UK Police Have Odd Strategy to Fight Domestic Violence

Police in a county in England have bought 100 specially made, blunt-tip knives for the kitchens of residents who have been attacked or threatened with a knife. Nottinghamshire, like much of the country, is looking for ways to combat the increase in knife crime, inside and outside the home, the New York Times reports. Police say domestic abuse cases involving knives make up 17% of reported knife crimes in Nottinghamshire. "It is only one small part of the whole range of what is done to safeguard and protect domestic abuse survivors," the police superintendent said. One researcher found the effort misguided. "The problem is not the sharpness of the knife," she said. "The problem is male violence."

Police said the results of the small trial will be evaluated at the end of the year. A Nottinghamshire official pointed out that "some research shows that women are attacked around 19 times before they leave their home." But one specialist said, per the BBC, "If you are going to take knives, why not forks? Because I work with women who have been stabbed with forks." Another advocate called the plan "quite ludicrous," adding that "abusers will use anything at all to inflict pain on their victim." The researcher told the Times that she first thought the report was a satirical story from The Onion, though one English survivor said even a blunt-edged knife in her hands would have prevented her attack. (More knife attack stories.)