more and more young people involved in stabbing incidents

ANP

Last Friday, a 39-year-old man was killed in The Hague after being stabbed with a knife. The next morning, the police immediately arrested three suspects. Their age: 15 and 17 years. Today it was announced that the three minors, two girls aged 15 and 17 and a boy aged 17, will be detained for another two weeks. They are suspected of beating and kicking a 41-year-old woman and the 39-year-old man in the street, whom they also stabbed to death.

In recent years, the number of stabbing incidents by children has increased enormously. Why do children reach for knives or other weapons? And what can be done about that?

Hand-ins

First the numbers. Last year, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) saw that violence by minors (up to and including 17 years old) and violence by young adults (18-21 years old) has increased considerably, an increase that has been visible at a national level since 2017. In particular, the number of minors suspected of (attempted) murder rose sharply: from 14 children in 2019, to 76 children in 2021.

But there is still insufficient insight into the actual possession of knives by minors, so there are no exact figures. Nevertheless, the reports of stabbing incidents involving young people seem to be getting more and more frequent. In 2020, for example, a large number of mayors turned out to be in favor of a knife ban for young people, which the cabinet immediately started working on.

That same year, Ferd Grapperhaus, then caretaker Minister of Justice and Security, announced the Action Plan for Weapons and Youth. For this purpose, a national surrender campaign for stabbing weapons was started. This allowed young people in hundreds of municipalities to anonymously hand over their stabbing weapons. The action was repeated in 2021, with great success: 3300 weapons were handed in. But why do so many young people have a knife in their pocket?

The increase is strongest among stabbing incidents in the age group up to and including 17 years. In 2020, the number of cases against minors suspected of a serious violent crime increased by 20 percent in one year: from 1,633 to 1,960. These are suspects of aggravated assault, theft with violence, extortion or serious threats. In 2021, the Public Prosecution Service registered 1,920 new violent cases against underage suspects.

The number of underage suspects suspected of a crime in combination with illegal possession of weapons increased by 57 percent in two years: from 508 to 798. Among young adults, that number increased by 35 percent, from 860 to 1,162. According to the Public Prosecution Service, suspects increasingly carry a weapon, usually a stabbing weapon.

Untreated trauma

According to the Center for Crime Prevention and Security (CCV), there are various reasons for young people to carry a weapon: a sense of insecurity, the idea that everyone carries a knife, an increase in status and belonging to a certain group.

Youth worker Bram Mvambanu agrees. According to him, there is a combination of factors that contribute to the reason young people carry guns. “Social media plays a major role: stabbings, for example, are filmed and forwarded. In addition, the rise of drill rap is a stimulus. But problems among young people, such as traumas that are not treated, also contribute to this.”

Research by Knowledge Platform Integration & Society shows that most young people who carry knives live in a neighborhood “where a lot is going on” and “where the problems they face every day are great”. It also regularly concerns young people with a mild intellectual or psychological disability and there are often parenting problems.

Vicious circle

Young people who are arrested with a knife in their pocket eventually end up with Rianne de Back, Youth Public Prosecutor. She also regularly sees young people who carry a knife for their own safety. “But sometimes I run into them again later at a hearing. Then there was a conflict on the street, they fought with their hands, but in the end that knife was brought out. And that was not the intention, but it is happened.”

So a vicious circle. How can that be broken? Integral cooperation, says Mvambanu. “For example, that a school cooperates with the probation service, which in turn cooperates with youth services. A kind of network to keep the lines shorter.”

In addition, it is important to involve parents in the process, says De Back. “The interest of the child comes first and you need your environment for that. The parents I meet want their child to do well. Almost every parent thinks that is important.” And parents who are unable to do so need help. “That is an important social task, which must be quickly identified by schools and youth workers.”

Mandatory treatment

According to De Back, young people who do come to court should be obliged to cooperate in treatment in order to prevent recurrence. But there is a problem: the long waiting times. And she experiences this up close: “A boy was convicted of armed robbery, with juvenile detention and mandatory treatment. During the hearing he said: I really want that treatment.”

Nevertheless, De Back encountered the boy again four months later at a hearing, for a new criminal offense: street robbery. “Then you can get angry with that boy, but then I found out later that he had not been helped. Due to the waiting list, the treatment had not even started, but we were not informed about that, otherwise we might have proposed an alternative. And So it went wrong again, with another victim.”

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