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Find out why you might get a civil injunction, Community Protection Notice, Criminal Behaviour Order (CBO) (formerly known as ASBOs), what it means and what happens if you break it.

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Acland, C.R., 2018. Youth, Murder, Spectacle: The Cultural Politics Of"" Youth In Crisis"". Routledge.

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Short Jr, J.F., 2018. Poverty, ethnicity, and violent crime. Routledge.

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It is broad daylight early on a Sunday afternoon and, just as in any other shopping centre up and down the country, The Mall in Luton is packed with families dragging bored children in and out of chain stores.

Suddenly, shouts and piercing screams erupt, the crowd parts and three teenagers start slashing at one another with knives, including a terrifying 18in machete.

Two run off - one of them wounded - as the third boy collapses to the ground with a terrible injury, blood spurting scarlet on to the polished marble floor. By the time security guards arrive at the scene, his life is ebbing away.

Scroll down for video

As one guard tries to stem the flow from a massive gash in the 17-year-old's thigh, he pleads with the boy: 'Hold my hand and keep your eyes open.'

These horrific scenes, caught on CCTV, are a devastating depiction of Knife Crime Britain - a tide of violence rolling across towns and cities across the country.

In Luton, many miles from London's knife crime hotspots such as Islington or Tottenham, cases of stabbings have almost doubled over the last five years.

And no region is immune, with national crime statistics showing 40,000 blade-related incidents across the country in the year to September 2018.

Even this disturbing figure probably understates the total.

The terrifying trend is brought into sharp focus in tomorrow night's special edition of Channel 4's 24 Hours In Police Custody, in which TV cameras follow Bedfordshire detectives as they struggle to tackle a form of crime now so widespread it has become almost routine.

Tom Hamm is the detective sergeant who investigates the bloody Luton shopping centre knife fight.

He tells viewers: 'I'm tired of coming into work thinking, 'I wonder who is going to get stabbed today.' I've never known it in ten years to be as bad as it is now. If you were to equate it to a disease, this would be a national emergency.'

It was nothing more than a 'wrong' look that led to the senseless death of 18-year Azaan John Kaleem - the second violent episode at the heart of tomorrow's documentary.

Azaan had never been in trouble with the police and wasn't even known to the four-man gang that killed him.

He'd been walking through Luton with his girlfriend, Shannon, when he made the mistake of exchanging looks with a boy on a bicycle on the other side of the street.

As Shannon explains it, the other boy put his hand inside his trousers as though to pull out a knife. Azaan reached towards his pocket to show he too was armed.

He had started carrying a knife for his own protection a year earlier after being badly beaten up - a terrible error.

The boy on the bike sped off and the incident appeared to have ended but minutes later CCTV cameras record a grey BMW pulling up alongside Azaan and his girlfriend. Even the police were shocked by the level of brutality that ensued.

Four boys emerge from the car and immediately set upon Azaan. One seems to punch him repeatedly - but is actually stabbing him, probably with a bladed knuckleduster he was later found to be carrying.

Azaan is left lying in the road with multiple stab wounds to his back, chest and face, blood pouring out as the gang flee. He died of his injuries in hospital two days later.

His heartbroken mother, Roseann Taylor, told me about her teenage son's last moments.

'When they declared Azaan brain dead, curtains were pulled around and piece-by-piece they turned off equipment,' she said.

'They allowed me to stand behind him. I stroked his hair and told him I loved him. We waited for his heartbeat to stop.

'When I watched the CCTV and found out they didn't know Azaan, it reminded me of a pack of animals seeking out their prey.

'He was not a person, he was some 'thing' they wanted to attack.'

It was terrible twist of fate that Roseann had moved away from London to Luton when Azaan was a toddler. She believed Bedfordshire would be safer.

The men suspected of killing Azaan were identified thanks to a tip-off from a member of the public and were then rounded up by armed officers.

All four were known to police and one, 19-year-old Reece Bliss-McGrath, driver of the BMW, is shown in the film telling an officer: 'When you're not wearing that badge, I'll slap that smile off your face.'

The interviews that follow are hard-going: three of the suspects - 18-year-old Rashaan Ellis, 19-year-old Callum Smith and 17-year-old Harrison Searle - answer 'no comment' to every question.

Ellis is said to be the main assailant, with the fearsome knuckle duster, but Smith is also accused of stabbing Azaan.

Bliss-McGrath is willing to talk, however, provided that the police can ensure his protection.

He tells detectives the four of them had been driving around in his newly purchased £2,500 BMW when Searle received a call from the boy on the bike to say Azaan had 'pulled a knife'.

