The Realities of ‘Knife Crime’: Life Beneath the Label

Through analysing the history, meaning and context of ‘knife crime’ we can challenge certain misunderstandings, ambiguities and fabrications wrapped up in the concept. However, working beneath the political discourses and the pronouncements of policy makers (and the ‘knife crime industry’) there are professionals who confront the complex realities of interpersonal violence in everyday practices and actions. And there are also young people themselves. Drawing on qualitative research with both youth justice practitioners and focus groups involving seventy-eight young people in southeast London, this chapter provides a grounded sociological understanding of the shifting experiences of youth that are concealed and obscured by assumptions contained within the ‘knife crime’ label. Empirical accounts of gentrification, exploitation, institutional racism, over-policing and community fragmentation are presented here—in order to provide an alternative understanding of the knife crime phenomenon through the lived realities of those most impacted by the label and its meaning.