Stephen has a good piece in today’s Times arguing that the way to deal with the current wave of knife crime is not to pass yet more laws but to enforce fully the ones that are already on the books. As Stephen notes,
One of the great failings of this government has been the belief that legislation can cut crime. In reality, the many criminal justice bills passed are only the worth the paper they’re written on if they are properly enforced.In 2006, only nine of the 6,314 people convicted of carrying a knife were handed down a maximum sentence. Most were given a caution.
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