Government policy is underlying cause, Mayor insists

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has hit back at critics of his handling of the city's violent crime epidemic saying the underlying cause of many of the contributory factors is years of government austerity policies.

According to the Office of National Statistics, one-third of all England and Wales's knife crime takes place in London. Violent incidents rose 71 percent from 2012-13 to 2017-18, and Khan blames a combination of poverty, school exclusion, deprivation and poor mental health, all made worse by austerity-enforced cuts.

"If we allow children to be brought up in deprived conditions as a country, if we accept high rates of school exclusions, if we fail to tackle domestic and sexual violence, if we leave people in bad housing with a lack of employment and training opportunities, and if we decimate the very public services designed to support those most in need–as this government has systematically done–then crime is quite simply much more likely to flourish,"he said.

A survey by London's Violence Reduction Unit found that three-quarters of the boroughs with the highest levels of violent offending are in the capital's top 10 most deprived areas. All the worst affected boroughs have higher-than-the-London-average levels of children in poverty.

"The lesson we must all learn is that you can't cut police officers, public services, preventative measures and ignore the most vulnerable people in our country at the same time as keeping crime low. These things are fundamentally incompatible," he added.

From 2008 to 2016, Boris Johnson, the favorite to be the next leader of the Conservative Party and Britain's next prime minister, was Mayor of London. In 2010 he announced plans to cut police numbers in the city by 455, and the following year London witnessed serious rioting, with Johnson having to be persuaded to come back from holiday to address the situation.

Under his 2013 Police and Crime Plan, 63 of London's 136 police front counter desks were shut, with London's then Assistant Commissioner for Territorial Policing Simon Byrne justifying the policy by saying "buildings don't catch burglars", with other cuts taking place across England and Wales. If Johnson becomes Conservative leader, he has pledged to recruit 20,000 more police officers.

Khan insisted he was not excusing criminal behavior by highlighting its roots. "There's never any excuse for criminality," he said. "Those who commit crimes must pay for their actions. But we have to face the reality that for some young people growing up today, violence has become normalized.

"And–with hope at rock bottom, inequality higher than ever and an absence of positive opportunities–turning to crime and gangs has become an all too easy route to satisfy the lure of gaining respect and money–however misguided this is."

Incidents involving people aged 10 to 16 tend to be connected to school finishing time, with the 18 to 24 age group happening later at night.Khan has promised increased after-school provision in high crime areas and work on reducing school exclusions.