk about and support the NON Union , that only , as a (non) Union, exists in their minds (but only when it suits them to refer to it as a “Union”).

    Also noted in the article under analysis was this:

    “Three young deaths – knife crime is getting worse, says Labour MSP“

    “Labour’s Foysol Choudhury asks how the Scottish government is working to prevent it” ?

    Strange is it not how quick the opposition and also the media are in their condemnation on this particular subject now, yet that same opposition and that same media were predictably very very quiet previously on the success that Scotland had achieved in reducing knife crime here in for many many years in treating it as a Public Health issue, which as a successful method, has now been adopted elsewhere in the UK where there has been a huge problem in serious assaults with gun and knife crime deaths.

    In my comment yesterday I stated that any death is tragic in such circumstances but the fact that the Tories, Labour and their always obliging combined client media all have grasped onto this as a weapon with which to attack the SNP upon , is no coincidence.

    Unfortunately yet again the media here ,and the opposition parties also, all want the public to assume that only in Scotland and only with the SNP as the Scottish government is this, as a matter, to be seen as a failure by a government within the UK.

    However simultanously , we as a public within Scotland, are then expected to either forget or ignore (or not be told by the media) just how bad this, as a situation, is as a huge huge problem that remains unsolved elsewhere within the UK, and is also , as a huge problem, far far worse than in Scotland.

    This is now currently being excessively promoted by the politically compromised and duplicitous media within Scotland (and elsewhere) in their ongoing vendetta in them targeting the SNP yet again.

    No matter the subject and no matter the data/stats that are connected to various nations within the UK , we will always see that the so called media in Scotland will always take the side/position of the pro UK political parties and never ever defend anything or anyone connected to the SNP, as a party , or as the Scottish government.

    The fact that tragic situations are exploited and used as political weapons is for them, the opposition and the media, of no consequence, as they all have a mission and it is not what they promote it to be on their front pages , their websites or their Q’s at FMQ’s but it solely a mission to destroy support for the SNP, this time their attacks are is being done prior to the major election next year in 2026 in Scotland.

    Also what really lies behind every single media attack and also every opposition party attacks upon the SNP, is their combined motivation of trying to stop support for Scottish independence ever increasing within Scotland.

    That is the bottom line always for all pro UK media and all pro UK political parties. And they are (all) doing it deliberately too.

    Vote SNP via majority in 2026 to show them all that we , in Scotland, are more than aware of who it is who really fails us within their UK, and it is not the SNP, but it is the UK media (ITO) and also very much all of the UK opposition parties, whose own party HQ’s call the shots as to what happens in Scotland , and where many of them as party HQ’s have a catalogue of failures as governments within their UK (either as an outright government or as part of a coalition government).

    Where as UK governments they have unleashed “Chaos” within their UK and also are responsible for thousands of deaths via their cruel austerity measures.

    Though most of the media HQ’s based outwith Scotland also do their bit to keep Scotland under the political control of their UK aka England and also with them, as a UK media, suppressing or downplaying #BAD news connected to political HQ UK parties as governments within their UK, past and present. ( mainly to try to protect the respective branch office parties in Scotland).

    This terrible UK where UK bad politics are seemingly now the norm and where their respective UK client media are even worse than the UK parties that they all try to defend and protect.

    We, Scotland, desperately need out of their UK , but for that to happen we need more people in Scotland to (finally) open their eyes and so fully absorb the true position as it currently stands , which as a position , will get even worse with Reform UK now apparently ascending in many of the UK polls .

    See it has got even far far far worse for Scotland post 2014 , so much for us being #BetterTogether with the rest of their UK , still waiting for that to happen !

    Liz S

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    1. *Lo and behold as sure as night follows day at yesterday’s FMQ’s then what did we then see and here 

      *hear

      Any other mistakes in my comment , well what can I say, I am an idiot Ha Ha

      Predictive text is the opposition of many who write (way too) long comments onto blogs and so , as (way too) long comments , those people like me who write them then fail to proofread them and so edit their (way too) long comments prior to their submitting their comments Ha Ha

      Liz S

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  7. I saw online today that in last night’s BBC QT that a Labour MP and Minister ,Nick Thomas-Symonds , said in response to a Q on the Labour PM’s partial and not full U-Turn on WFP:

    “I don’t think anyone thinks it is a good use of public money to be paying the winter fuel payment to millionaires”.

    Really ?

