Who could have predicted that knife amnesties have no real impact on reducing knife crime?
In late August 2006 - six weeks after the operation ends - offence levels tend to return to pre-operation values
"Amnesties needed to be used in conjunction with other initiatives" like tougher and longer prison sentences perhaps?
Can we look forward to a similar study looking at the impact of a gun amnesty on gun crime?
If the penalty for carrying a knife - forget about using it - was, say, 10 years you would find an amnesty unecessary. The thugs would be falling over themselves to get rid of them.
ReplyDeleteInstead, we treat them as if they are suffering from a problem not of their making and for which we try our best to help them deal with, the poor loves.
How they must chortle.
Gary, I totally agree. Increasiung the risk of being caught by increasing the number of stop and searches would also have a significant impact.
ReplyDeleteI would expect such measures to reduce the prison population over time too.