Proyectos de interés

This section describes two mechanisms of desistence that emerged from the data.

Punitive sanctions that were applied as a consequence of getting caught either for a knife related crime or another offence, and the continued threat of sanctions, served as one mechanism of desistence. The second mechanism was a more complex set of processes, referred to here as ‘growing up’. This includes the development of new relationships and a move towards greater social integration generally, and a disengagement with offending peers. This was allied to a wider ‘cognitive re-orientation’ (Bottoms et al., 2004: 356) or identity change, embraced to different degrees by many of the participants, and a more general disengagement with offending, ‘street life’, and, knife carrying. These are considered in turn below.

Getting caught

As argued above, deterrent approaches had clearly failed to prevent the young people who took part in the research from first carrying a knife. Many participants did not think that they would get caught, some also questioned the legitimacy of the law in the context of ongoing risks of victimisation and a lack of adequate protection, especially where the need to feel safe outweighed more distant concerns. The impact of getting caught

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carrying a knife was nonetheless a significant factor in both desistence from, and a reduction in, incidences of carrying a knife. The majority of interview participants (17 out of 23) had been caught either carrying or using a knife, or had been apprehended after the fact. Of these, ten had been caught in possession of a knife, without it being related to any other offence. This was principally the result of random searches at school or on the street. One participant, for example, had simply been on the street with a group of friends and had been approached by the police. He had tried to hide the knife in some bushes but the police had seen him doing this and had arrested him. Another participant had been reported to his teacher by a friend who was concerned for his welfare.

As noted in the previous chapter – when knife carrying was done ‘successfully’, it could become habitual. This had implications for detection. Whilst searches and metal detectors did in theory provide a deterrent, young people did not always remember that they were carrying a knife or as already noted, did not expect to get caught. Two participants claimed to have been apprehended carrying a knife when they were not aware that they were carrying it. The young man below had been caught during a random search at school.

I didn’t encounter the police actually, but I went to school and I got arrested…this is the thing that I’m telling you about the knife thing…you don’t think of yourself carrying it. It’s like you forget your key, it’s like that.

You don’t forget your knife if you go out, it’s one of them things. It’s like forgetting your phone, you don’t do either do you...it’s like you forget that you have it on you, like it’s just – you pick up a pen to write, it’s like that.

So when I went into school...they search you down, that’s what I’m saying with metal detectors and that. Then they found it…I got arrested and I got convicted. (J.D. London, black British, aged 17).

A further six or seven participants had been caught in the process of offending, or as a result of having committed an offence. Of these, three had been caught as a result committing a robbery with a knife: one had been apprehended moments after he had committed the offence, only a few streets away from where he had committed the act, two had been caught some time after they had committed the act. Another two participants had been arrested for an incident that did not directly involve a knife but where

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they were carrying a knife incidentally whilst committing another offence: one participant was committing a burglary and been found in possession of a knife; the other had been engaging in drug dealing.

Can you remember the last time you carried a knife?

Me personally on me? October.

And can you remember what it was that made you not pick it up again?

Because I got nicked.

Nicked with a knife?

Yeah. I got stopped and searched on [street name], I put it up my bum and they pulled it out. (Merlin, London, aged 16).

Five participants had not been caught with a knife: two had been prosecuted for other crimes, including burglary and drugs offences in which a knife had not been used or found.

The remaining three participants were two young men and one young woman who had not ostensibly been caught for any crime. Two of these were nine and ten respectively at the time of carrying a knife. The former was known to have carried a knife because the youth workers at the centre he attended had become aware of this and had spoken informally with a sympathetic police officer. They had both spoken to the young man in question about the dangers of carrying a knife and this had influenced his decision to stop carrying. The other two had carried knives and had agreed to take part in the research after also having disclosed this to someone in a support function.

As noted in Chapter Three, the suite of available sanctions for knife carrying and use is reasonably wide and although there has been a shift recently towards a more punitive sentencing policy, a number of alternative options are available. As a consequence, the young people who took in this research had experienced an array of sanctions from more to less severe. These, and the consequences of having been caught, for participants and for their knife carrying, are explored below.

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Reflections on punishment

There were substantial variations in the sentences handed down to young people. All participants who had been caught carrying a knife (as opposed to those who were known by sympathetic support workers to sometimes carry a knife) had received at least a caution for carrying a knife and the majority had been assigned to work with the Youth Offending Service, post-conviction. At least another five had spent time in prison for a knife related offence, principally committing robbery, or for carrying with intent on or near school premises. Several participants had been excluded from school as a direct result of this conviction, whilst two others at least had been excluded for other incidents prior to their knife carrying. Four had been given community service orders. At least three more participants had multiple convictions for other offences and several were waiting to be sentenced at the time they took part in the interview.

