Solutions to knife crime: a path through the red sea?

With this work, Sue Roberts addresses a complex and important topic by melding a practitioner and scholarly approach. The result is a practical handbook that is also a work of real academic rigour.

[…] an important work that argues convincingly for the need to adopt a partnership approach to dealing with the issue of knife crime.

Dr Mark Field

School of Area Studies, History, Politics and Literature

University of Portsmouth

This is a very timely book. It rightly claims that contemporary explanations have been left largely to journalists, so that the book has stolen the march on filling a void in academic research on the current surge in knife crime. The major strength of the book is in offering not just explanations, but also in offering solutions derived from a solid research base. Most notably, the approach used presents a richly textured context in which the research took place. Indeed, suggested solutions are developed from a combination of a solid public policy background, and also, crucially, from the voices and views of those most affected by, and involved in, knife crime. The resulting picture is a powerful one: of central government overlooking all of the above factors, but also of one where there is hope in the form of a reservoir of workable approaches to be tapped, along with an identification people who can lead and deliver change if only they are given the resources.

Tom Ellis

Institute of Criminal Justice

University of Portsmouth