Take into consideration the final time you used a knife when consuming. The round-tip desk knife is the default at breakfast, lunch and dinner, each at residence and in eating places. The explanation the tip is rounded is to scale back the potential for hurt from violence or different damage. It’s such a secular a part of on a regular basis life that we barely discover its function in crime prevention.
Knives are the homicide weapon of selection within the UK. And regardless of sensational headlines about zombie knives and machetes, the most well-liked knife by far for homicide in is the pointed kitchen knife. In England and Wales within the final yr, it was utilized in greater than half of murders the place the kind of knife was recognized, in contrast with 4% for zombie knives.
Kind of weapon utilized in murder by knife or sharp instrument in England & Wales, 2022-23
Creator supplied, CC BY
In a brand new paper printed within the journal Crime Science, we suggest that the round-tip default must be prolonged to kitchen knives. Not solely would the homicide fee fall however so too would knife crime typically. And it could additionally forestall tens of hundreds of non-criminal knife accidents at work and within the residence. So, we suggest phasing pointed-tip knives out over various years.
The pointed tip of a kitchen knife is what makes it a sexy, efficient homicide weapon. Analysis evaluating the hurt from stabbing by completely different knife sorts (together with pointed, round-tip, and serrated or not) discovered – maybe not surprisingly – pointed straight-edge knives and pointed serrated knives to be very damaging, whereas round-tip knives do little or no harm.
There was vital progress accountable for deadly knives within the UK. The Offensive Weapons Act of 2019 made it unlawful to own sure sorts of harmful knife (akin to flick knives) even in personal, and banned carrying kitchen knives in public with out good cause. In September 2024, it grew to become unlawful to own or promote zombie-style knives and machetes.
Phasing out pointed-tip kitchen knives, to get replaced by round-tip knives, is a pure extension of this progress and, we argue, would considerably scale back deaths and accidents.
Proof-based knife crime coverage
Knife crime in England and Wales elevated within the 2010s, based on police crime information, hospital admissions and knife-related homicides. Every nearly doubled from 2012-18, earlier than levelling off or declining barely since then.
Current anti-knife crime insurance policies are restricted at greatest, with neither varied policing efforts nor Violence Discount Items (in 18 drawback areas since 2019) but to show efficient.
The one factor we all know to be efficient is weapons management coverage, as a strategy to scale back alternatives for crime. That is clearest within the distinction between gun-related homicides within the US and UK: charges within the US, the place coverage relies on an unlucky constitutional proper to hold a gun, are dozens of instances increased.
Is it possible to anticipate knives to alter in each kitchen? A couple of years in the past, many readers would have baulked on the notion that fossil-fuelled autos may very well be phased out – a course of now properly underway within the UK and elsewhere, which supplies a mannequin for our proposal of phasing out pointed kitchen knives.
Such a change received’t occur in a single day, after all, and we suggest phases throughout various years – maybe a decade or longer. An preliminary session interval is required, plus advertising and marketing to advertise information, buying and use of safer knives. Some pure wastage will assist, as previous knives are changed by safer ones over time, and time can be wanted for producers to regulate.
Incentives and exceptions could also be required. A number of years of mild encouragement could also be wanted for us to get used to the thought. Over time, this could shift to stronger incentives with the final word aim of a full ban on pointed-tip knives – that’s, the identical mannequin we’re utilizing for fossil-fuel autos.
Viners, CC BY
Some potential criticisms are non-starters. First, there are not any culinary drawbacks to round-tip knives, based on cutlery producer Viners, which developed its line of security knives with the enter of 1,700 folks.
Second, few offenders would change to different weapons. Screwdrivers, scissors and different gadgets are much less quite a few, much less accessible and make inferior weapons. Screwdrivers could also be in a storage, shed or elsewhere. The design of scissors doesn’t facilitate stabbing and makes them unwieldy. Bottles are a chance, however containers at residence are usually plastic or cardboard, and most beer is in cans. Many beer bottles are too massive (750ml) or too small (330ml stubbies), plus it takes talent or luck to weaponise a bottle.
This apply of switching weapons is extra formally referred to as “tactical displacement”, and there’s intensive idea and proof exhibiting it’s the exception, not the rule, amongst perpetrators.
Killer kitchen knives needs to be phased out as harmful and pointless. Spherical-tip knives are much less prone to tempt violence, and fewer damaging if used. Knife crime typically, and knife carrying, will decline if the nation’s weapon of selection is not accessible.
