Knife crime lessons sought

Sunday, 31 October 2010 12:00 AM

By politics.co.uk staff

The government's anti-knife crime tsar Brooke Kinsella wants lessons on knife crime and gun crime to be incorporated into the national curriculum.

Her report into the issue to be submitted to home secretary Theresa May this week will call on teachers to get past the negative stigma of acknowledging the problem exists.

The former EastEnders actress was invited by David Cameron to become his adviser on the issue before the general election.

She has focused on the issue after her brother Ben Kinsella was fatally stabbed 11 times while on a night out in north London in 2008.

"Although projects often volunteer to hold workshops in schools, the schools themselves are reluctant because they're worried about sending out the message that knife crime is a problem among their pupils," Ms Kinsella wrote in an article for the Mail on Sunday newspaper.

"The government has persuaded me that it realises the benefits of listening to someone like me, who has a real experience of violent crime," she added.

"I hope it will take my opinions seriously when it reads my report this week. Although my reasons for campaigning are very personal, I know that I'm not alone in demanding a safer Britain."

Ms Kinsella hopes to set up a conference with headteachers to persuade them to begin crime awareness and prevention lessons.

Her campaigning has already resulted in sentences for knife crime being increased from a maximum of 15 years to a maximum of 25 years.

Nearly four of every ten killings of young people in Britain involve knives, figures show.

Tags:
• crime
,
• domestic policy
,
• policing and crime
,
• weapons