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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Brown pledge to tackle stabbings | Brown pledge to tackle stabbings |
| (41 minutes later) | |
| Measures to tackle knife crime will be announced next week following recent stabbings in London and the Midlands, the prime minister has said. | Measures to tackle knife crime will be announced next week following recent stabbings in London and the Midlands, the prime minister has said. |
| Gordon Brown said the attacks - which are not linked - were "shocking and tragic". He promised a cross-government youth crime plan would be published. | |
| On Thursday four men were stabbed to death in London and a fifth died after a stabbing in West Bromwich. | On Thursday four men were stabbed to death in London and a fifth died after a stabbing in West Bromwich. |
| A man stabbed in north-west London on Friday is critically ill. | A man stabbed in north-west London on Friday is critically ill. |
| In a written statement Mr Brown said he had spoken to Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair about the stabbings in London. | In a written statement Mr Brown said he had spoken to Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair about the stabbings in London. |
| The fear is that the attention that [knife crime] is now getting may almost be leading to a sort of copycat effect Criminologist Marian Fitzgerald "I know the police are doing everything in their power to bring those responsible to justice," he said. | |
| "The terrible stabbings that have occurred this week are shocking and tragic, and my thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have been hurt or killed in these attacks," he added. | "The terrible stabbings that have occurred this week are shocking and tragic, and my thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have been hurt or killed in these attacks," he added. |
| He said the youth crime plan, which the government had been working on over recent months, would include new enforcement measures, improvements to sentencing. | |
| A "new approach to youth crime prevention" would involve "tough parenting programmes targeted on areas with the most problems," he said. | |
| "We will continue to make absolutely clear that carrying a knife is unacceptable in our society," he said. | |
| Earlier Sir Ian said the recent spate of stabbings "graphically illustrates the need for everyone to pull together to put an end to this unacceptable violence". | Earlier Sir Ian said the recent spate of stabbings "graphically illustrates the need for everyone to pull together to put an end to this unacceptable violence". |
| 'Greedy and rude' | |
| Criminologist Marian Fitzgerald told the BBC the police, politicians and the media only now seemed to be waking up to a problem which has been escalating since the mid-1990s. | |
| "The fear is that the attention that it's now getting may almost be leading to a sort of copycat effect," she said. | |
| Ms Fitzgerald - a visiting professor of Criminology at the University of Kent's Crime and Justice Centre - said this could be compounding what she called the "long-run rise in serious violence" in the UK. | |
| Meanwhile the government's advisor on behaviour in schools is preparing to outline a series of proposals on Monday, designed to put new pressure on parents to tackle children who behave badly. | |
| Sir Alan Steer, headteacher of Seven Kings High School in Ilford, east London, said adults needed to set a better example if they want to halt the rise in gun and knife crime among teenagers. | |
| "Sometimes as adults we don't model the behaviour we want youngsters to follow," he told The Guardian. | |
| "We live in a greedy culture, we are rude to each other in the street. Children follow that." | |
| Earlier this week Gordon Brown insisted ministers would take "any legislative measures" necessary to tackle knife crime. | |
| The prime minister has argued that anyone over 16 caught with an illegal knife should be prosecuted, rather than escaping with a caution. |