#Lewisham the least peaceful borough in the UK @mpsLewisham @LewishamCouncil

The UK Peace Index, from the Institute for Economics and Peace, found UK homicides per 100,000 people had fallen from 1.99 in 2003, to one in 2012. The index found Broadland, Norfolk, to be the most peaceful local council area but Lewisham, London, to be the least.

Most peaceful local authorities

1. Broadland, Norfolk

2. Three Rivers, Hertfordshire

3. South Cambridgeshire

4. East Dorset

5. Maldon, Essex

Source: IEP

Least peaceful local authorities

1. Lewisham, London

2. Lambeth, London

3. Hackney, London

4. Newham, London

5. Tower Hamlets, London

Source: IEP

Rates of murder and violent crime have fallen more rapidly in the UK in the past decade than anywhere else in Western Europe, researchers say.

The UK Peace Index, from the Institute for Economics and Peace, found UK homicides per 100,000 people had fallen from 1.99 in 2003, to one in 2012.

The UK was more peaceful overall, it said, with the reasons for it varied.

The index found Broadland, Norfolk, to be the most peaceful local council area but Lewisham, London, to be the least.

The research by the international non-profit research organisation comes as a separate study by Cardiff University suggests the number of people treated in hospital in England and Wales after violent incidents fell by 14% in 2012.

Some 267,291 people required care – 40,706 fewer than in 2011 – according to a sample of 54 hospital units, its report said.

For its inaugural index, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which defined peace as “the absence of violence or fear of violence”, used Home Office data on crime, such as public disorder offences and weapons crime, and police officer numbers.

It found the violent crime rate in the UK was down by about one quarter – from 1,255 per 100,000 people in 2003, to 933 in 2012.

Gang violence
These reductions came despite a 6% drop in the number of police officers per 100,000 people, it said.

In Broadland – an area which includes three market towns, Acle, Aylsham and Reepham as well as part of the Norfolk Broads, and which has a population of about 125,000 people – eight violent crimes were recorded for 2012.

Its average overall crime rate for the decade was 323 per 100,000 people – about a third of the national average.

The five most peaceful local authority areas, which also included Three Rivers, in Hertfordshire, South Cambridgeshire, East Dorset and Maldon, in Essex, recorded a combined total of 24 homicides over the decade.

Lewisham, meanwhile, had a homicide rate of 2.5 in 2012 – two-and-a-half times the national average.

The year 2011 was the borough’s worst in the decade for the actual number of homicides – defined by researchers as murder, manslaughter and infanticide – with 11.

All five of the least peaceful local authority areas were London boroughs – the others being Lambeth, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets.

BBC home editor Mark Easton said that while Lewisham, an area scarred by gang violence, was found to be the least peaceful area, overall the capital was markedly more peaceful than it was 10 years ago, with some of the biggest drops in some types of violent crime.

The capital’s rate of homicides was far lower than in New York, Amsterdam, Brussels and Prague, he added.

Of the UK’s “urban areas”, the index found Glasgow, with a murder rate of double the national average, to be the least peaceful and Cardiff, with 60% less violent crime than Glasgow, the most peaceful.

Sheffield, Nottingham and Leeds came 2nd, 3rd and 4th respectively behind Cardiff in the urban areas peacefulness ranking.

Minimum wage
The IEP’s report said that 80% of the 343 local authority areas it had evaluated had seen at least a 10% improvement in their peace over the past decade.

“This is the fastest decline in violence of any country in Europe,” it said.

“Cross-checking Home Office and Eurostat data against a number of metrics, such as hospital admissions, the UKPI shows that this dramatic fall is not a blip in police reporting – the UK really is becoming more peaceful.

“Reasons for this fall in violence are varied, however one of the more likely reasons, often overlooked, is the substantial improvement in police practices particularly related to the adoption of advanced technologies.

“Other factors which have had an impact in reducing violence include an aging population, decreasing alcohol consumption and, finally, rising real wages, supported by the introduction of the minimum wage.”

