Why education and young people are key to driving down knife crime

In the latest part of the YEP’s series on crime in schools, figures lay bare the number of incidents that involve blades.

It comes after this newspaper only last month reported how the number of people – including adults – caught with knives and illegal weapons in Leeds doubled over the last five years.

Police warn that the rise, in their view, should be attributed to “increased activity to clamp down on knife crime and serious violent crime” and other proactive policing methods.

But there is another message from police that everyone should heed: young people are part of the solution, not the problem.

It is through that education, officers say, and raising awareness from a young age, that people can be deterred people from a life of crime which can all too often spiral out of control after being caught with a knife in school.

We must ensure that our city’s young people are aware of the dangers.