Boris Johnson: We must crackdown more on knife crime

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Recent figures from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) show judges in Britain are failing to use the “two strikes and you’re out” law imposed in 2020 in an attempt to crack down on repeat knife crime offenders. The data, which looks at knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics from July to September 2021, shows more than four in 10 repeat knife crime offenders are being spared jail time.

This is despite the Criminal Justice and Courts Act of 2015, which requires courts to impose a jail term for repeat offenders “unless it would not be in the interest of justice to do so”.

This law, dubbed “two strikes and you’re out”, was designed to combat soft justice when facing repeat offenders amid soaring knife crime figures on British streets. 

Former Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland, who introduced the Bill, said it was designed to “make sure it’s clear that, when making sentencing decisions, mandatory imprisonment should be applied unless there are exceptional circumstances”. 

When this law came into effect in 2015, MoJ statistics show 34 percent of repeat offenders were escaping with non-custodial sentences — by 2021, it has climbed to 41 percent. 

The new data shows repeat offenders were more likely now than before to be handed suspended sentences, community service, fines, cautions or conditional discharges.

The figures were met with anger from across the political spectrum, with Sir Mike Penning, a former Conservative policing and justice minister, accusing judges of letting down victims.

He said: “Judges and magistrates need to know that Parliament passed the [two strikes] law for a reason. That is to protect victims and for victims to know that they are being listened to. Surely it’s the duty of the courts to recognise that.”

Lennox Rodgers — a former gang member-turned-author and philanthropist who was “in and out of prison for 21 years” and now leads the Refocus Project for ex-offenders, working with schools and the police to keep vulnerable young people out of gangs — agrees. 

He told Express.co.uk that, not only are victims being let down by the lenient sentences, but gangs are actually using them as a tool to lure young people into a life of crime, without the proper threat of repercussions. 

He said: “Judges aren’t following their own laws, in terms of powers to sentence. 

“They’re handing out lenient sentences, allowing gangs to manipulate the kids that they groom, showing them that nothing’s going to happen to them [if they join a gang].”

He said that when he was in a gang, “we took advantage of the law. You were supposed to get ‘X’ amount for a particular crime, but a lot of time the law didn’t give you what it had the power to give you.”

He added: “If these laws were enforced at the earliest stages, it would have reduced the amount of people that decided to get involved in the first place.

“The judicial system is a joke and gangs are taking advantage of that.”

Mr Rodgers noted that “victims are definitely being let down”, too. 

He said: “You only have to ask a person who’s ever been a victim of anything, and nine times out of 10 they would say they want a tougher sentence for [the perpetrator] because it’s about the damage they leave behind. 

“The sleepless nights, the depression, the injuries. Victims who have to look in the mirror every day and be reminded. The punishment has to reflect the crime.”

Mr Rodgers said that, while harsher sentencing is essential, there are changes that need to be made within the prison system too, to solve the root problem of violent re-offenders. 

He said that perpetrators “need to be removed” from society, but “it’s not just a case of locking people up”, particularly where vulnerable offenders are mixed with “hardened criminals”. 

He said: “Prison officers are not equipped to deal with everyone’s problems.

“So when you look at how to tackle knife crime…you have to remove the perpetrators to a place where they are going to get therapy to tackle the root issues of why they’re carrying a knife, and why what’s gone wrong for them to be in that situation. 

“You need to unpick that negative behaviour, and provide specialist help in order to deal with the root issue.

“[If this happens] you will see a change, and it will equip young and vulnerable people to be able to make better choices in difficult circumstances.”

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