Published 17 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a849
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a849

Editorials

Tackling knife violence

Every emergency department should contribute to local crime reduction partnerships

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A spate of knife killings in the United Kingdom, largely of young Londoners, has prompted outrage in the media, fear on the part of citizens, and new policy proposals from government. According to the authoritative British crime survey, weapons were used in around a quarter of violent incidents in England and Wales in 2006-7, although the survey does not take account of crime affecting people under 16 years.1 According to this source, the annual prevalence of knife use has remained constant at around 7% of all violent incidents since 2000. Hospital episode statistics show that rates of hospital admission in England after violence of all types increased (from 82.7/100 000 population in 2000-1 to 114.4/100 000 in 2006-7) at almost exactly the same rate as admissions after knife violence (from 8.5/100 000 to 11.3/100 000). In contrast, rates of treatment in emergency departments after violence of all types decreased from . . . [Full text of this article]

Jonathan Shepherd, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and director, Iain Brennan, research assistant

1 Violence Research Group, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF14 4XY

shepherdjp@cardiff.ac.uk


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This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Hughes, G. (2009). Knife crime reporting. Emerg. Med. J. 26: 80-80 [Full text]  

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Tackling knife violence
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