This should have been the start of a hopeful trend in schools across England and Wales. In 2024, youth victims flagged 1,304 knife or sharp object related offences reported in the London area. This alarming statistic reflects a significant increase in serious offences, indicating a deeper societal issue surrounding youth violence. Most of these incidents featured boys, particularly teen-aged boys. This leads to urgent questions regarding safety and if current measures truly deter this type of behavior.
Knife crime is at an all-time high. This rise comes after a series of very visible cases, such as the recent murder of Harvey Willgoose by a classmate at his Sheffield school in February. This event has spurred nationwide demands for enhanced safety precautions in schools. Caroline Willgoose, Harvey’s mother, has lobbied the government to fund metal detectors, known as “knife arches,” in every UK school and college. She argues that this is essential in order to address the rising tide of knife crime.
Dudley Academies Trust has a plan to allay those growing fears. Chief among them, they will build permanent metal-detecting “knife arches” in every one of their four secondary schools. This new initiative is a sign that more and more leaders are realizing that we need to be proactive, not reactive, when it comes to students’ security. As a result, Interconnective Security Products has experienced an exponential spike in demand for its protective equipment. From March 2024 to March 2025, the company sold 35 knife arches to educational institutions. This figure is more than three times the amount spent last year, showing that schools are making student safety a top priority.
The seriousness of knife crime offences inside schools is alarming. As many as two-thirds of these offences were cleared by arrest and more than 90% of those arrested were male, most being teens. There have been alarming cases of our littlest learners bringing knives to school. It comes after a six-year-old was stopped with a Rambo-style flick knife. At the same time, a five-year-old was brandishing a 10-inch kitchen knife to classmates. In the most recent example of this kind of violence, a six-year-old was found on campus with a meat cleaver.
The age of criminal responsibility in England is set at 10, leading to inconsistencies in how young offenders are reported across various schools and police forces. Educators and law enforcement officials continue to work diligently to address this issue. Their mission is to stop youth from wanting, needing or being forced to carry guns.
RTI’s Trevor Chrouch regularly mentors at-risk youth and trains others to teach self-defense. Jordan argues that intimidation drives so many young people to carry blades on school grounds. He says, “I don’t know that we’re worried about kids bringing knives into school on a daily basis. As their mobile telephone in their pocket, they’ve got their knife, too, in that different pocket. It’s because they’re scared.” The sentiment is echoed by an 18-year-old boy who expressed a similar sentiment: “I just felt like I need to protect myself.”
In truth, Caroline Willgoose is still reeling from the loss of Harvey Willgoose through his senseless murder. Her plea for transformation is desperate and necessary. She said, “It’s been terrible. I can’t put into words the pain.” She highlighted the importance of getting into schools and teaching children about the serious and life-changing consequences of knife crime. She further reflected on her initial perceptions of knife crime as something linked solely to gang culture: “But I always just thought that knives were a gang-culture type of thing. Never in a million years did I think that there were blades in school.”
As the debate around knife crime continues to unfold, young people themselves have spoken openly about how they are pressured in this way. A 15-year-old boy recounted how peer pressure led him to bring a knife to school: “The first time I took a knife in was when a kid sent out a message saying, ‘I’m going to kill you this time.’ So I asked one of my friends to give me a knife and I paid about £30 for it.”
Another young individual pointed out the lack of education surrounding emotional management and personal safety in schools: “You don’t get taught that in schools. They only teach you science, not how to live life and how to handle your emotions better.” Such comments speak to a major void in our educational curriculums that help foster this alarming trend.
The increase in knife crime among young people has parents, teachers, and community leaders sounding the alarm. We must put in strong countervailing forces to protect against this rampant national crisis. Furthermore, educational initiatives can help to increase public understanding of the risks associated with knife carrying.
“I think we’ve reached a stage now where we can acknowledge that there is a problem nationally in the country with regards to knife crime, particularly amongst the youth.” – Byron Logue, Managing Director of Interconnective Security Products.
