Conclusions and recommendations
1. Although the Home Office has been increasingly
concerned about the use of weapons, only since 2007 has it been
mandatory for the police to record the presence of a knife at
the scene of a crime.
In partnership with police forces and Partnerships, the Home Office
should use the information it can now gather about knife crime,
together with other research, in order to tackle more effectively
the root causes of why people carry knives.
2. Between 2002-03 and 2006-07 all crime,
as recorded in the British Crime Survey, fell by 8.5% and violent
crime fell by 9.0%. Incidents of the most serious violence against
the person recorded by the police fell by 5.9% in this period,
and the Home Office admitted to being worried by trends both in
the use of weapons and also in the age of offenders.
Despite the welcome decline in recorded violent crime overall,
there is growing public concern about weapons use and more serious
violence. The Department should now seek the same level of improvement
in rates of serious violence that has occurred in crime generally,
by implementing the recommendations in this Report.
3. The majority of victims of violent crime
treated in Accident and Emergency units did not report their injuries
to the police, but without knowing the full picture of violence
in their areas, Partnerships cannot implement effective measures
to counter the violence. The Home Office
and Department of Health should jointly establish a national system
for the automatic sharing of depersonalised violent crime data
between hospitals, police, and Partnerships. They should also
publicise successful approaches such as training hospital receptionists
to record violent crime data for sharing with the police, and
establishing what steps they need to take to encourage health
agencies to participate willingly in crime reduction groups.
4. The Department has made little progress
since 2005 in managing to distribute funding for tackling violent
crime to Partnerships on a timely or sustainable basis.
The majority of Home Office funding for tackling violent crime
is distributed through the grants it makes to police forces for
all their activities. In addition to this, the Home Office also
provides smaller amounts of additional funding directly to Partnerships
specifically allocated to tackling violent crime. In order that
this latter funding can be used effectively in tackling violence
and its underlying causes, the Home Office should end one-off
funding streams or grants, and make the notification and distribution
of funding early enough (at least before the start of each financial
year) to allow for proper strategic planning. The Home Office
should also provide Partnerships with guidance on the most cost-effective
way to spend money locally to tackle violent crime. This should
be delivered by Government Offices for the Regions so that it
is suitably tailored to local requirements.
5. Voluntary sector organisations play an
important part in tackling violent crime (especially more sensitive
crimes such as domestic violence) but are especially vulnerable
to the late funding. To improve the timely
distribution of violent crime funding, the Home Office should
give priority to early notification of resources for activities
most likely to require input from the voluntary sector.
6. Gang activity and gang violence is a factor
in violent crime but the Home Office has a limited understanding
of the nature of gang membership and activity, and how such activity
has changed over time. The Home Office
should conduct further research into the reasons why youths join
gangs and use this understanding to provide guidance to local
communities in their efforts to develop targeted diversions away
from gang membership.
7. The Department has not engaged as well
as it could have done with other national partners.
Working with others is vital to the Home Office's ability to tackle
serious violence effectively. The Home Office and the Department
for Children, Schools and Families should work together to promote
good practice in Safer School Partnerships by identifying the
number and type of Partnerships and their potential impact
upon local crime trends. In collaboration with the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport, the Home Office should publicise
examples of where the 2003 Licensing Act has been used effectively.
Its communications should highlight factors for success, such
as a strong working relationship between licensing authorities
and the licensed trade.
8. As of summer 2007, fewer than one third
of Partnerships had a written strategy, and fewer than half had
a specific violent crime group to tackle violent crime.
The Home Office should promote good practice in violent crime
groups and strategies by establishing the different types and
quality of those already in existence in different areas, and
publicising what works well.
9. Partnerships still lack the analytical
capacity needed to assess the data they collect on violent crime
in their locality, despite the recommendation made by our predecessors
in their report in 2005. In recognition
of the fact that many Partnerships do not have the resources to
increase their analytical capacities, the Home Office should use
its teams in the Government Offices for the Regions to provide
analytical support at a regional level.
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