Monk Bretton incident

Just read today about an electrician planting cameras in womems homes for approx 10 years. He got less than 3 years I believe.
Nearly the same as a Facebook post.
Sentencing is very confusing to me

 

What was the motive? Robbery? Drugs? Domestic?

 

https://www.examinerlive.co.uk/news/local-news/moving-tributes-lovely-man-barnsley-29855776

 

Yeah read that. Sickening

 

That's the American argument for guns. So is the "they only know that way of life argument".

There has to be a deterrent to stop people from carrying knives and the less knives there are on the streets the less knife crime there is. You can't eradicate it totally but you can significantly reduce it.

Everybody goes to school (well almost). Everybody knows more than just violence and has been taught right from wrong. There's no excuse whatsoever for it and it isn't privileged to not be someone prepared to murder.

 

It isn't an excuse. Growing up poor does not justify murder. It just doesn't.

 

I’m not sure they’d lock Mick Smith up with his overalls on coveted in sawdust as opposed to a young un dripping in gold with trackys on and nike air Jordan’s

 

Might not be and excuse but it certainly seems to be a major contributing factor, all the stats show that.

 

Ok so we can't give mandatory jail for anyone in possession of a knife because a tradesman could have accidentally took his knife home. I'm lost then but somethings got to change and blaming poverty doesn't cut it. Knife crime has gone up massively since I was in school so many kids school age getting caught carrying them.

 

I never said that.

 

Nobody is saying that, but there's a clear correlation between poverty/wealth etc and crime.

 

It doesn't, but if you've nowt to lose you're probably less likely to worry about consequences of your actions.

 

A reminder that American has per-capita more people killed and seriously injured with knives than the UK. And Chicago has more murders per year than our entire country.

 

At last someone talking common sense.Not enough deterrent and that goes for most crimes.

 

I'm a Magistrate, so have heard cases for this offence previously. The sentencing guidelines for bladed articles are more severe than for other offensive weapons, and most categories have a start point of custody under the sentencing guidelines.

The test for the offence is "without reasonable excuse", so someone using a knife for their work can rely on that as a defence, but it's not a blanket defence in all circumstances. If someone still had a work knife in their possession in a pub at lunchtime, for example, then they might still be convicted of the offence.

 

The penalty for murder in many American states is death, but they have a much higher murder rate than here (the incidence of knife crime alone is higher in America than here). There is no evidence that stricter sentencing reduces crime.

https://www.thejusticegap.com/the-myth-of-tough-sanctions-and-crime-deterrence

If you think about it, lets take it to the extremes and put a life sentence on anyone carrying a knife. They might then as well be arrested for murder as for carrying a knife because both have the same penalty if they are caught. So there is a point where making the sentence harsher will no longer have a deterrent effect and could even incite people that are carrying knives to be even more stabby than they are now. This would be counterproductive.

So, there is a scale somewhere between a literal slap on the wrist and life imprisonment where it has a deterrent to carrying a knife but not enough to incite those with knives to use them because there is no deterrent.

This doesn't just apply to knife crimes BTW. You could apply the same to burglary, sexual assault, mugging or just about any other crime. If the punishment is the same, there is no reason to leave the victims alive.