Posted on 05/26/2005 7:26:25 PM PDT by aculeus
"Britain in the grip of knives terror—third of murder victims are now stabbed to death." Daily Express, 31 January 2005
"Stabbing rampage kills one, injures five—a large kitchen knife was found." Independent, 24 December 2004
Violent crime in the United Kingdom is increasing; figures from London show a 17.9% increase from 2003 to 2004,1 and one easily accessible weapon used in many incidents is the kitchen knife. Unfortunately, no data seem to have been collected to indicate how often kitchen knives are used in stabbings, but our own experience and that of police officers and pathologists we have spoken to indicates that they are used in at least half of all cases. UK government statistics show that 24% of 16 year old boys report carrying knives or other weapons and 19% admitting attacking someone with the intent to harm.2 Although other weapons—such as baseball bats, screwdrivers, and chains—are also carried, by far the most common weapons are knives.3 In the United Kingdom in the first two weeks of 2005 alone, 15 murders were attributed to stabbings and 16 other non-fatal attacks.4
To tackle this increasing problem, various measures are being considered by the government, particularly targeting the adolescent age group. These include raising the minimum age for purchasing a knife from 16 to 18 years and allowing head teachers the power to search pupils for knives.5 However, not all crimes are committed with newly purchased knives, and every household and home economics department in schools contains a plethora of readily available weapons. The modern stainless steel kitchen knife has a high quality blade that makes it unnecessary to look further for another lethal weapon.
Most domestic kitchen knives are based on two designs, the dagger variety with a pointed tip—for example, vegetable knife or carving knife—and the blunt round nose variety—for example, bread knife. When using a knife to harm, a blunt nosed knife is unlikely to cause serious injury, as penetrating clothing and skin is difficult with it. Similarly an assault with a knife with a short blade such as a craft knife may cause a dramatic superficial wound but is unlikely to reach deep structures and cause death. A dagger type knife, however, can penetrate deeply. Once resistance from clothing and skin is overcome, little extra force is required to injure vital organs, increasing the chance of a fatality (likened to cutting into a ripe melon).6
As knives are so readily available, does a culinary reason exist for so many domestic knives to be of the dagger variety, or are we just sticking to tradition? Knives as we recognise them were made first from copper and bronze between 3000 and 700 bc, and some are very similar in design to those used today. Personal eating knives were first used in Britain in the 14th century and became commonplace during the 1800s when manufacturing processes improved.7
Knives were used to spear meat, lifting it from plate to mouth, so pointed tips were vital for this function. Also, with repeated sharpening of a flat blade, a pointed tip inevitably develops. However, now domestic knives do not need sharpening, and numerous other kitchen utensils can be used to spear food. The current practice of eating with forks and blunt ended table knives was introduced in the 18th century to reduce the injuries resulting from arguments in public eating houses. In 1669, King Louis XIV of France noted the association between pointed domestic knives and violence and passed a law demanding that the tips of all table and street knives be ground smooth.8 Today many households have a block of kitchen knives of which several will be of the long pointed variety.
Perhaps the pointed kitchen knife has a culinary purpose that we have failed to appreciate? We contacted 10 chefs in the UK who are well known from their media activities and chefs working in the kitchens of five leading London restaurants. Some commented that a point is useful in the fine preparation of some meat and vegetables, but that this could be done with a short pointed knife (less than 5 cm in length). None gave a reason why the long pointed knife was essential. Domestic knife manufacturers (Harrison-Fisher Knife Company, England, personal communication, 2005) admit that their designs are based on traditional shapes and could give no functional reason why long pointed knives are needed. The average life of a kitchen knife is estimated to be about 10 years.
Many assaults are impulsive, often triggered by alcohol or misuse of other drugs, and the long pointed kitchen knife is an easily available potentially lethal weapon particularly in the domestic setting. Government action to ban the sale of such knives would drastically reduce their availability over the course of a few years. In addition, such legislation would make it harder to justify carrying such knives and prosecution easier.
The Home Office is looking for ways to reduce knife crime. We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect.
Emma Hern, specialist registrar in emergency medicine, Will Glazebrook, specialist registrar in emergency medicine Mike Beckett, consultant in emergency medicine
West Middlesex University Hospital, London TW7 6AF (emmah@doctors.org.uk)
Competing interests: None declared.
References
Metropolitan Police Service. Latest crime figures for London. www.met.police.uk/crimefigures/(accessed 20 Jan 2005).