They decided to 'go and do this', Bliss-McGrath explains, before telling officers that Ellis is 'the crazy one. He's nuts, he's hyped up. Like someone who takes coke'.

Bliss-McGrath believes the confession will allow him to walk free. After all, he didn't deliver any of the fatal blows. But he is deluded, and the cameras show his face turning ashen as he is charged with 'joint enterprise murder' alongside the other three.

As one of the detectives explains: 'With joint enterprise you don't have to be the person who did the stabbing. If you think you didn't play a part in it, it doesn't matter.'

The gang were jailed for a total of 63 years.

The two teenagers stabbed and wounded in the shopping centre knife fight are lucky - they have recovered. But now, they and the other youth involved are sitting in Luton police station, charged with affray and wounding with intent.

They show not the slightest sign of fear or concern. Slouching, bored on plastic chairs, anyone would think they'd been arrested for stealing a packet of crisps.

Che Stephens, 17, escaped without injury after stabbing Luca Sanni in the leg. Stephens is shown footage of the fight and asked how he feels when he sees Sanni collapse. He refuses to answer. Even Sanni sticks to 'no comment' despite the terrible wound he suffered, as does Imani Pobi Da Silva, 17, who was slashed.

DS Hamm says: 'The biggest obstacle we face in solving a lot of our stabbings is the reluctance of those involved to talk.

'It is definitely out there that if something happens, you don't tell the police. It's frustrating, tiring and demoralising. They're receiving some pretty serious injuries. Some of them are near death - and they don't want to be seen as a grass.'

Stephens, who instigated the fight, was jailed for seven-and-a-half years after admitting wounding with intent, Sanni, who produced the machete, was sentenced to five years and Imani Pobi Da Silva 12 months.

'Carrying a knife doesn't make you safer. It's either going to make you a criminal or a victim,' the detective says.

'But to go from a dirty look to dying is ridiculous. It just doesn't make any sense.'

Meanwhile, the brutal manner of Azaan John Kaleem's death continues to haunt his mother.

She tells me: 'I didn't think [knife crime] was my problem because I didn't think my son would ever be engaged in it.

'I've never had the police come to the door, he's never been in trouble. He's just an average 18-year-old.

'He's not a threat to anybody and certainly wouldn't harm anyone. I just want to know why.

'Watching your child be murdered over and over again on CCTV during the court case was just gut-wrenching. I still play it over and over in my head. I feel like I've failed. At the very last moment I wasn't there for him.

'I'd do everything to hear him call me Mum again. The reality is, that will never happen.'

She now goes into schools to talk to children about the dangers of carrying knives but says that much, much more is needed - from everyone in society.

'We all need to play a part, from the Government to the people who allow knives to be delivered through the letterbox, to the witnesses and man on the street who doesn't go to help when they see someone being attacked,' she says.

'The younger generation has this energy but have nowhere to put it. Everything is disposable - even life.'

24 Hours In Police Custody airs tomorrow at 9pm on Channel 4.

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Butchered for a wrong look: The reality of Knife Crime Britain

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It is broad daylight early on a Sunday afternoon and, just as in any other shopping centre up and down the country, The Mall in Luton is packed with families dragging bored children in and out of chain stores.

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Two 15-year-old boys have been arrested amid reports a pupil was cut with a meat cleaver during a brawl.

The victim, who was also 15, suffered cuts to his leg during a fight in Burnley Lane, Chadderton, Oldham.

A video of the alleged attack on Thursday was shared on social media. It apparently shows pupils fighting.

Two teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of affray, attempted assault and possession of a bladed article, police said.

The viral footage apparently shows one boy, dressed in grey jogging pants and a dark hooded top, swinging a meat cleaver around and apparently making contact with another pupil.

Greater Manchester Police said it was aware of a video circulating on social media purporting to be of the attack.

It is appealing for witnesses to come forward.

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Boys arrested over 'meat cleaver' attack

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Two 15-year-old boys have been arrested amid reports a pupil was cut with a meat cleaver during a brawl. The victim, who was also 15, suffered cuts to his leg during a fight in Burnley Lane, Chadderton, Oldham. A video of the alleged attack on Thursday was shared on social media.

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Monthly statistics on the population in custody of children and young people within the secure estate.

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An Act to make provision for preventing crime and disorder; to create certain racially-aggravated offences; to abolish the rebuttable presumption that a child is doli incapax and to make provision as to the effect of a child's failure to give evidence at his trial; to abolish the death penalty for

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Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999

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An Act to provide for the referral of offenders under 18 to youth offender panels; to make provision in connection with the giving of evidence or information for the purposes of criminal proceedings; to amend section 51 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994; to make pre-consolidation amendments relating to youth justice; and for connected purposes.

