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Knives are too Sharp and Filing Down their Points is Solution to Soaring Violent Crime, Judge Says

posted by martyb on Friday June 01 2018, @04:04AM   Printer-friendly
from the pointed-question dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes:

A judge has proposed a nationwide programme to file down the points of kitchen knives as a solution to the country’s soaring knife crime epidemic.

Last week in his valedictory address, retiring Luton Crown Court Judge Nic Madge spoke of his concern that carrying a knife had become routine in some circles and called on the Government to ban the sale of large pointed kitchen knives.

[...] He said laws designed to reduce the availability of weapons to young would-be offenders had had “almost no effect”, since the vast majority had merely taken knives from a cutlery drawer.

[...] He asked: “But why we do need eight-inch or ten-inch kitchen knives with points?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/27/knives-sharp-filing-solution-soaring-violent-crime-judge-says/

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  • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:54PM (2 children)

    by Wootery (2341) on Thursday June 28 2018, @02:54PM (#699818)

    You have ten posts on this so far, and you have yet to state what you mean by "perfect deterrence".

    Well, yes, I did. Repeatedly. I'll quote you the exact words and give you a link to the comment, but somehow I doubt you'll bother to take it on board.

    An ideal system of deterrence is, rather trivially, a system that maximally deters crime by means of reliably imposing harsh negative consequences on guilty parties (and not on the innocent).

    Certain categories of crime can be prevented by deterrence. Organised crime would be reduced to zero, for instance.

    Crimes of passion, however, cannot be prevented by deterrence.

    Source. [soylentnews.org]

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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 29 2018, @04:21AM (1 child)

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Friday June 29 2018, @04:21AM (#700114) Journal

    An ideal system of deterrence is, rather trivially, a system that maximally deters crime by means of reliably imposing harsh negative consequences on guilty parties (and not on the innocent).

    And of course, if a system doesn't fully deter crime, then it is not maximal and hence, not ideal. You're begging the question by assuming that a perfect (or "ideal") system is not perfect and going from there. This has nothing to do with the futility of designing perfect systems. If you have a system and it allows for flaws that the system is intended to prevent, then it is not perfect. That's all there is to it.

    Further, I don't agree with even your assertion that you defined a "perfect" system above. You already moved the goalposts by introducing constraints on the operation of the system. It's no longer perfect.

    • (Score: 2) by Wootery on Saturday June 30 2018, @04:23PM

      by Wootery (2341) on Saturday June 30 2018, @04:23PM (#700709)

      And of course, if a system doesn't fully deter crime, then it is not maximal and hence, not ideal.

      Wrong. As I have already explained to you, we are discussing an ideal system of deterrence, which is more constrained than merely a crime-prevention system.

      The word 'deterrence' exists for a reason. It has a specific meaning.

      Deterrence isn't the only means of reducing crime, and deterrence alone cannot reduce crime to zero. I have repeatedly explained this point: a crime of passion cannot be prevented by deterrence, as we aren't dealing with a rational actor. If your system simply jumps in and tasers our would-be-criminal, that isn't deterrence, that's force-based prevention.

      You're begging the question by assuming that a perfect (or "ideal") system is not perfect and going from there.

      Wrong. I am using 'ideal system of deterrence' in the sense of a system of deterrence that cannot be further improved, without making into something other than a system of deterrence. You are using it in an imprecise sense where it must by definition reduce crime to zero, whether or not it still actually qualifies as a system of deterrence (as opposed to some other kind of crime-prevention system).

      If you have a system and it allows for flaws that the system is intended to prevent, then it is not perfect. That's all there is to it.

      Wrong.

      Consider a museum with two ticket gates, each manned by an attendant. Suppose the first attendant is perfect, and never lets anyone through without buying a ticket. Suppose the second attendant is imperfect, and sometimes lets people through who haven't bought a ticket.

      Your position is that Well the first attendant isn't really perfect, as people are still getting into the museum without buying a ticket. This reasoning is clearly unsound. Only the first attendant is perfect, not the system as a whole.

      This mistake even has a name: the fallacy of composition. [logicallyfallacious.com]

      You already moved the goalposts by introducing constraints on the operation of the system.

      It's not moving the goalposts, it's clear thinking. We were discussing systems of deterrence specifically.