Despite wide variations in the severity of the punishments the young people had experienced, they had been for the majority a salutary experience. This was the case for both those for whom the knife conviction was a first offence and for most of those who had experienced previous criminal sanctions. The former had found the experience shocking, upsetting and stressful, the latter on the whole. It was clear that prison had the desired effect in terms of stopping or reducing knife carrying.

And what do you think it was led you to stop carrying a knife?

I went to prison didn’t I? (Bean, London, black British, aged 17).

Three of those who went to prison had not been incarcerated before and this had been an especially sobering experience.

You don’t really know, you don’t understand the severity until you’re going to prison…me, I used to get arrested and then I was just like oh yeah…go to court, probably get bail blah blah blah. And then when you’re down there in the courts, they’ll be reading out the stuff to you that this offence, you could face this. You could face that. When they say the prison one, it goes in one ear and out the other ear because you don’t

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know what prison is like. You’ve never been in it. It’s not really an option.

You always think you’re going to get bail…then when it happens you start thinking ah yeah, what could I be facing? That’s when you start thinking how to, what it will be like…. then you get to the prison [then it is] all about how you carry yourself and who you are. How you deal with it… (Bean, London, black British, aged 17).

Even those who had received a relatively light punishment had not enjoyed the experience and regarded themselves as having been lucky to have evaded more severe punishment. The young man below received a fine and community service.

And when you got arrested, what were you expecting the punishment to be?

Something more serious than youth offending. I got let off…There’s other people out there that area carrying knives and they’re only 16, and they’re still going to young secure unit and things like that…I just pleaded guilty and I just told them my story and I said what I said. And they gave me a fine and six months [working with the] YOT. (Mo, London, black British, aged 16)

Those who were more familiar with the criminal justice system were less concerned about the experience of the punishment per se and were more concerned about the addition of another sanction to their list of offences and the consequences of this for their future prospects.

Do you still carry a knife?

No.

Why not?

It’s too risky. I’m on the last, last straw. If I get caught with a knife I’m definitely going to jail.

So is that the only reason you don’t carry a knife?

Yeah. Only because the police are gonna stop me…I won’t carry a knife (Merlin, London, aged 16).

Bottoms et al., (2004: 381) outline four ‘mechanisms…of legal conformity’. These are instrumental/prudential compliance, constraint based compliance, normative compliance, and compliance based on habit or routine. These are not discrete but in a state of

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perpetual interaction. It was clear that there was a strong role for instrumental compliance in the decision to stop carrying a knife, that is, most participants explained their stopping carrying in part out of fear of the legal consequences. There were two principal issues - first the increasing severity of sanctions, and second, having been caught already, the

‘celerity’ (Nagin and Pogarsky, 2001) of being caught again had increased significantly.

There was a general acknowledgement that some kind of punishment was fair.

Well, in some ways yeah. People should go to jail – it’s the younger – when you’re young, people won’t say this. They won’t say that they won’t want to go to jail for having knives. When you get older you start thinking about different things and you’re a bit more brainier and things like that when you’re older. You think of things differently than what you do when you’re younger. So like when you’re older, you would think yeah, people should go to jail for carrying knives and things like that. (Ben, white British, aged 16).

The kinds of experiences described above had, for at least six participants, formed a significant ‘turning point’ not just in their decision to stop carrying a knife but in their wider offending lifestyles. Four more said that it had formed a smaller but nonetheless significant step towards longer-term change. Several were also of the opinion that their peers had been dissuaded from carrying a knife for the same reasons. In fact, many participants had friends who had also experienced prison and other punishments, some for carrying knives. This had clearly had an impact on their own carrying and that of their friends.

He’s meant to be coming out this year, December.

And how does he feel about that situation going inside?

Well, he got used to the idea that he’s in prison, he had to. (Jonz, Yorkshire, Black African, aged 16).

Getting caught and the consequent stresses alone were not always necessary or sufficient to prompt desistence. Indeed, not everyone who had stopped carrying a knife had been caught for carrying a knife, or had been caught for any other crime. Similarly, some of those who had been caught for carrying a knife continued to carry a knife

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subsequent to their punishment. It is reasonable then to assume in this case that there were other factors involved in the process. Alongside the actual experience of punishment, engagement with the criminal justice system can prompt a reassessment, and this, combined with other factors can prompt a change in orientation and a search for more durable forms of integration. These processes are considered below.