Reducing knife crime

We need to ban the sale of long pointed kitchen knives

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Excerpt from BMJ Editorial, 28 May 2005

"Violent crime in the U.K. is increasing; figures from London show a 17.9% increase from 2003 to 2004, and one easily accessible weapon used in many incidents is the kitchen knife. Unfortunately, no data seem to have been collected to indicate how often kitchen knives are used in stabbings, but our own experience and that of police officers and pathologists we have spoken to indicates that they are used in at least half of all cases... We contacted 10 [professional] chefs in the UK who are well known ...Some commented that a point is useful in the fine preparation of some meat and vegetables, but that this could be done with a short pointed knife (less than 5 cm in length). None gave a reason why the long pointed knife was essential. Domestic knife manufacturers ... admit that their designs are based on traditional shapes and could give no functional reason why long pointed knives are needed...

Many assaults are impulsive, often triggered by alcohol or misuse of other drugs, and the long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available potentially lethal weapon particularly in the domestic setting. Government action to ban the sale of such knives would drastically reduce their availability over the course of a few years..."

By: Emma Hern, specialist registrar in emergency medicine,
Will Glazebrook, specialist registrar in emergency medicine,
and Mike Beckett, consultant in emergency medicine.
West Middlesex University Hospital, London.