Knife Crime

In 2019, members of UK Youth Parliament voted ‘Put an End to Knife Crime – too many young people’s lives are lost to knife crime, the government need to do more to help end the knife crime epidemic’ as their top issue for 2020. 

Therefore, in order to find out more about the issue of Knife Crime in Wrexham, the Member and Deputy Member of UK Youth Parliament for Wrexham, with support from the Senedd yr Ifanc, have created a short questionnaire to ask other young people their opinion. This questionnaire will take approx. 10 minutes to complete and has 18 questions.

The aim of the questionnaire is to give the Member and Deputy member of the UK Youth Parliament a clearer understanding of Knife Crime in Wrexham.

This questionnaire is completely anonymous; we would like you to answer the questions openly and honestly. You are able to pass any questions that you may not want to answer.

This questionnaire is aimed at young people who live, attend school or work in Wrexham and its surrounding communities.

The aim of the questionnaire was to gain knowledge of the current knife crime situation in Wrexham from a young person point of view. Information found from this consultation:

106 young people aged 11 -25 completed the questionnaire.

71 young people thought there was knife crime issue in the UK
36 young people thought there was a knife crime issue in Wrexham while
42 young people were not sure if there was an issue in the area
30 young people knew someone who had carried a knife or sharp object
40 young people worry about knife crime in Wrexham
10 young people admitted carrying a knife or sharp object
69 young people didn’t know what advice was available in Wrexham on knife crime
62 young people had not been taught about knife crime in School

The information found will help shape and guide the work of the Member and Deputy Member of UK Youth Parliament. They believe there needs to be a co-ordinated anti knife crime message spread across the county. The co-ordinated message should raise awareness of the anti knife crime message in schools, on social media platforms, youth clubs and youth groups. 

From the data and responses, the Members of the UK Youth Parliament for Wrexham and the Members of the Senedd yr Ifanc would like to make the following recommendations to improve knife crime in Wrexham:

• Further education in Wrexham high schools to raise awareness, reduce the worry and reduce knife crime.
• Training for professionals
• Work conducted in Wrexham to see how young people gain knives, in particular young people who are under  the age of 18.