Research shows little improvement between areas targeted by the 'tackling knives action programme' and those that were not
The Labour government's high-profile drive to tackle teenage knife crime in hotspots across England and Wales had little impact, according to the first evaluation of the programme.
The tackling knives action programme (TKAP) was launched by Downing Street and the Home Office in June 2008 in 10 police-force areas in response to a record number of fatal stabbings involving teenage victims.
In April 2009, the then home secretary, Jacqui Smith, launched the second phase of the campaign, which was extended to 16 police-force areas and rebranded as the "tackling knives and serious youth violence campaign". TKAP ran until March 2010 and was targeted at 13- to 24-year-olds.
Home Office research published on Tuesday says there were reductions in serious violence involving teenagers and young adults across the country between 2007 and 2010, with little discernible difference between those areas targeted by the programme and those that were not.
"However, comparing the phase-two period with the previous years, improvements in the non-TKAP areas were generally similar or greater in magnitude than those recorded in the TKAP phase two," the researchers conclude.
They say that while it is encouraging that "serious youth violence declined across the country between 2007/2008 and the end of March 2010, given that the reductions were not specific to or consistently greater in the TKAP areas … it is not possible to directly attribute reductions in the TKAP areas during phase two to TKAP activities".
The 16 police forces involved in the £5m programme targeted their work on specific areas that had been identified as youth violence hotspots. Activities included intensive use of stop-and-search powers, as well as work in schools and anti-knife crime media campaigns.
The official crime figures show that fatal stabbings involving teenage and young adult victims fell from a peak of 63 in the targeted hotpots in 2007/2008 to 43 by 2009/2010, while the annual teenage death toll outside these areas fell from 23 to 13 over the same period.
The number of young people admitted to hospital with knife wounds shows a similar pattern. The total number of 13- to 24-year-olds admitted after assault by a sharp object fell from 1,674 to 1,500 – a fall of 10% – but total hospital admissions for the non-TKAP areas showed a 20% fall, from 514 to 407.
Claims over the success of the anti-knife crime progamme hit the headlines in December 2008, when Downing Street and the Home Office said it had led to a 27% reduction in the number of teenagers admitted to hospital with knife wounds in its first six months. Ministers were subsequently censured by the UK statistics authority for corroding public trust by their "premature, irregular and selective release" of the figures.