Deputy Assistant Commissioner Rose Fitzpatrick, of the Metropolitan Police

“I believe that the way to get teenagers to stop carrying knives is to get the message across to them at every opportunity that it is not cool and there are consequences: it will lead to either injury or death and a prison sentence.

“We have 185 officers going into schools that are considered to be a priority across London and 59 officers going into pupil referral units [youngsters that have been excluded from their own school] to get this message across. But it cannot be done by the police alone. We need the help of the community and families to tell youngsters to make a sensible choice and not carry a knife.

“If someone is carrying a knife, for whatever reason, and they get into a scuffle there is every chance someone will wind up getting hurt or killed. The aggressor will also end up in prison. If you choose to carry a knife we will find you and prosecute you and you must expect a custodial sentence.”

Uanu Seshmi, director of the From Boyhood To Manhood Foundation

“One approach that works for me in preventing youth inter-personal violence is to create an environment that fosters moral reasoning and empathy. The environment helps them to shape their own destiny by developing positive beliefs about life and its challenges. Young people will no longer view situations of challenges as being detrimental to their being. Instead they are empowered to use these challenges in order to become more resilient and caring beings. In this respect, they no longer have the need to seek recognition by being irresponsible.”

Sally O'Neill, QC, who chairs the Criminal Bar Association and is ranked as a leading silk in crime at Chambers & Partners

“Knives are more lethal than guns. They are easily available and accessible. They can be carried by one person without the knowledge of others and produced and used in seconds, often with fatal consequences.

“Those who are involved in such incidents are usually young people associating in a group defined by where they live, either locality or postcode. They are almost inevitably wandering around aimlessly in such a group when a situation blows up from nothing and someone is killed by one of them.

“The number of trials of young people jointly charged with murder in such circumstances is truly shocking. It is impossible to prevent those who wish to having access to knives. It is the aimlessness of others in such groups that needs to be dealt with as a matter of urgency. Resources are needed to provide sports facilities, training activities, youth clubs and most importantly, active and engaging youth workers to try and get them off the street and into constructive and enjoyable activities.”

Ray Lewis, Deputy Mayor for Young People. Runs an academy to nurture black boys

Mr Lewis said that violence on the street, and knife crime in particular, was the single greatest issue facing the young generation. “I hesitate to use the word crisis but I do not think we are far from it.”

He said that there were a range of potential solutions to the problem “but we need to make sure the solution to these problems does not become our next problem”.

He has proposed a gangs czar to tackle knife crime and will investigate mentoring to try to steer young people in the right direction. “It is about the hearts and minds of your people. The answer to our problems does not lie in City Hall and Westminster, it lies in looking at the person next to us and the person that looks back in the mirror every morning.”

Mr Lewis has said that the problems will not be solved by more police, building more prisons or employing psychotherapists in schools. Instead, he advocates finding people who can talk to youth, and who they can relate to.

John Gladwin, Bishop of Chelmsford

“The best way to tackle youth knife crime is to support every strategy that builds the confidence of young people in the future, deepens their own sense of self-worth and opens the way for them to take their place in the community and to contribute to the wellbeing of the wider world.

“To achieve that will require:

A fresh commitment to the basic importance of good family life and a tackling of the breakdown of family relationships

Greater support for the voluntary work, especially of the churches, in their work with young people on the streets and in the community

Zero tolerance for all forms of racism and discrimination

A similar zero tolerance towards all violent activity and the possession of weapons of violence by anyone of whatever age.

“For the whole of our society we face an urgent challenge to renew our culture in the values of equality, the fundamental dignity of every human being and with a fresh sense of our shared accountability as children of God for our citizenship of the world.”

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