Other findings include:

-Extreme poverty is the factor most closely associated with violence
-The number of police officers had no correlation to levels of peace
-Fear of crime is greater than the reality: 25% of Britons think they will be a victim of crime, but only 4% will experience crime
-The UK homicide rate is now roughly equivalent to the Western European average and at its lowest level since 1978
-But UK violent crime rate is significantly higher than the European average
-The research follows the IEP’s US Peace Index published last year.

IEP chairman Steve Killelea said the increased level of peace in the UK “cannot be narrowed down to any single factor”.

But he added: “The findings of the UK Peace Index show that poverty and economic opportunity are significantly associated with peace, as supported by other international studies, including the US Peace Index.

“This suggests greater emphasis needs to be placed on programmes that tackle poverty and related issues, such as access to education and economic opportunity.”

Source BBC News

Rape is a weapon of war – and of #gang conflict via @carlenefirmin

The government and the G8 are funding two separate initiatives against rape, and joining the dots between them will be essential

Marcia’s brother and her boyfriend were gang members. Over the two hours that I interviewed her in 2009, she told me that rape had been used as “a weapon” between street gangs. When she was 16 years old, Marcia was grabbed off the street and raped in a park by men to whom her brother owed a drugs debt; he was in prison at the time. The attack “punished” Marcia’s brother – they were both the target. Marcia chose to use the word “weapon” and it wasn’t the first time I’d heard a young person use this language.

Girls living in gang-affected neighbourhoods had already articulated that rape was the only “weapon” that couldn’t be stopped and searched for, and that the focus on knives and guns was failing to afford them the protection that they needed; it was their insight that drove me to develop a three-year research project into the impact of gang violence on women and girls.

More recently, two significant changes have shifted the policy landscape. Last year, the government acknowledged the use of sexual violence in and between street gangs in the UK, by committing £1.2m to fund 13 specialist advocacy services to start to address the issue. And this month, the G8 committed $35m (£22.7m) to tackle the use of rape as a weapon of war.

And yet the dots between these two policy initiatives are yet to be joined. There remains a gulf between how rape in gang conflict and rape in war are conceptualised and addressed. Both are often motivated by territorial conflict between groups. Women and girls who are raped in this context rarely seek help and support, or have their victimisation recognised by professionals. The fear of retribution, and the wider context of neighbourhood violence within which such sexual assaults take place, should not be underestimated.

When I attended the Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations this year, it was evident that the UK response to the impact of gang violence on women and girls was unique and progressive on the global stage. Few countries have recognised the issue at policy level, or committed government funds to address the problem.

However, even in the UK many professionals still require training to identify cases, and the investigation of gang-associated rape is rare. Simultaneously, the G8 agreement is seeking to plug some of these gaps. The declaration signed this month commits the G8 to develop a new protocol to investigate rape in conflict, offers training for the military, and commits support for prosecutions in some of the countries that are worst affected.

Surely we should be embarking on a two-way knowledge exchange: first, ensuring that the learning from the work on rape in war is used to improve the way professionals respond to and investigate the rape of gang-associated women and girls in the UK; second, using this G8 commitment to ensure global policy recognition of rape in gang conflict, in addition to war zones.

The current momentum in policy presents us with a unique opportunity – to address the use of rape as a weapon in both gang conflict and war. The fact that young people around the country have used the word weapon to describe their experiences of rape needs to be addressed. For some young people, growing up in gang-affected neighbourhoods translates into living in a state of fear and witnessing violence on a regular basis. While we cannot, and should not, draw a direct comparison to war zones, we can still identify similarities and use them to protect young people. At a time when resources are limited, the dots must be joined, and lessons learned and shared.

Source The Guardian

#Birmingham Johnson Crew leader’ in fight to lift area ban

An alleged “Johnson Crew leader” who was the first person to be jailed for breaching a gang injunction has launched a test case fight to get the order lifted.