    Though surely then it is also correct to surmise that most ‘ordinary’ people would also think that with Labour, as a UK party, receiving substantial amounts as political financial donations from millionaires , that is then seen as something that is grossly unfair , distasteful and so unacceptable in UK politics, indeed it is as Peter Geoghegan states in his book what amounts to being “Democracy for Sale: Dark money and Dirty Politics”.

    Also do the public also not see it as unfair that Labour are punishing the weak and vulnerable within their UK in order to protect the financial interests of many millionaires and also the financial interests of very wealthy non doms too (who are also either millionaires or billionaires).

    That is with Labour choosing to not create a wealth tax upon Millionaires or Billionaires or where Rachel Reeves announced a decision to tweak the transition period for nom doms, where she ,Reeves , said: “We have been listening to the concerns that have been raised by the non-dom community.”

    “Reeves told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos that changes would be made to upcoming legislation to increase the generosity of a facility to help non-doms repatriate their funds to the UK.

    However Labour formerly pledged to scrap the status in its election manifesto, saying this would address unfairness in the tax system and raise extra money for public services”.

    Now with Labour it is a case of “changes will be made to the Temporary Repatriation Facility, a three-year scheme to help ex non-doms (millionaires and billionaires) bring their assets to the UK at a discounted tax rate”.

    Dave Doogan, a SNP MP, said Reeves had “a listening ear for millionaires” but was “deaf to the difficulties of those millions still struggling with the cost-of-living crisis”.

    Indeed at the time of imposing the cuts to the Universal WFP for pensioners the backlash from pensioners fell on deaf ears as far as Labour were concerned.

    As has Labour’s proposed cuts and changes to welfare benefits and cuts also fallen on deaf ears with Labour, in yet another backlash against another one of Labour’s cruel and punishing policies , that impacts, yet again, only the most vulnerable within their UK and not the millionaires. (as does Labour also retaining the Tory party’s two child cap policy only negatively impact the poorest within their UK).

    Then of course not capping bankers bonuses as well, that is surely not a popular decision with the public either , that has been made , as a decision by this new Labour UK government , as that is also, as a Labour UK government decision, one that only financially benefits millionaire bankers.

    Nick Thomas-Symonds is another Labour politician who is blind to his own hypocrisy and is seemingly also blind to that of his own political party’s hypocrisy as the new UK government.

    The whole point of the backlash against Labour as a UK government deciding to cut the Universal WFP for pensioners was because they, as a UK government, refused to impose similar ‘sanctions’ against the most wealthy within their UK, as seemingly they , as a Labour UK government , only want to attack and penalise the less wealthy and most vulnerable within their UK.

    Vote SNP via a majority in 2026 or fall for even more terrible fake propaganda from the likes of Nick Thomas-Symonds who like most of Labour politicians , are intentionally in denial to their own failings as a party and as a new UK government.

    Liz S

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    1. *As has Labour’s proposed cuts and changes to welfare benefits and cuts also fallen on deaf ears 

      *cuts should be deleted.

      OMG I give up….Ha Ha

      Liz S

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    2. On “I don’t think anyone thinks it is a good use of public money to be paying the winter fuel payment to millionaires”, can this bullshit diversionary argument finally be buried alongside Nick Thomas-Symonds please.

      The number of ‘millionaires’ in the UK has rocketed in recent decades mainly in the south and on the back of property prices and property investment, but it tells you absolutely nothing about income and thereby dependency on ‘winter fuel payment’.

      ‘In 2023, the United Kingdom had an estimated 3,061,553 millionaires. This number is expected to decrease to 2,542,464 by 2028, according to UBS/Credit Suisse estimates’ – The number of working age adults in the UK (2023) was 45.7 million, so statistically 1 in 15 didn’t deserve support, but how do we know given the perverse definition of millionaire and dominance of south England political thinking ?

      Even someone with half a brain (Nick Thomas-Symonds may be stretching the point) could have connected the dots and come up with a solution between HMRC data, lowest temperature by address, and voila, ‘winter fuel allowance’ is allocated – But that wouldn’t suit the ‘focus groups’ in SE England, which have so dominated UK political thinking for the last 50 odd years

      It may sound perverse, but millions of non-‘millionaires’ in England dumped Starmer on back of this ‘difficult decisions’ bullshit immediately prior to winter, but the above ‘simple’ solution would not improve Labour’s popularity one iota in the deep south, where the ‘focus’ (or more accurately ‘fuckem’) groups pervade.

      Bluntly ‘the Union’ is a busted flush, even in England, complete with solids in the river.

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