I've been teaching challenging and complex young people for five years now and since moving to London in 2017, I have seen at firsthand the devastation knife crime is having on the lives of young people and their families in the capital. I often ask the young people I teach on a daily basis questions surrounding the topic of knife crime; “how can we help stop knife crime and kids killing each other?" The answers often range from. "You can't stop it!" and "It's only going to get worse!" and "Gangs will never stop having beef with each other!" Seeing how defeated these young people are to the point where it's 'normal' to hear of a stabbing or another teenager murdered on the evening news, has become a way of life for them and a general occurrence. There must be a way that we as a society can make a change and educate our young people's mindset to avoid them getting involved with knife crime. Knife crime is one of the biggest killers in the UK with London being the capital of knife crime of the nation.
Here are are the stats:
“Suspects convicted of all 252 killings in the year to March 2018, were most likely to be aged 16-24.”
“There were 285 killings by a knife or sharp instrument in the 12 months ending March 2018.”
“Those stabbed to death are predominantly young men.”
Source: Office for National Statistics
Here at Steel Beats I'm launching a project to:
"PUT DOWN THE KNIVES and GET ON THE DECKS!
I want young people to delve into the music they love and learn the art of DJing. I want them to focus on something that is creative, cool and a potential money maker. It goes without saying; it's a much better alternative compared to being trapped in postcode gang warfare and being at risk of being stabbed or being a convicted murderer, which will result in either a prison cell or a body bag, before reaching adulthood.
Wow, this information is so sad to hear. In the USA it's guns and in the UK it'd knives. This world is so crazy! Thank you John.