The home secretary is righty concerned about knife-related youth crime. But his proposed asbo-like knife crime prevention orders (Report, 31 January) risk forgetting the lessons learned when asbos were first introduced and widely used, which they are no longer. KCPOs are likely to be largely imposed on children and young people, thereby increasing their notoriety. They will overwhelmingly be breached, as asbos were and are. In which case a custodial sentence may be imposed, a route from which no good outcome can be expected.
But KCPOs will carry an even greater, possibly fatal, risk. Youths wishing a KCPO subject harm will reasonably assume that when abroad she or he will be unarmed, thereby increasing his or her vulnerability. By the same token, mates accompanying a KCPO subject may feel a greater obligation to be tooled up to obviate that danger. KCPOs could plausibly give another twist to the fatal knife crime spiral.
Rod Morgan
Former chair of the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales, 2004-07
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