A psychological perspective on youth knife culture

A psychological perspective on youth knife culture " Looking back I know that was wrong, but at that stage you end up in the mind frame you think-fuck this " Per-Olof Wikstrom for their comments and suggestions at various iterations of this report. 3 • Many young people carry knives not with the deliberate intention to harm, but to protect themselves or to gain respect from peers. It is important to decrease fear of crime and give young people alternative strategies to build self-esteem. • Although it is not possible to predict whether and when an individual will commit a violent crime, research into the psychology of violent behaviour has uncovered those individual and social factors that increase the likelihood of a violent act. • " Norms of behaviour " are acquired through social learning from family or peers. These norms can lead to automatic behaviour choices: when aggressed, retaliation is the only response that comes to mind. • Adolescence, a period of increased sensitivity to peer pressure, heightened interest in risk taking and decreased sensitivity to punishment, adds to the risk of getting involved in violent conflicts. • To work on the adolescent brain, deterrent and corrective measures should be built on positive feedback for good behaviour instead of negative feedback for bad behaviour. • Certainty of punishment and not the harshness of punishment deters young people from crime. • To decrease recidivism custodial punishment must be accompanied by appropriate, long term, psychological and social interventions. It is possible to change a young person's social environment, or give them the cognitive tools to diminish the impact of a negative social environment. • To increase efficiency all interventions should be designed based on scientific theories and evidence. Where possible, their impact should be evaluated using golden-standard statistical methods (i.e. randomized controlled trials). 4 Vivid stories of young people stabbing each other and of pupils bringing knives into school have attracted the attention of the media and of central policy makers in the recent past. Statistics released by hospital emergency rooms suggest that 'youth knife crime' reflects more than just a media phenomenon or a political catch phrase. The number of hospital stabbing admissions where the victims are under 18 years of age has doubled in the past five years [1]. In response to such figures a variety of measures have been initiated, aimed at tackling the emerging 'knife crime' and …