Should parents be held more accountable to tackle teenage knife crime?

Well like I said I was a teen mum and I've heard people say the same arguements about that but I had a good childhood parents were good etc.

When it comes to crime where you live and your peers definitely have a big influence. What do you think parents can do when the kids go to school and all their friends are into the same shit? Or they go to the park near their home and all the kids there are into it too? Moving away is the only option really but as others have said not always financially feasible

OP it sounds as though you have reasonable, malleable teens. They aren’t all like that, even with good parenting.

If a 6ft teen is determined to leave the house and do what he wants there is very little his mum can do about it.

A close friend has a son who has gone off the rails spectacularly and she’s been a fab mum to him. Two other kids who are no trouble. It’s nearly broken her.

If you live in Aigburth and Childwall (nice bits) of Liverpool, you still mix with the Wavertree kids and are open to being used. We've had to have Police randomly travelling on the buses that go down Smithdown road, via Wavertree into Liverpool. Gangs have 'eyes' everywhere, if they lock in on someone, you are looking at a threat to the whole family.

Controlling the sale and distribution of knives is really complicated. It’s not like guns where there are very few legitimate uses and needs and you require licenses and legal storage conditions and actually have police resources assigned to checking those conditions are met. Everyone needs knives for cooking. No one should be going hiking in isolated areas for more than a couple of hours without a decent pocket knife as part of their emergency kit. And in some industries - like horticulture, a large heavy knife might be an essential tool.

Actually research shows that they don't, if the child is NT, has good attachment and is fairly well brought up.
@usernother the teens out at night would be dealt with via lower SS thresholds.

Who said anything about leafy and drug free? It's impossible to go anywhere drug free, even the leafy places!

There are particular places within cities - certain streets and estates where violent crime and drugs are prevalent. Are you suggesting that every single part of Liverpool is overrun by gangs?

So I could go to prison because my child gets a knife from his friend and stabs someone?!

Nope.

No, but taking an interest in them and providing them with a life with interests might deter them from thinking this is fun.

OP, kindly, you're delusional.

You can be stabbed to death with a bicycle spoke or a broken bottle. Knives can be found EVERYWHERE.

This idea is just nonsense.

Invest back in the youth service with trained youth workers. I used to work with two trained youth workers in a summer scheme - lots of activities put on and we took them. It’s all gone now thanks to cuts.
Early help, parenting support, early intervention, SEND support, alternative provision, vocational education rather than forcing everyone through GCSEs.
Invest in social services so it attracts the right people and stop demonising it so that parents see it as a support rather than you’ll take my child away.

You can buy two knives likes swords for £25 off the internet. Locking up kitchen knives won’t make any difference

How can my neighbours move from Liverpool to somewhere leafy and fairly drug free? Wales is out, Liverpool gangs control, Wales, Cheshire, Torquay etc. So Hampshire etc would do it.

OP - it sounds like you’re doing an amazing job in difficult circumstances, but perhaps you can see how some parents may be defeated by their circumstances.

In my professional life, I see a lot of these young people vulnerable to grooming and they usually have SEND. Support services have failed them, early intervention has failed them. Parents are exhausted and often unable to cope. Sometimes it may be because they are not the greatest parents, but often also because they struggle. It’s not a level playing field for children. Some parents just can’t keep their children in at night, some can’t keep them in school, some struggle to keep their own MH on a level keel.

I wish it was as simple as you suggest, but it does sound like you are doing a great job.

I suggest, early intervention on failing etc parents. Lower threshholds for SS. More parenting classes etc for parents who aren't parenting. Better funded SEN provision, inclusion doesn't work for every child, have alternatives. Affordable gym etc memberships for young people. End austerity, invest in housing. Have population plans, as in what is sustainable.

It depends. When we are talking about 17 year old young men - parents have nothing to do with it. But last year there was a stabbing by two 12 year old boys, who have attacked a vulnerable man in a sports field, and a number of other instances where offenders were not older than 14. At such a young age parents definitely should be held accountable.

Have you ever lived in a council property on a low income? How simple do you think it is to just move?

OP .. I just need to say that your circumstances sound very difficult.. you are parenting your children wonderfully .

It is also easy to say that parents need to have more control over their kids and that services need to do more. Where is this army of tough talking professionals who are able to control unruly teens going to come from? Try stopping an unruly teen from leaving or doing something.

Like shit I was a teen mum (15) and there's people out there who think that's the fault of the parents too and they should be "held to account too". There's probably even threads on this site about it
There's pretty much nothing my parents could of done to stop me short of locking me up like Rapunzel. Peers have a bigger influence on that age group then parents

The teems involved in knife crime are not the sort to grab a knife from the kitchen drawer! The knives are perhaps purchased by adults who are themselves involved in crime. You seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land.

A knife is not comparable to a gun. It's not difficult for a teen to get hold of an item of cutlery. You can't be serious

it’s not practical- knives aren’t registered to s keeper, and you’d be expecting parents to put a lock on the dishwasher, or sit next to it while it runs.