Gavin James, 26, a “powerful personality” said to be associated with gangs in Birmingham, was hit with the anti-social behaviour injunction (ASBI) in October last year “for his own protection”.

But James, said to be a member of the infamous “Johnson Crew,” claims his human rights are being infringed by the ban.

The injunction, which prohibits him from entering the Newtown, Handsworth and city centre areas of Birmingham or associating with certain people – including restrictions on when he can see his own mother – was sought after James was shot five times by a man toting a machine gun in December 2011, outside a house in Aston.

James, from Hodge Hill, was handed a three-month jail term at Birmingham County Court last December for breaching the injunction, the first sentence of its type passed in the UK under the 2009 Policing and Crime Act, which came into force in January 2011 and invests local authorities with the power to seek such injunctions.

Barrister Ramby de Mello, for James, argued before Lord Justice Maurice Kay, Lord Justice Moore-Bick and Lord Justice Jackson, that the ASBI violated his client’s human rights.

He told the judges that, because of the order, James is prohibited from associating with known Birmingham-based gang affiliates and required to engage in support for training and employment to enable him to exit what is said to be his gang lifestyle. If James breaches the two-year order he could be arrested again and face a custodial sentence of up to two years.

The barrister said that James denies he is a gang member, let alone a gang leader, and is merely “friends with a number of people who are in these gangs” through having grown up in the area.

He argued that to impose an order restricting a person’s freedom for their own protection violates Article Eight of the European Convention on Human Rights, which enshrines the right to respect for privacy and family life.

He also sought to persuade the judges that, if anything, a conventional Asbo should have been imposed on James and attacked the requirements of the injunction as “disproportionate”.

Jonathan Manning, for the council, said that the order was lawful and should be upheld. The local authority applied for the injunction in response to increasing concerns about public safety in the areas of Birmingham in which he operates, the barrister said. Lawyers representing Home Secretary Theresa May also took part in the case which is viewed as having central importance to the ASBI regime.

The Appeal Court judges reserved their decision on the case, to be delivered at a later date.

source Birmingham Mail

Tackling gangs and youth violence: Experiences from Homeboy in the United States

Tackling gangs and youth violence: Experiences from Homeboy in the United States

I have long been a big fan of Homeboy industries and now they are doing a conference in the UK. Don’t miss out.

Starts at: May 31, 2013 10:30
Ends at: May 31, 2013 13:00
Fringe-style event to explore the best ways to tackling gangs and youth violence.

Speakers:
Father Greg Boyle, Founder, Homeboy Industries
James Horton, Senior Staff Member and Graduate, Homeboy
Dr Jorja Leap, Adjunct Associate Professor of Social Welfare, UCLA
Rob Owen, Chief Executive, St Giles Trust
Neil Amos, Partner, Policing and Justice, PA Consulting

Theme:
The 2011 Riots provided a harsh reminder of the damage that gang and youth violence can do to not just property and communities, but also the lives of those offenders involved. In London, the Metropolitan Police have led the way in tackling gang crime through the refocused Trident Gang Command, coupling enforcement with desistence and rehabilitation, while a number of forces have partnered with innovative providers such as St Giles Trust and Catch22 to address gang cultures. In Scotland, the Violence Reduction Unit has pioneered a new public health approach to violent crime. Yet despite significant progress to date, gangs continue to be blight on streets and communities through considerable levels of criminal activity and violence.

This fringe-style event will provide an opportunity for Father Greg Boyle, the Founder of Homeboy Industries, to set out his experiences of addressing gang violence in Los Angeles over the last 25 years. Homeboy Industries, an independent social enterprise, is one of the largest and well-known gang rehabilitation programmes in the United States, helping up to 1,000 former gang members leave a life of crime behind them every month and raising around $15 million a year to reinvest in rehabilitation and community projects. Among the other international speakers will be James Horton, a graduate of Homeboy, and UCLA’s Dr Jorja Leap, who has completed a formal evaluation of the programme. To give a UK perspective, Rob Owen, Chief Executive of St Giles Trust, and Neil Amos, Partner at PA Consulting, will give their thoughts.

