Photo by Frank Okay on Unsplash.
By Lilly Fryer
Knife crime is a rising concern in the UK, despite efforts to reduce and stop the sale, possession and use of these deadly weapons. Sentencing statistics from the Ministry of Justice shows that there were approx. 18,500 cautions and convictions for possessions of a knife in the year ending March 2023.
Portrayal by television
Top Boy is a drug and gang-related series that first aired on Channel 4 in 2011 just after the riots. The show was cancelled after two seasons, and eventually re booted in 2019, thanks to Canadian rapper Drake’s praises.
The series was created by Irish novelist and screenwriter, Ronan Bennett, who got inspiration for the series after witnessing a boy no older than 10 or 12 dealing drugs outside of a Tesco supermarket in Hackney.
A Statista study shows that in 2023 Top Boy was the second most watched show on Netflix, with 5.8 million viewers. The series has immersed itself into a word of gang crime, showing authenticity of violence, poverty and drugs.
Photo by Fábio Magalhães on Unsplash.
A show such as Top Boy is making real life issues viewable and accessible to screens in the UK. However, on the series there is a split, and often the ‘Top Boys’ such as Dushane and Sully are seen to be successful and living a “high lifestyle” from selling drugs. It is also portrayed on the series that a lifestyle of selling drugs comes with violence, specifically knife crime.
Programmes and social media can often perpetuate fear but normalising carrying a knife. This can make teens feel they need to carry a knife for protection, making it difficult for youngsters to see the reality that comes with involvement in gang crime.
Watching programmes that relay or aim to portray real life issues may not always be viewed by people that realise that it is not just money, status and power, but often a cycle with lack of knowledge on how to get out.
Counter-narratives
Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben Kinsella Trust since 2016, states that “What is missing is a strong counter narrative.” Television shows and social media make viewing explicit content very easy for youngsters, meaning that violence can often be normalised or desensitised.
Photo by John Cameron on Unsplash.
What is needed is strong adult figures, teachers, parents, youth workers, celebrities and other role models to come out and state strong counter narratives that what is seen on TV shows and social media is not the full reality.
Idris Elba’s recent documentary “Our Knife Crime Crisis” has visited and confronted the reality of the situation. He had spoken closely to people that have been most affected, with a mission to stop and break the cycle by finding out the roots of the system.
In the documentary, Elba visited Feltham Young Offenders Institute and spoke closely to inmates and workers to unveil their experiences with knife crime. The main mission of Feltham YOI is to rehabilitate, however with each prison place costing £120,000 per year it is near impossible to facilitate all those convicted for a long period.
That means many young offenders are only in the prison for limited sentences, and when they get out the cycle continues. The ministry of Justice states that 30% of young offenders commit another crime within a year upon release.
Elba’s documentary presents the truth, even demonstrating how he is trying to stop the issue – which leads to strong counter narratives to TV programmes. Although Top Boy is heavily based on true experiences, it does not portray life like a documentary would. Viewers watching and hearing true experiences and facts could prevent and minimise knife crime.
Knife crime can be a vicious cycle. Over three quarters of teenagers who were victims of serious violence were also perpetrators of violence, according to a study from the Youth Endowment Fund.
“The only difference between a victim and a perpetrator is whoever won the fight that day,” Idris Elba said in his documentary.
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