Violent killings of teenagers by their peers have spiked dramatically in London since the start of the year, claiming 16 lives and prompting urgent action to prevent the spread of "knife culture". These teen murders - most by stabbing though a few by guns - are already more than half the total for the last 12 months.
Most of the victims were male, with the youngest a boy of only 14. The latest victim was a 15-year-old girl, found dead Monday in a pool of blood at a block of flats near Waterloo railway station, south London.
"Where's it all going to end?" asked Kevin May, the uncle of 18-year-old Rob Knox, an aspiring actor who had a minor part in the new Harry Potter film who was killed in south London last month.
"When is this violence and the carrying of knives by young people going to stop? Something's got to be done," he said. Community worker Shaun Bailey, who runs a charity for disadvantaged young people in west London, said knife crime has long been a problem but said it was clearly inching into new, and younger, hands and more areas of both the capital and the country.
"It's spreading out. The big change is that it's going down in age," he said.
"It's happening in London, Glasgow. With poor kids, rich kids, young, old. It's wider than gun-toting lunatics in a specific area. Bailey is convinced that "if we don't address it, it will get worse. There's a point when kids and adolescents think (carrying a knife) is the only way to protect themselves".
London's Metropolitan Police insist that knife crime is falling in the British capital. According to their latest crime survey, it had fallen nearly 16 percent in the last two years. But with the spate of new deaths - and the grief of each victim's devastated family and friends increasingly played out on television and in newspapers - the government and authorities in London have been forced to respond.
London's new mayor Boris Johnson came to office on May 1 on a pledge to tackle violent crime. A 15-year-old boy was stabbed to death in south London two days later.
Since then Johnson has appointed a commissioner for young people and announced plans to search people for deadly weapons using portable "knife arches" - airport-style metal detectors - at busy transport hubs. - 'We have given our young people free rein' -
Last week a novel, three-million-pound (5.9-million-dollar) government advertising campaign was launched, using graphic images of real injuries inflicted by knives, carried for either safety or bravado.
The radio, Internet and mobile phone campaign was developed by teenagers for teenagers, and will run alongside another series of ads encouraging parents to talk with their children about the danger of knives.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has also pledged five million pounds to police, local authorities and community groups to tackle knife crime in 10 problem areas and stop the spread of gang violence. Bailey, who is also seeking election to parliament for the main opposition Conservative Party, and Lyn Costello, from the charity Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (MAMAA), both support the new measures but feel existing laws are strong enough.
Under 18s cannot buy knives; anyone carrying an offensive weapon in a public place can be arrested, with under 17s risking a maximum 24-month detention and training order; adults risk a 5,000-pound fine or up to four years in jail.
But both Bailey and Costello charged that lenient sentencing by the courts for those caught with or using knives has sent the wrong message.
This as well as what they see as a failure by parents to discipline children along with rampant violence on television, video games and cinema has allowed the knife culture to spread. "They're acting it (violence) out and the difference is we have empowered children to the point where they live separate lives," said Bailey. "We are seeing the result of that. Children who are not regulated become dangerous."
Up to now, she added, "knife and gun culture have been two separate things. Now they're coming together because knives are a gateway to guns". Costello also points to chronic underfunding for groups like her own, which is threatened with closure through lack of cash.
On Sunday, one of Costello's colleagues, anti-gun campaigner Pat Regan, was found stabbed to death in Leeds, northern England. "What we really need to be addressing is why our young people are violent," said Costello. "We've given them no deterrent. We have given them a free rein."
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