By Jess McCabe | 18 July 2008, 21:55

Forget single mums and absent fathers - the current spate of knife crime can be traced back to the so-called ‘real man’, argues Jennifer Drew

One would need to live on another planet to escape the media’s constant preoccupation with knife crime, and particularly the numbers of teenage boys murdering other teenage boys.

But amid all this ‘moral panic’ generated by the media, there is one glaring omission and that is the gender issue. On 29 May, The Metro (a free London newspaper) ran with the front-page headline ‘Knife Crime: A Horrific Slice of Reality’. The story was about the government’s latest attempt at tackling knife crime. In an attempt to prevent young people from engaging in acts of physical violence against other young people, the government has decided to invest in a £3 million publicity campaign. This campaign will feature graphic images taken from a medical photo library which show images of what happens when a body is penetrated by a knife.

The aim of this campaign is supposed to shock young people and deter them from carrying knives. But, there are some glaring omissions. Firstly, such images will have no effect whatsoever on the teenagers and youths who carry knives, whether it is to protect themselves or to perpetrate violent acts against other teenagers and youths. Secondly, a poster campaign does not even begin to address the complex issues concerning increasing numbers of teenagers and young people carrying knives.

And then, the gender of both perpetrators and victims has been deliberately omitted. It is not ‘children’ but overwhelmingly boys stabbing and murdering other boys not ‘youths’ and most certainly not ‘teenagers’. But neither the media nor the government wishes to acknowledge this glaring omission, because to do so would be to acknowledge the problem is not gender neutral.

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