Weapon-carrying and the Reduction of Violent Harm

Abstract

Criminology has much to offer activities to reduce the harm of violent incidents-particularly by reducing weapon-carrying and use-but the discipline's engagement with the harm reduction agenda has been limited. In addressing this, the paper identifies risk factors for carrying a weapon by a young person in England and Wales. It demonstrates that this decision is influenced by individual-, interpersonal-and community-level factors and that weapon carriers can be distinguished from other respondents using relatively few characteristics. The study also shows that defensive factors, such as victimisation and concerns about personal safety are relevant to understanding weapon-carrying, but they are outweighed by criminogenic factors such as violence, neighbourhood disorder and, importantly, lack of trust in the police.

Getting to the Point? Reframing Narratives on Knife Crime

“…A knife becomes the defender of the identity (not just the person), (Traynor 2016). When that identity is street-oriented towards a criminal/deviant lifestyle, weapon-carrying becomes an enhancing signifier of intent or immersion offering opportunities for group solidarity and bonding (see Harcourt 2006 andBrennan 2018).…”

“…Research into weapon-carrying, (notably motivations for knife-enabled crime), and youth violence, (notably the specifically situated dynamics/behaviours operating within street gangs), remains underfunded and inadequate. It is hoped the above insights, plus those of Brennan (2018) and Traynor (2016), which offer more nuanced interpretations of the variant motivations for weapon-carrying and knife-enabled crime will find a translation into policy. We must recognise that over-simplified dichotomies of fear/protection are insufficiently generalist and fail to account for the victim/offender nexus.…”

“…Brennan (2018: 587) argues lack of trust in the police is an important overlooked variable in research. He notes weapon-carrying is consistent with anti-social, anti-police attitudes and might reflect immersion in criminal lifestyles as much as it reflects responses to potential victimisation.…”

“…Knife-enabled crime has emerged as the most significant national debate on UK youth crime for several years with public debates mostly exploring offenders’ motivations which then centre on commonly recognised tropes of protection, safety, ubiquity and normativity. Recent academic research continues to widen these motivational debates acknowledging perceptional insecurity (Traynor, 2016), engagement in deviant lifestyles (Harcourt, 2006) and lack of trust in police (Brennan, 2018) as key variables. Building upon these perspectives, this article seeks to reframe the dominant narrative by examining how knife-carrying and knife-enabled crime is also a signifier of street ‘authenticity’ and, thus for some, an agentic route to advancement within the social field of the street gang.…”

The Black Criminal Other as an Object of Social Control

“…The evidence examined here confirms that there is no ontological value to the racialised gang, and therefore, those police and policy responses to the problem of serious violent crime that are framed through this analytically useless construct will never prevent violence and its concomitant harms. Relatedly analysis published recently of the causal factors in weapon-carrying and violent harm points to the significance of new criminogenic factors, including distrust of the police (Brennan 2018). The evidence discussed here affirms that politicians, control agencies, media, and academics must be held accountable for their role in producing crime and harm.…”