Click here for more information.

Gang violence is contagious

Its spread mimics infections such as HIV, says US professor Gary Slutkin, who advises treating it as a public health problem. London group Chaos Theory is taking his approach to the streets. Click here for article.

Child Poverty Reveals Extent of Deprivation Across UK

Campaigners are warning that child poverty rates could rise in future as a result of welfare reforms and spending cuts, following the publication of a UK child poverty map.

The map, included in a Campaign to End Child Poverty report, details poverty rates across local authority areas and parliamentary constituencies, showing how more than two thirds of children are classified as living in poverty in some areas of the country.

In terms of local authority areas, the map shows that the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is worst hit, with 42 per cent of children living below the poverty line, followed by Manchester, where the proportion of children living in poverty stands at 38 per cent.

Poverty rates by parliamentary constituency reveal stark differences between areas. In London, the constituency of Poplar and Limehouse has a child poverty rate of 41 per cent, compared to just seven per cent in Richmond.

Although the statistics do show a drop in the number of children in poverty, Enver Solomon, chair of End Child Poverty, warned that welfare reforms and local authority budget cuts threatened to make life harder for children and families.

“Local authorities are having to deal with reduced budgets but they have critical decisions to make,” said Solomon. “We’re calling on authorities to prioritise low-income families in the decisions they make about local welfare spending, including spending on the new council tax benefit, and on protecting families hit by the bedroom tax.

“This week we have written to local authority leaders in the local authorities with the most child poverty, asking them what they will do to tackle child poverty in their local area.”

TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, said many of the areas identified as having high levels of child poverty were also those facing “huge reductions” in local authority funding as a result of government spending cuts.

“This will put vital support services for vulnerable children under tremendous strain,” said O’Grady. “Unless the government pulls back from these austerity measures, child poverty will become even more entrenched in already deprived parts of the country.”

Will Higham, director of Save the Children UK, added: “These are children growing up on the edge or missing out on basic essentials; a warm home, decent clothes and enough food. These are tough times but every child deserves a fair chance and a good start in life.”

Across Scotland, one in five children was found to live below the poverty line, while 43 per cent were classed as living in poverty in the constituency of Glasgow North East.

Jackie Brock, chief executive of Children in Scotland, said: “As budgets are set across the country, we hope that Scottish local authorities, health boards and other public services listen to what this research is telling us – that much more needs to be done to protect, and to help, those families living below the poverty line.”

The report meanwhile highlights the fact that the measure of relative low-income poverty, which includes children living below the 60 per cent median of household income, does not include housing costs. It warns that child poverty figures would be higher if measured after housing costs, particularly in areas where housing is more expensive.

The local authorities with the lowest levels of child poverty were found to be the Isles of Scilly and South Northamptonshire, which both registered rates of less than five per cent.

Child Poverty Map Report 2013 Click Here

Source Children and Young People Now

Campaign to tackle #gangs brings together young Europeans

Young people in London have linked up with their Italian and Spanish counterparts to design a campaign against street violence

The streets of London may seem very different to a coastal town in Italy or a provincial city in Spain, but when it comes to serious youth violence they may share more in common than you might think.

This is the rationale behind a groundbreaking new programme that is taking a pan-European approach to tackling gangs and street violence. The project, known as Youth Secure Streets (YUS), is linking up young people living in the City of Westminster with their counterparts in the major towns of Pescara and Cordoba to design a youth led anti-street violence awareness campaign.

This will centre on the production of a new website designed by young people to promote the campaign’s message. There will also be a print campaign consisting of adverts, posters and a magazine as well as an audio visual campaign using radio and online videos.

For councillor Nickie Aiken, Westminster council’s cabinet member for children, young people and community protection, the programme, which has been made possible by €400,000 (£351,374) of EU funding, was “a good way of doing something different.”

