Charges for knife crime down, while murders go up

Liberal Democrat questioning recently revealed a very low rate of sentencing for illegal knife sales. On a similar, and rather nauseating theme, new figures for London show that the rate of charges for knife crime have gone down by about 50% while the number of knife murders has increased:

The number of people charged with knife crimes has fallen by half in London - despite a rise in teenage murders. Police figures show that over the 12 months to April this year 1,361 people were taken to court for possessing a blade. Of the 22 teenagers killed so far this year, 17 were knife victims. In the year to April 2004, when a total of 2,810 people were charged, 12 teenagers were killed in the capital.

The comment from a police source says it all:

The figures are certainly dramatic. They appear to show that when fewer people are charged with knife crime, murders go through the roof.

What this shows, once again, is that there is no need for David Cameron's scheme to jail everyone who is found in possession of a knife. Simply enforcing current laws and sentencing guidelines properly would be a major step forward. There is vast room for manoevre without changing the law or sentencing guidelines.