Ministry moves to tackle knife crime queried

Suggestions by the Justice Ministry on methods of tackling knife crime have been greeted with cynicism and doubt in the South.

Education, tougher sentences and voluntary accords were mooted by the ministry in a report released yesterday.

The report was requested by Justice Minister Simon Power to stimulate debate after comments from leading judges that knife possession was becoming a part of youth culture in New Zealand and it might be time for Parliament to reconsider laws around the matter.

The report said police data showed apprehension and prosecution rates for knife possession under the Summary Offences Act had remained relatively stable in the past decade.

But the number of people apprehended for offences involving knives and offensive weapons under the more serious Crimes Act had increased significantly between 1999 and 2008. It was estimated 19% of the latter incidents involved knives.

The ministry suggested increasing the penalty for possessing an offensive weapon would be one way of fixing the problem.

It also said educating school pupils about the danger of carrying knives was more likely to be effective than advertising campaigns.

But Otago Secondary Principals Association chairman Kevin McSweeney said talking about such matters in schools could do the reverse of what was intended. It could put ideas in people's heads instead, especially if programmes were not carefully designed and targeted at the right level.

He was not aware of any issues with pupils and knives in Otago schools.

"There are a lot bigger problems we need to be focusing on than that."

The ministry also suggested initially trying to limit access to knives by young people through a voluntary accord involving retailers, police and local authorities in areas where knife crime was a problem.

Hunting and sports goods store manager Howard Halliday, of Centrefire McCarthys Stream and Field Store, said he was cynical about that idea, mainly because it was so ill-defined and seemed rushed.

He said many young people bought knives from the store, mainly for hunting.

He was unsure how an accord to stop selling knives to young people would help, given knives were widely available and used for legitimate purposes, even by young people.