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The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years old.

This means that children under 10 can't be arrested or charged with a crime. There are other punishments that can be given to children under 10 who break the law.

Children over 10

Children between 10 and 17 can be arrested and taken to court if they commit a crime.

They are treated differently from adults and are:

dealt with by youth courts

given different sentences

sent to special secure centres for young people, not adult prisons

Young people aged 18

Young people aged 18 are treated as an adult by the law.

If they're sent to prison, they'll be sent to a place that holds 18 to 25-year-olds, not a full adult prison.

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We use cookies to collect information about how you use GOV.UK. We use this information to make the website work as well as possible and improve government services. The age of criminal responsibility in England and Wales is 10 years old. This means that children under 10 can't be arrested or charged with a crime.

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TEENAGE gangsters caught in Britain's rising tide of street violence are locked into their lifestyle by a tribal code of honour that insists: "You're one of us until you die."

One 14-year-old told a Mirror investigation into street gang culture that many members are threatened with death if they even consider quitting.

He said: "Once you're in, there's no way out - 'cos if you leave, people will be asking you questions, see?

"There's certain gangs out there that once you've joined it, you can't leave until you die. That's the thing - you have to think about it before you go in.

"That's why people say 'ride or die'. If you ride, then you're ready to die. It's one or the other, there's no way out."

It is a bleak vision of life in our inner-city estates for a generation of young men.

Scotland Yard has identified 169 gangs with about 5,000 members in London alone.

The Mirror spent five days on the streets of Dulwich, South London, with one of them - the Uptown Boys - to discover why so many teenagers are ensnared by this sinister and dangerous world.

As dusk falls the gang members begin to assemble - all wearing their distinctive uniform of expensive trainers, low-slung jeans, hoodies and caps.

Some wear shades, others have bandanas covering their faces.

They greet each other by their street names - names like P-Man, Y-Pacer, Teaver, The S-Kid, Dazzler and Stepz. As they smoke and swig drinks they joke and tease each other - no different from teenagers the world over.

But underlying the light-hearted banter there is a more oppressive atmosphere. Because these youngsters run their local estate and they don't care who knows it.

F-Man is 20 but he's been in jail twice, for GBH and kidnap. He says: "Being part of a gang is like having an extended family.

"We all trust each other. There's about 15 of us in the inner circle, the hardcore. If I wanted, I could get my hands on whatever weapons I wanted. Guns, knives, whatever.

"A few of us carry stuff to look after ourselves with - just for some protection.

"It's better to be safe than sorry. I've been stabbed twice. It's just running with the gang. I never get scared, it's the way life is."

F-Man accepts that being a gang member means putting your life on the line - a point hammered home by the appalling series of teenage killings in London since January.

When asked if he thinks that things have gone too far, he shrugs and says: "To me, it seems natural. If you're gonna get involved, it's gonna happen.

"But we don't put pressure on people to get involved. They've got their own lives.

"We respect their decision - not every gang in London is like that. If the younger ones are gonna get involved, they're gonna get involved. It's their choice, innit?" F-Man admits that the causes of the feuds that end in killings are often trivial.

He says: "We got beef with different people. The little, stupid stuff can kick things off.

"It comes down to respect. They have to know this is our place, our estate."

F-Man says many young kids join gangs out of boredom. He adds: "The problem is, yeah, there's nothing to do around here so they find things to do.

"There has to be more clubs, things that they're interested in - football, music and that.

"There's nothing going on all day, that's why the kids get bored." The idea that gang life is the best an uncaring world has to offer is echoed by others.

One 16-year-old member who did not want to give his name says: "We don't have the qualifications to get a good job and we're never gonna have them so we make our money our own way.

"Most people sleep through the morning because there's nothing to get up for. In this kind of life, there's no set time for anything.

"It's like, say we meet up at 4pm, who knows what time we're gonna go home at?"

The lifestyle breeds a contempt for anyone not involved in the gang world. The lad says: "We only respect each other and the other guys on the estate. And no-one respects the politicians like Tony Blair or whoever. They don't know us, they don't know our lives. They mean nothing man."

For others, the gang is an alternative family - one that provides protection and a feeling of belonging that they do not get at home. The 14-year-old says: "It's better to be on the inside than on the outside.

"You know not to mess with certain people because they're in a gang. Being in a gang puts fear in people. Say you've seen someone on the bus before and they're looking at you in way like 'Yeah, you gonna do something to me?'

