Expert says doctors can help fight knife crime

Professor Jonathan Shepherd, director of Cardiff University’s Violence Research Group, said although the victims should remain anonymous crime prevention groups would benefit from information such as location and severity of the attack.

He said: If police and groups who work to prevent crime know that outside a particular nightclub for example there are a number of attacks in a short space of time they can target that area and use their resources better. At the moment that information is not being passed on if a crime is not reported.

Shepherd said that even though violent crime had decreased since 2000, hospital admission data showed a different picture, with increases for all types of violence including knife attacks.

Rates shot up from 82.7 out of every 100,000 admissions in 2000/1 to 114.1 out of every 100,000 in 2006/7.

Writing in the British Medical Journal, Shepherd also called for medical emergency consultants become directly involved in crime partnership work and work more formally with police, councils and crime prevention groups.