Are we losing the fight against knife crime? Croydon victim is 15th teen to die this year in London

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The failure to tackle knife crime is a “national crisis”, grieving families have warned, after a “bright and funny” schoolgirl became the 15th teenager to die in the capital so far this year.

The heartbroken parents of Elianne Andam, 15, said their lives had “fallen apart” after the GSCE student was stabbed in the neck on her way to school in Croydon, south London, on Wednesday.

They join 14 other families already shattered by losing a teenager to violent crime in London this year, 13 of which were stabbed.

The horrifying toll has already exceeded last year’s total of 14 teen deaths, while 2021 was the highest year on record with 30 teen killings.

In response, knife crime campaigners are demanding politicians take “lasting action”, adding: “It’s time for politicians to come together and lay down party differences and talk about tackling this for a generation.”

Former Eastenders star Brooke Kinsella, whose brother Ben was murdered in 2008, told the Independent: “Knife crime is not an isolated problem with isolated solutions. It is a symptom of deeper societal issues; a failure of successive governments.

“Ben was murdered 15 years ago and in that time, I have seen no meaningful change. It breaks my heart whenever I hear of another life being lost, another family torn apart and another community shattered.

“We need lasting change, lasting funding with cross-party support and a commitment to our young people, so families like mine will no longer have to suffer this immeasurable grief.”

Police forces in England and Wales recorded over 2,000 extra knife crimes year on year – with 50,489 offences in the year to March 2023, up from 48,204 in the previous 12 months.

However levels have not returned to those seen before the Covid-19 pandemic, when 54,293 knife offences were recorded in the year to March 2020.

Separate data shows London alone has had nearly 10,000 knife crime offences so far this year, with 9,541 offences recorded from January to August. This is up from 7,969 in the same period in 2022 but below the 10,207 recorded in 2019.

Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust, called for governments to stop looking for “quick fixes” and invest in “systemic” and “holistic” changes, including work on education, prevention and early intervention.

“One of the challenges with knife crime is that while we desperately want to change things there are no quick fixes. After a tragic incident like Croydon there can be a knee jerk reaction,” he told the Independent.

“It’s a really difficult complex problem that no government in the last 15 years – and we have had Labour, a coalition and several incarnations of Conservative government, and none of them have got this right.”

He praised initiatives like London’s Violence Reduction Unit, one of 19 such units across the country which sees local groups collaborate to help drive young people away from knife crime, but said they need “greater investment” to address the full scale of the problem.

He also fears that social media has amplified the myth that carrying a knife keeps you safe.

“More and more young people believe it and we believe it’s linked to what they are seeing on social media – content that glamourises violence and scares them,” he added.

“We need early intervention and preventative work. Give them positive interactions with people teaching them how to stay safe. It’s basic. We can’t let social media educate our young people.”

On Thursday the Prime Minister told the BBC he was “appalled” by the shocking stabbing, which took place in front of horrified commuters, and called for tougher jail terms for offenders.

Luther star Idris Elba echoed calls for harsher punishments. “It is a shame our country still mourns the deaths of children at the hands of knives,” he wrote in Instagram.

“We NEED to enforce tougher deterrents and punishments to those carrying weapons.”

But Barry Mizen, who has dedicated his life to educating people about knife crime since his son Jimmy was murdered in Lee, southeast London, in 2008, said measures like tougher sentences were not the answer. 

“I personally don’t think you can set a deterrent. You can warn what you like, but it doesn’t register,” he told the Independent.

“There will always be calls for increases in punishment. When Jimmy died, the statutory tariff was 15 years in those days. It now stands at 25 – but that doesn’t solve it. It’s worse now than it’s ever been.

“We are only nine months through the year. Are four or five more young people going to die before the end of the year? And next year, are there 15 or more young people walking around who will be dead soon?”

Instead, he called for greater investment in neighbourhood policing and community engagement projects, including talks in schools – of which he and his wife, Margaret, have delivered hundreds through the foundation they founded in Jimmy’s memory.

“Get police on the beat back out there in the numbers that are needed. Get those relationships built and get some stability,” he said.

Similarly, he said moves such as last month’s expansion of knife bans to outlaw zombie knives and machetes, was “grasping at straws”.

“We are surrounded by weapons. The weapons used to kill my son was a glass dish smashed into his face. I think we are grasping at straws,” he added.

“We think if we make things hard to get hold of, it will stop. Guns are hard to get hold of but people still get shot. If you change the law, yes it’s hard for you to get that weapon but then you can pick up something else.

“It gives a false sense of progress. You can ban machete knives, you can ban double the punishment – I don’t that is going to stop it.”

A spokesperson for the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, paid tribute to Elianne, who had dreams of being a lawyer.

He said the Mayor has invested record amounts in policing the capital, with 1,300 new officers and 500 new Police Community Support Officers set to be in post by next April, however he admitted there is “more work to do”.

The spokesman added: “Against the backdrop of devastating Government cuts which have decimated youth services in London and across the country, the Mayor has also invested record amounts in his Violence Reduction Unit to tackle violence through early intervention work and funding more than 150,000 positive opportunities for our capital’s young people.”

A Home Office spokesperson said their “thoughts are with” Elianne Adnan’s family, following Wednesday’s knife attack.

The added: “The government is committed to tackling youth violence which is why we are providing police forces with additional resources to tackle crime. Since 2019, we have invested over £170 million into the development of Violence Reduction Units and they have reached over 215,000 vulnerable young people in their third year of funding alone.

“We are also investing £200m over ten years in the Youth Endowment Fund to understand how to better prevent youth violence - this provides funding for over 230 organisations, which have reached over 117,000 young people since the fund was set up in 2019.”