"But when you're with your boys and they're walking past you, they won't even look in your direction."

The lad admits that carrying a knife or gun is seen as vital if you are going to stand up to rivals. He says: "There's parts of London I don't feel safe in.

"If you bring a knife or whatever, it's for show. It's not like you really want to use it - but some people might get carried away." Asked if he could get his hands on a gun now, he just laughs and says: "No comment."

But it is clear that carrying a knife is no longer seen as sufficient.

He says: "People think 'Why should I carry a knife when I can have a gun?'

"What if you pull out a knife and the other geezer has a gun, yeah? You're in trouble. It doesn't really scare me. It's just the way it is."

But not all the stories are so gloomy.

Reepa is 20 and has a long criminal history. He has been locked up five times. But thanks to groundbreaking charity St Giles Trust, he is leaving the gangster lifestyle behind.

He said: "In the past I always felt probation was letting me down.

"So instead I turned to St Giles and through them I became involved with the Southwark Offenders Support and they've been brilliant.

"I work with my music collective Talented Thugs instead of living the gang life now. When I look back now, I just think 'What was the point?'"

l.hanna@mirror.co.uk

TRUST THAT TURNS TIDE

A CHARITY that began as a soup kitchen in 1962 is now making major inroads into tackling South London gang crime.

St Giles Trust, based in Camberwell, operates in 12 jails and provides outreach through youth support worker Junior Smart.

Now at the helm of Southwark Offenders Support, he got 10 years for a drug offence in 2001 and so knows what is needed.

Junior, 31, says: "In the six months since we started, we've helped 16 young offenders - and not one has gone back to prison."

Chief executive Rob Owen, 41, adds: "A pledge of #5million from the government would let us identify places nationwide where gang culture is prevalent and target those areas."

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TEENAGE gangsters caught in Britain's rising tide of street violence are locked into their lifestyle by a tribal code of honour that insists: "You're one of us until you die." One 14-year-old told a Mirror investigation into street gang culture that many members are threatened with death if they even consider quitting.

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Youth crime soars in last five years as gang culture takes grip

The number of under-18s getting in trouble with the police has soared by a fifth in five years as youngsters are lured into gang culture, official figures showed today.

More than 93,000 10 to 17-year-olds received their first caution or conviction last year - up from 78,000 in 2002.

The national figures masked dramatic local variations including a doubling in the young offending rate in Brighton and Hove, a 68 per cent rise in Blackpool, a 65 per cent increase in Bristol and 61 per cent in Derbyshire and Essex.

The highest levels of offending by under-18s emerged in the North East of England, where up to three per cent had at least one brush with the law last year.

Ministers were accused of failing to do enough to stem the causes of crime including rising gang culture.

But ministers insisted the figures were evidence their policies were beginning to work since offending rates had fallen between 2006/07 and 2007/08.

The number of first-time offenders had fallen from a high of 103,955 in 2006/07 to 93,601 last year, they said.

Ministers claimed their tough line on youth crime in the wake of a spate of stabbings would lead to further reductions.

The figures showed that in 2007/08, 1,840 youngsters aged 10 to 17 in every 100,000 were handed a reprimand, final warning or conviction.

This was up from 1,683 in 2000/01 and 1,509 in 2002/03 but down on last year, when the figure was 2,031.

Rates of first-time offending were highest in the North East, where 2,710 children per 100,000 had got into trouble, rising to 3,200 in Sunderland and 3,120 in South Tyneside.

It was also the area recording the sharpest increase over time.

Overall numbers were highest in the South East and North West - areas which are more densely populated.

Ministers have pledged extra cash for police patrols in areas with the worst problems but are also attempting to use controversial 'restorative justice' approaches in cases where first-time offenders aged 10 to 17 commit minor crimes.

This involves offenders meeting their victims and avoiding harsh punishments if they show remorse but has been condemned in some quarters as signalling a 'softly softly' approach.

Separate figures show that six per cent of teenage criminals sentenced by the courts are sent to custody.

But the Government's Youth Justice Board is keen to drive this down further and is suggesting the courts hand out more community punishments and 'intensive fostering' placements instead.

Justice Minister David Hanson said 10,000 fewer young people entered the criminal justice system for the first time in 2007/08.

'The Government's youth crime prevention work is beginning to have a positive impact, as these figures show,' he said.

'The downward trend is significant. The challenge now is to maintain that trend, and to continue moving in that same direction.

'Fewer first-time young offenders means less crime and fewer victims of crime - both this year and in the future.'

Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said measures to improve behaviour and attendance in schools and investment in out-of-school activities had also helped.

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Youth crime soars in last five years as gang culture takes grip

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The number of under-18s getting in trouble with the police has soared by a fifth in five years as youngsters are lured into gang culture, official figures showed today. More than 93,000 10 to 17-year-olds received their first caution or conviction last year - up from 78,000 in 2002.

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The Guardian view on youth crime: a lasting tragedy | Editorial

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Editorial: The shootings and other attacks in London over the weekend reveal a problem that should preoccupy the Home Office

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by MATTHEW HICKLEY, Daily Mail

Youth crime is getting worse, with a quarter of those aged 11 to 16 admitting having committed an offence in the past year.

A rising proportion confess that they have been involved in crimes across the board, including shoplifting, assault, handling stolen goods, vandalism and fare-dodging, according to an official survey.

The finding is a blow for Home Secretary Jack Straw, who has made cutting teenage crime one of his key priorities.

The study of more than 5,000 schoolchildren, commissioned by the Youth Justice Board, concluded that in almost every category of crime the percentage of children committing offences of that type has increased.

Officials said yesterday that they were 'saddened but not particularly surprised' by the results. They said the recent explosion in thefts of mobile phones was partly to blame.

The survey compared figures last year and this. Overall, the proportion of children who admitted committing an offence in the past 12 months rose to 25 per cent from 22 per cent last year.

The biggest increases in confessions were seen for handling stolen goods (up from 19 per cent to 25 per cent), physical assault (from 24 per cent to 31 per cent) and thefts from school (from 15 per cent to 23 per cent).

The proportion of the youngsters who admitted damaging or destroying property rose from 26 per cent to 29 per cent.

The vandalism figure went up from 29 per cent to 34 per cent, while 35 per cent of the children admitted shoplifting compared with 31 per cent last year.

The proportion who admitted breaking into a building to commit a theft was unchanged at 7 per cent.

The only slight decrease was seen in the figures for stealing bicycles - 6 per cent of the children admitted this crime compared with 7 per cent last year.

Children excluded from school confessed to behaviour significantly worse than others. About 40 per cent admitted carrying a knife - more than double the figure for those still going to school.

Over half admitted shoplifting or vandalism and 60 per cent said they had carried out a physical assault.

Fear was rife among the youngsters. More than 60 per cent of them were afraid of being assaulted or being victims of theft while in school.

The Youth Justice Board said their fears were 'not without justification' since a third of pupils had suffered from theft.

A survey of attitudes to right and wrong also painted a worrying picture.

Fewer than half those questioned - 42 per cent - thought it was wrong to dodge paying fares. Barely a third frowned on under-age drinking.

Only 70 per cent thought it was wrong to carry a knife as a weapon, and fewer than a third disapproved of 'hitting someone who insults you'. At the same time, 20 per cent thought telling police about another youngster committing an assault was never justified.

A spokesman for the Youth Justice Board said: 'We are concerned by the figures and saddened, but not particularly surprised.

'I think if we had conducted this survey ten years ago we would have seen a very different picture.

'Teenagers may have begun misbehaving seriously at a younger age, just as the age at which they move from being children to being young adolescents has arguably fallen.

'So far, the Youth Offending Teams established last year have focused mainly on the older age group, from 15 to 17.

'These figures point to a need to take far more notice of younger age groups and to concentrate on a more preventative approach.'

Officials believe the growing wave of mobile phone thefts has had a major impact on the figures for youth crime - including theft, handling stolen goods, threatening behaviour and assaults.

Mr Straw has repeatedly under-lined the Home Office's commitment to cutting youth crime.

He set up the Youth Justice Board in 1998 and established the Youth Offending Teams across Britain last year to co-ordinate efforts.

The Government has introduced anti-social behaviour and curfew orders for youngsters and encouraged police to stop repeat-edly letting young offenders off with cautions.

But the survey figures suggest the measures have yet to make a significant impact.

In addition, a recent international study showed British teenagers were the worst-behaved in Europe, leading the way in drug abuse and heavy drinking.

A Home Office spokesman said: 'The Youth Justice Board and the Government have been stepping up their action to intervene early to prevent youngsters offending.'

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by MATTHEW HICKLEY, Daily Mail Youth crime is getting worse, with a quarter of those aged 11 to 16 admitting having committed an offence in the past year. A rising proportion confess that they have been involved in crimes across the board, including shoplifting, assault, handling stolen goods, vandalism and fare-dodging, according to an official survey.