Beinart S, Anderson B, Lee S, Utting D: Youth at risk? A national survey of risk factors, protective factors and problem behaviour among young people in England, Scotland and Wales. London, Communities that Care, 2002, JRF Findings 432.
Townsend M, Barnett A. Children of five who carry knives in class. Observer 2003, November 23. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1091441,00.html (accessed 21 Apr 2005)
BBC News Online (manual search). http://newssearch.bbc.co.uk/cgibin/search/results.pl?scope=newsukfs&tab=news&q=stabbings (accessed 20 Jan 2005).
Home Office. Off the streets and out of schools: Home Secretary's fight against knives. Press Release 389/2004. 15 December 2004.
www.homeoffice.gov.uk/n_story.asp?item_id=1188 (accessed 30 Mar 2005).
Sadler D. Injuries of medico-legal importance. Lecture notes for LLB in Forensic Medicine, University of Dundee. www.Dundee.ac.uk/forensicmedicine/llb/woundsdws.htm#stabs (accessed 20 Jan 05).
The Sheffield cutlery industry. http://freespace.virgin.net/a.data/The%20History%20of%20Cutlery.htm (accessed 20 Jan 2005). Knives. http://www.eat-online.net/english/education/utensils/knives.htm
(accessed 20 Jan 2005).
© 2005 BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
Ice picks, forks, screwdrivers, nails, pocket knives, nail files, ink pens, pencils, drill bits.......bananas
"You can have my 8" Chef's knife if you can get it "from my cold dead hands!"
LOL!. That makes two of us, along with my assortment of parers of varying shapes and sizes and my boning knife.
I don't believe for a minute that they found 10 *real* chefs that would say that all you need is a short birdseye parer. *Every* professional chef or cook I've known (and that's a few over the last 30+ years :) is fanatical about their knives, carrying them with them in cases, often engraved, and woe to anyone who dares to touch them, albeit for good reason.
Not to mention that, contrary to what's being advocated here, dull blades are infinitely more dangerous in daily life than sharp ones.
I have 27 knives in my kitchen, no two alike, each with a specific weight, length, style of blade and purpose. None of them was designed as a weapon. I have OTHER knives for that!
"A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity." ~Sigmund Freud, "General Introduction to Psychoanalysis"
Your love of daggers sounds like you are ____________ and _____________.
Julia Child is turning in her grave.
British doctors want to ban SCALPELS ?
"I have 27 knives in my kitchen, no two alike, each with a specific weight, length, style of blade and purpose. None of them was designed as a weapon.
I hear ya. :) Sadly, most people don't realize that "balance"(which is different for each person) is also important to prevent fatigue and injury.
I also have at least a dozen pairs of scissors in varying lengths for specific tasks and no, round edge kiddie scissors won't do these jobs. :)
>I have OTHER knives for that!"
Who needs knives? I keep a broom with a long wooden handle handy at work, among other *supposedly* "non-lethal" items. "Anything" can become a weapon and you can't "outlaw" everything.
"____________ and _____________."
I shudder to think what the "blanks" say....;))
No need to ban anything. Like always, banning will just encourage more useage. So, instead of banning, just place a prohibitive tax on them and people will stop using them because they cost so much.
People will have to find other ways to commit Ginsu-icide.....:))
Oh, well. Once private ownership of firearms was banned, this was inevitable.
More people die in their bathtubs than by knives. Should the government require people to register for the right to take a bath?
What about strangulation, by hands?
good point
I say cut off all their hands ... then they can't hold guns or knives or strangle anyone.
Of cource if you outlaw hands , then only outlaws will have hands.
And rocks, and breakable glass and hammers and fists and scary dogs and, and....
No one in England will be safe until they've conquered the scourge of "fresh fruit".
This is a comedy thread, right? Someone please tell me it's so...
What steak? These are the same kind of people who deem that "thou shalt not eat meat". They'll just outlaw that at the same time.
British doctors want to ban SCALPELS ?
The next step in nationalised health care? I better shut up now, else I give Hitliary ideas.
"What steak? These are the same kind of people who deem that "thou shalt not eat meat". They'll just outlaw that at the same time."
There is actually a college "professor" in Californicate (prolly wymyns studies) that spews the nonsense that the eating of meat is the domination of women.
"The Colt 45 made all men and women the same size."
That is an excellent point about guns, in fact I've been thinking about your post since last night. It's a point that's not made often enough. I'm going to try this argument out on my lefty, gun-hating, but law & order minded, friend the next time we get into an argument on this subject.
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