Hi °C | Lo °C A major drive to cut the number of knife crimes in Northern Ireland was launched today - aimed specifically at 12- and 13-year-olds.
It aims to stop young people thinking of a knife as a status symbol to be popped in a pocket before going out.
There have been nearly 1,000 knife crimes across Northern Ireland in the last nine months, and the annual rate of recorded knife crimes has been running at close to or above 1,000 a year since 2003.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Office and Youth Justice Agency have teamed up to develop the Knives Ruin Lives campaign to inform secondary school pupils about the dangers of knife crime.
Assistant Chief Constable Duncan McCausland said: "Many of our young people think it is acceptable to carry a knife. For many of them, a knife is a status symbol, something that makes them more acceptable to their peers.
"We need the support of teachers, parents and everyone within the local communities to stop the issue of knife crime.
"Knives ruin lives, never carry a knife."
Criminal Justice Minister Paul Goggins said he believed the awareness campaign - which features a specially tailored educational drama called Choices and literature on knife crime sent to every post primary school in Northern Ireland - will bring home to young people the real dangers of carrying a knife.
The parents of 15-year-old Thomas Devlin, who was stabbed to death while walking home in north Belfast with two friends in 2005 after buying sweets at a local garage, met with police and the C21 theatre company ahead of their production of Choices.
Mr Goggins said: "We want young people to stop and think before they put a knife in their pocket - we want to make them think about the risks involved in carrying a knife and that someone, very likely themselves, may get hurt."
He said he hoped it would make them make the right choice and he said he wanted schoolchildren to shop any of their classmates they knew had knives.
"If they know that someone has a knife they should speak to a teacher if they are in school, or tell their parents and contact the police.
"They could be helping to save a life."
Mr Goggins said knife crime represented less than one per cent of all reported offences in Northern Ireland. "We want to work with young people to make sure that it does not become a major problem."