“It doesn’t matter where you come from, all young people share the same aspirations,” she says. “If you live in a deprived area, whether it’s in Queens Park or Paris, you’re still living in poverty. This is a really exciting opportunity for the young people involved to talk directly to other young people about these issues and share their personal experiences of gangs and street violence.

“The project will also equip them with a range of new skills and work experience which will help them on their way to future training and employment opportunities.”

Gang related problems are relatively new to Westminster, however it is a growing concern. In September 2011 the council launched a multi-agency gang strategy, called Your Choice, linking up police, probation services and the voluntary sector. The early intervention scheme gives young people the option to take up the services on offer or “face some very serious consequences.” The YUS project follows on from this.

“Many people don’t think of Westminster as having a gang issue,” says Aiken. “Really it’s been the start of a gang issue which we’ve got on top of quickly. I want to make it clear to families that if they don’t get with the programme their son could end up seriously injured or dead.”

Working in partnership with Westminster city council on the YUS project is Inclusion, a not for profit organisation that conducts research for policy in the public sector.

“The purpose is to look at serious youth violence from different angles,” says senior researcher Lauren Small. “In each country we’re taking a different perspective and taking the opportunity to cross compare. We want to look at common ground and difference to create a European policy framework to tackle serious youth violence.

“One of the good things about having a youth group is that they learn from each other, share experiences and it’s an opportunity to have their voices heard. A lot of the issues with young people is that they feel bombarded by peer pressure and society. This campaign gives them a source of information to make the right choices.”

Most of the young people taking part in the Westminster YUS project have been directly involved with, or affected by serious youth violence. One of the group members is 17-year-old Abdel Cheddoud, from Queen’s Park. Cheddoud’s parents are divorced and he has five younger siblings. He lives with his father. Although he has not been involved with gangs himself, it is an issue that is close to home.

“In my area a lot of people I used to know did get involved,” he says. “They weren’t like that before then they just changed. I know people who have criminal records and have gone to prison at 16 or 17. I think one used a knife to mug someone … I’ve never been tempted to join but because I’ve known these people in the past I could have. But now I don’t hang around my area so much any more. If you’re outside late in certain places you can feel unsafe.”

For Cheddoud, who is currently studying at college and is hoping to go to university, the project offers an opportunity to collaborate ideas with young people from Europe, and help to counteract the issues that lead some people to get involved with gangs.

“Sometimes people don’t have no-one (sic) to turn to and they might find peer pressure comes along and they might not find the right path,” he says. “We’ve come up with an idea for the website where there’s going to be a road and on one side it’s going to show success and the other side is going to show failure, and prison. The idea is: “choices are what make us.”‘

Source The Guardian

London Street #Gangs’ 500 Most Dangerous Members in Jail

More than 500 of London’s most dangerous gang members are in jail after a year-long crackdown, police figures show.

Launched in February 2012 at a cost of £60m, the Metropolitan Police’s Trident Gang Crime Command has made more than 4,000 arrests.

There has also been a fall in the number of cases of youth violence with 1,500 fewer victims than a year earlier.

The number of victims of knife crime in London fell by 436 – around 28 percent – and there were 77 fewer shootings – a drop of 18 percent. There were six firearm murders in London in the past 12 months.

Originally set up to focus on gun crime and homicide within the black community, the command switched focus to tackle gang-related crime and associated violence and shootings across all backgrounds.

Scotland Yard said that 561 of the top 2,000 most harmful gang members were in jail – more than double the figure in March 2012.

Police seized 340 guns including one Kalashnikov assault rifle.

Trident-led investigations have resulted in jail sentences totalling 1,334 years, including 16 life sentences.

Det Chief Supt Dean Haydon, head of Trident Gang Crime Command, said: “This year we have seen some fantastic results in terms of enforcement. Tackling gang-related violence remains a key priority for the [Metropolitan Police] and we will continue to target and convict those who choose to carry weapons and cause harm in London’s communities.”

