Banning the sale of zombie knives is a positive step, but schools need to intervene earlier to help tackle the UK’s knife crime crisis, says Idris Elba.
The actor, 52, has spent the last year making a documentary for the BBC about solutions to knife crime, during which he met victims’ families, police officers, and teenage offenders.
In addition to early intervention, he told the BBC that ninja swords should be banned and even suggested domestic knives could be made less dangerous.
“Not all kitchen knives need to have a point on them, that sounds like a crazy thing to say,” he adds, “but you can still cut your food without the point on your knife, which is an innovative way to look at it.”
A total of 507 children were treated in English hospitals for knife injuries in the 12 months to April 2024, according to the latest figures analysed by the Youth Endowment Fund (YEF).
“I’ve got three kids,” says Elba. “As a parent, that’s always going through your mind.”
In the documentary Idris Elba: Our Knife Crime Crisis, the Hollywood star meets a 17-year-old boy at Feltham Young Offender Institution who first began carrying a blade when he was 13.
He grew up in a violent home and had been badly bullied at school for having dandruff.
“I looked around and saw that the only people who ain’t getting bullied are the people who are this certain way,” the teenager tells Elba, “so I felt the need to become that person.”
Asked by Elba how that made him feel, the boy says: “When I had a knife I felt like I could do anything, like I was a god – nobody could touch me.
“It makes you the bad man in the situation. Then push comes to shove and you end up using it.”
He stabbed someone and was a couple of months into his sentence for grievous bodily harm when Elba met him.
The figures from the YEF, a charity that uses government funding to help prevent children from becoming involved in violence, show that knife crime remains a persistent problem for young people.
Elba says that, while the ban on zombie knives implemented last September was “a massive step in the right direction”, the country is still in a crisis.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said last week, following the sentencing of the teenager who murdered three young girls in Southport, that the government would bring in tougher checks for people trying to buy knives online.
Elba believes more attention needs to be paid to children in their early teens, with disciplinary action like school exclusions, used as an opportunity to intervene in a young person’s life.
“When a young child is excluded, they’re more likely to go towards a dark place,” he says, adding, “There are indicators of hope. There are intervention schemes that are really working and that no one really knows about.”
Jayden, 16, is a beneficiary.
He started carrying a knife when he was 12 after a group of 20 boys started on him in a park in Coventry. One swung an axe at him.
“Ever since then I didn’t step outside without a knife,” he tells the documentary. “You’re going to be scared after that, aren’t you?… You’re going to want to protect yourself some way and that was the only way I could think of.”
He was eventually referred to the Community Initiative to Reduce Violence (Cirv), which is operated by West Midlands Police.
They identify teenagers who might commit or become a victim of knife crime and intervene before a stabbing takes place.
They then find education and career opportunities that suit each individual.
They sought out Jayden as there were concerns about him being involved in gang activities and carrying a knife. He had been excluded from school several times and kicked out of his family home.
He was diagnosed with autism and ADHD. Through Cirv, Jayden joined a football academy and now aspires to be a coach.
He has stopped carrying a knife but says the dangers remain.
“It is still quite normal where I’m from to see someone carrying a blade on them,” he says. “I nearly got two pulled out on me this week.”
He paid tribute to PC Laura Cuthbertson who has mentored him as part of Cirv, though the funding for the scheme runs out in six months.
According to the Ministry of Justice, inmates with the highest rate of reoffending are aged 10-17.
The scheme costs £1,500 per child each year and Elba wants more funding for initiatives like this – that intervene in a child’s life before they commit a crime.
“There needs to be a very radical look at where we spend our money,” he says. “How do we spend our money, what are the effective solutions versus the ones that we’re wasting a lot of money on that aren’t effective.”
Jayden tells Elba when he first joined Cirv he had no confidence in himself and was scared.
“I value life a lot more now,” he says. “There’s some beauty in the world for me, that wasn’t there before.”
Diana Johnson, minister for policing, fire, and crime prevention, says the government has already banned zombie knives and it was progressing with a ban on “ninja swords”.
“In the longer term, we need to ensure that the right prevention systems are in place to stop crime in its tracks.”
