Getting to the heart of England's knife crime

Knife crime came into the life of South London community activist Anthony King in the most brutal fashion in October 2017, when driving home through Croydon, he saw a stabbed teenager dying in the street and used his shirt in an unsuccessful bid to stem the bleeding.

In the year 2023-24, Croydon had the second-highest rate of knife crime among London's 32 boroughs, and in 2021, London witnessed a record 30 teenage murders — five of them in Croydon, the most of any borough.

As the London borough with the largest number of children and young people, the largest number of careleavers, and also significant numbers of displaced people from other parts of London, King told China Daily it is no surprise knife crime has become such an issue in Croydon, especially when blades are so accessible.

"You can get a knife like you're buying a burger," said King, who is director of Majestic Community Care Services. "Young people can get them ordered online to one of the local boxes, or sent to a friends' house, or to a gang member's … they can obtain them left, right and center.

"There is also a challenge around young men who for many years have not had access to a male role model, so it's inevitable gang leaders target them. We have to treat it as a public health issue and see what we can do."

Tilisha Goupall is someone who lives with the consequences of knife crime every day. She founded the JFJ Foundation after her 15-year-old brother Jermaine was the victim of a random attack in Croydon in August 2017, stabbed seven times by three assailants, with three different knives.

A 12-centimeter-deep wound to his femoral artery meant he bled to death on the street, and she now talks in schools to make children aware of the reality of what knives can do.

"In 2019, after the court case was over, I started doing talks because I needed to find a way to grieve — I'd been too busy before," she said. "During my journey campaigning, I met a primary school teacher who gave me examples of what was already happening at that young age, so I realized I should start with early intervention.

"I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress, so one of the things I tell children about is the ripple effect. We talk about consequences — the people who are caught, what they have to live with, and the shame it brings on their families, so they can understand the issue from all sides."

In a world where so many young people are increasingly desensitized to violence, she said, consequences need to be explained.

"When they were sentenced, all my brother's murderers were given jail terms longer than they had been alive", she added. "A lot of these young people who carry knives are unaware of the consequences until they're in the dock, or told they're guilty. That's when it hits them.

"It also reveals who your friends are. If you're in a group and something happens, people look out for themselves and turn on each other. That's what happened to my brother's killers, and that's what we talk about."