Cmdr Steve Rodhouse said: “When we launched the new command last year our aim was to drastically lower levels of serious youth violence, knife crime and gun crime in the capital, make the Met’s response faster and to ensure we had the appropriate numbers of officers and staff focused on tackling gang crime. Our new approach is clearly working and we are now seeing reductions across all gang-related crime types.”

Stephen Greenhalgh, deputy mayor for policing and crime, said: “The success of the Trident Command in its first year shows that real progress is being made. We are determined to enhance this good enforcement effort by the Met with effective new programmes that both prevent youngsters from joining gangs and divert youngsters from gangs.”

Source IBTimes

How social enterprise can reduce #gang violence

From unleashing potential through sport to raising aspirations, social enterprise solutions have significant impact on youth crime

Stephen Bubb, chief executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, recently questioned the Government’s Big Society policy for ignoring charities as a key stakeholder in the implementation of public sector reforms.

If indeed charities are being left out of the reform debate or have their hands tied as to the level of resources available, there is great potential for social enterprises to deliver public services to fill the gap.

The 2011 Cross-Government Report on Ending Gang and Youth Violence highlighted that “the small number of young people who are involved in serious violence have a disproportionately large impact on the communities around them”, and that prevention and intervention activities “will only have a real impact if they are coordinated effectively at the local level”. According to Social Enterprise UK, significant numbers of social enterprises are concentrated in the most deprived communities in the UK. These organisations are therefore ideally placed to address issues of gang violence, creating bespoke solutions which don’t depend on public funding.

This blog highlights two social enterprises working to provide private sector solutions to gang violence.

Approach 1: Unleash the potential through sport

Luke Dowdney, MBE, founded the social enterprise LUTA in 2007, a fightwear and lifestyle clothing manufacturer. His reasons were threefold. Firstly, to champion great boxers from around the world who suffer the impacts of crime and violence, and provide income for the charity Fight For Peace International which works with youths living with violence. Secondly, to pay homage to the spirit of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro where he worked, leading to the name which means “to fight, to struggle”, and lastly, to create high performance clothing for fighters by fighters.

On a yearly basis LUTA provides a minimum of £10,000, increasing to up to 50% of annual profits, if greater, to Fight for Peace International, which establishes Fight for Peace academies around the world, including east London. The academies seek to implement a five-pillar model, the result of input from multiple stakeholders, including youths targeted by the project, to support young people living with violence:

• Boxing and martial arts training and competition
• Personal development and education
• Youth support services
• Job training and work access
• Youth leadership

According to an impact study conducted by the University of East London in November 2012, 85% of participants in the charity’s work said they are less likely to become a member of a gang and 42% stopped their gang affiliations. One participant confirms, “if you have a lot of stress or if you have a lot of anger, boxing is a great way to get rid of that excess stress and anger.”

Approach 2: Raising aspirations of young people

Raise the Youth Foundation is a social enterprise that aims to bring people, partnerships, communities and industry together to work with youths and invest in the future. The organisation works with 13 to 24-year-olds to develop and provide education, training and employment opportunities. Apprenticeships and job placements are created by offering services which include gardening, cleaning, web design, painting and decorating – and the foundation is an accredited education provider. These services are complemented with support and one-to-one mentoring for gang members.

Research conducted by Catch22 highlights that providing gang members with the opportunity to find work is just one major factor in leaving a gang. Since its inception in May 2011, in addition to providing employment, Raise the Youth Foundation has encouraged a young person to record a rap about domestic violence, which is now used for training purposes. It has also successfully engaged and provided intensive services and support to over 100 children and young people, with many gaining qualifications and receiving accredited learning to enhance their opportunities in life and work. One young participant described that the foundation has “changed me as a person, it’s made me feel better”.

Potential opportunities

If David Cameron entered ‘big society’ into any search engine he would find many articles and statements from people left frustrated with what it has become today. Cameron’s idea of a more active civic society is welcomed but two years later the success of its execution is questionable. As businesses, both Raise the Youth Foundation and LUTA understand that waiting for the government’s next action, policy or spending cuts won’t have a positive impact on the communities in which they operate. Having a sustainable and socially responsible business that contributes to the local community makes good business sense, now more than ever.

