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Date: November 25, 2024 Mon

Time: 8:04 pm

Results for gun-related crime

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Author: Squires, Peter

Title: Street Weapons Commission: Guns, Knives and Street Violence

Summary: The purpose of this report is to provide the Channel 4 Street Weapons Commission with an informed analysis of patterns and significant trends in 'gun and knife crime' across the country and also to focus specifically on five major cities - London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and Glasgow - over at least three years. In order to achieve this we have collated national and city-wide recorded crime statistics for the current and previous two years. Statistics have also been obtained from the Home Office and, where necessary, from separate police forces. In addition, local studies in the cities have been collated from the police forces and from local researchers. Where the evidence was available, we also sought police performance data detailing the impact of police interventions. An interim report of 10 to 12 pages was to be produced to provide background information to the Commission, and a final report, this report, was to present a more comprehensive analysis of trends and local differences in the recorded crime statistics whilst also collating the findings of local research reports and studies. The report would also provide a demographic analysis of those accused of gun- and knife-related crimes and, where possible, available victimisation data. The final report was to be up to 40 pages long. The fact that the interim report ran to over 40 pages and that this final report exceeds 100 suggests that there is no shortage of data, but that the issues are often complex and involved, and the data do not always easily speak for themselves but require careful interpretation. There are important gaps: for example, English and Welsh police forces were not required by the Home Office to collect knife crime data until 2007. In London, by contrast, although the Metropolitan Police have been collecting such data since 2003, in the midst of our recent 'knife crime crisis', the police figures seem to show knife crimes to be falling and few think them reliable indicators of the trend. Likewise, the police recorded crime data are generally collected and made available at the police force level. While the Metropolitan Police is generally (with the exception of the City of London Police district) coterminous with Greater London, the same is not true of Greater Manchester Police (covering a substantially larger area than the City of Manchester alone), Merseyside Police (extending beyond Liverpool) West Midlands Police (rather more extensive than Birmingham) and Strathclyde Police (covering rather more than just Glasgow). Generally speaking, police forces were often either unable or unwilling to provide city-level data of the type necessary to enable us to be able to make neat, city-based comparisons, although Home Office staff were able to help us to fill some of these gaps. With these kinds of considerations in mind, in the following pages we attempt to fulfil three related aims: 1. Collate the best available data capable of throwing light upon the nature, scale and relevant trends concerning young people and weapon-related violence. While the questions about scale and trends privilege the use of quantitative data, we will also be employing some more qualitative and experiential material to explain and explore issues further. 2. Interpret what the data is telling us, recognising that it is not always consistent, compatible or comparable. Data are often collected at different times for different purposes and may be more or less reliable, and sometimes the priorities and perspectives of the agencies undertaking the data collection may compromise the utility of that which is collated - they may not tell us what they claim or what we think. 3. Finally we intended to indicate where the gaps in the evidence base lie, as well as suggesting how those gaps may be filled and, where possible, what the evidence is likely to look like.

Details: London: Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, 2008. 108p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 20, 2019 at: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/C4%20Street%20crime_1.pdf

Year: 2008

Country: United Kingdom

URL: https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/C4%20Street%20crime_1.pdf

Shelf Number: 111535

Keywords:
Gun Violence
Gun-Related Crime
Knife Crime
Street Crimes
Violence
Violent Crime