And if you reduce opportunities for murder, rates will fall.

The clearest explanation of this is the difference in murder rates between the US and UK.

Rates for knife murders and other methods are comparable; but because the US has more guns, it gets more murders

4/5

A 2005 panel of chefs found little functional need for pointed end blades.

Furthermore, a new paper by two leading criminologists suggest that phasing out pointed-end knives for round-tipped ones could reduce knife deaths by *half*

More in my column

www.thetimes.com/article/7c54...

5/5

NEW: What is the most common murder weapon?

It isn’t the gun, the machete or the zombie knife - but the kitchen knife.

Here’s why phasing out sharp-tipped knives isn’t as mad as it sounds.

1/5

@thetimes.com

Free to read 🔗 www.thetimes.com/article/7c54...

How far can knife crime be treated as a problem of supply? My latest story is on a peculiarly British problem and what is and isn't in the government's strategy for curbing it. (Also tested the much-trailed round-tipped knives: they are surprisingly good) www.economist.com/britain/2025...

NEW blog from our Research Director Andy Higgins 'Should retailers adapt to prevent shoplifting?'

He argues that large retailers shouldn't just expect the police to deal with shoplifting. There's plenty that can be done to prevent it too.

www.police-foundation.org.uk/2025/02/shou...

Our Prof @grahamfarrell.bsky.social quoted in this @thetimes.com article about the £100 contactless limit. 💳
Read more 👇
tinyurl.com/3b7jum2j
#AcademicSky #LawSky #CrimSky #Criminology

Our Prof @grahamfarrell.bsky.social has published a major study about the decline in car theft in the US. 🚗🔒 Read more below! 👇

#AcademicSky #LawSky #CrimSky #HigherEd #Criminology

essl.leeds.ac.uk/law/news/art...

'The UK’s most senior police officer has accused tech giants including Apple and Google of “enabling” a phone theft epidemic that gangsters have turned into a “global criminal business”.'

www.thetimes.com/article/2f50...

The only knife it’s legal to carry without good reason is a small penknife (non-locking, < 7.5cm).

One of those brilliant suggestions you read and think to yourself, 'Why on earth haven't I thought of or read about this idea before? It's so damned obvious!'

The longer journal article version is at tinyurl.com/4mvsrtke

And we’re not saying that it will prevent all knife crime - just that it will make a large and lasting dent in it.

In the journal article (URL in para 3) we have a section ‘Won’t they just use something else? The possibility of displacement’. Most youths can grab a kitchen knife easily, but alternatives are typically less available, inferior weapons, with lower status

Thank you Jacob. This is tactical displacement. There’s lots of evidence (and theory) showing it sometimes occurs but usually doesn’t.

This just published with @toby-davies.bsky.social . Says pointed kitchen knives not zombie knives are murder weapon of choice and we should phase them out like we’re phasing-out fossil-fuelled vehicles.

rdcu.be/d4e9h