There is no one right approach to addressing the problems facing our communities, a collaborative approach must be found. If that cannot be achieved under the current big society policy, stakeholders should seek and implement an alternative resolution. In the meantime, whilst the wheels of government grind, social enterprises are most suited to taking the lead in providing innovative solutions that can be implemented quickly.

Keum Roling and Charlotte Pritchard are 2012 On Purpose associates. On Purpose is a one-year leadership programme for professionals who want to transition into a social enterprise career. It involves two six-month work placements in socially-driven organisations, intensive 1:1 support and a world-class business training programme.

Source The Guardian

Police winning battle against inner city #gun crime

Firearms offences are 40 per cent down in less than a decade, figures will show

Firearms offences have fallen by more than 40 percent in less than a decade, with the rise of “gun culture” in Britain’s inner cities apparently reversed because of improved police intelligence.

Figures out next month are expected to confirm the long-term decline in gun crime which resulted in 39 people shot dead in 2011/12 compared with a high of 96 ten years earlier.

A series of high-profile shootings – including the New Year’s Day 2003 shooting of teenagers Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare in Birmingham in a drive-by attack – had fuelled political concerns about a tide of gang-related violence using extreme and indiscriminate violence.

But improved intelligence-led operations, poor quality guns and munitions, better community links to divert gang activity, and improved surgery for gunshot victims have all contributed to reduced deaths from gun violence, according to experts and police.

A comparative shortage of guns in circulation has triggered a price spike in the underworld firearms market, according to detectives. A study for the Home Office in 2006 found that around £1,000 will buy a “new” semi-automatic handgun with ammunition.

But a gang of British soldiers due to be sentenced this week for smuggling five handguns into the country from Germany were hoping to sell the weapons to the London underworld for up to £3,500, a court heard.

Police in the West Midlands have reported the emergence on the streets of more antique weapons using home-made ammunition and more sharing of weapons between gangs to counter the shortages.

The decline in UK gun crime follows the establishment of a series of units focused on gang crime following a surge of ‘Yardie’ gun violence at the end of the 1990s.

Police in England and Wales recorded 5,911 firearms offences in 2011/12, a reduction of 42 percent compared with nine years earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Previous hotspots, like Hackney in east London, have seen major drops in gun crime with police using tactics including number plate recognition which has made it harder for criminals to move around with their guns, said DCI John Crossley, of Scotland Yard’s Trident team. “They will look at using girlfriends, they will use and abuse friends and younger kids on the estates to hold their weapons,” he said.
The Government last year announced its intention to introduce a new offence as part of a strategy to go after “middle-men” and armourers who rented out weapons.

Police who raided one criminal quartermaster’s house in Manchester, in 2011 found a cache of weapons including a machine gun that had been used in five crimes across the North West in five years.

The planned legislation followed lobbying from the National Ballistics Intelligence Service (NABIS) that suggested going after the suppliers was key to keeping gun crime low.
NABIS said the planned new law of “possession with intent to supply” is expected to affect 10 to 20 offenders a year.

Gavin Hales, a research fellow at Essex University and one of the authors of the 2006 Home Office study, said interviews with 80 gangsters showed that guns were often used and sold back into the market. Prices for hiring weapons depended on if they had been used in previous crimes and “deposits” were lost to the armourer if they had been fired. “That marked a break in tradition,” said Mr Hales. “In previous decade a gun used in a shooting would have been disposed of immediately.”
The shortage of weapons has seen criminals turn to stun guns for use in burglaries, robberies and disputes between drug dealers with 500 seized in the past three years, according to a Freedom of Information request by the BBC.

Detective Superintendent Joanne Chilton, head of gangs and organised crime unit at West Midlands police where gun crime deaths have gone down from nine in 2002-03 to two in 2011-12, said: “I don’t think they (guns) are as prevalent as the community thinks, which is why we see them passed between people.”

Source The Independent