The stats speak for themselves, knife crime in London is growing. 64. That’s the number of fatal stabbings in London this year.

More young people are carrying knives and dying from stab wounds suffered from because of disputes with rival gangs or by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Far too often these stats are thrown at people, without any context or idea of why this is happening. Josh Osbourne takes a completely different look at south London’s knife crime, in his VICE documentary, On a Knife Edge: London’s Knife Crime Emergency.

Josh grew up on an estate in Southfields. By the age of 16 he was part of a gang. Having spent time incarcerated for robbery, Josh turned his life around with the help of Battersea based youth centre Carneys.

The unique insight that is offered in the documentary changes how knife crime in London should be looked at. Josh pulls on the viewer's heartstrings, connecting and speaking with the families of those affected.

He tackles the issue from the inside out rather than outside in. Speaking about the perspective he gives, Josh said: “I would like to think that the perspective we have given of the current issue has resonated more with the people involved.

 

“From the feedback I have been given, the film has people question their way of life. I believe this sort of depiction has been quite cathartic for a lot of these people struggling with these issues.

“What you don’t want to do is alienate people by creating a picture of them that is untrue and negative, to the point where they start to hate themselves. It’s a similar approach which we use when we do our youth mentoring, or go into schools.

“It’s not about dictating to people how to live but it’s about giving people the correct information, so they can make the most sensible and sane decision.”

Josh takes an in-depth look at the "code of silence". This is an entrenched mindset that regularly stops young people from going to the authorities, in fear of being labelled a "snitch".

He follows the grieving families struggling to find justice and answers in their own communities. Speaking to active gang members about how reputation is a fiercely protected social capital and shame can be a gateway to violence.

Josh learns that surviving a knife attack is no longer seen as a close call, but a badge of honour, and how the consequences of knife crime stretch beyond simply life and death.

Josh said: “Growing up in the area, I witnessed the violence and was involved in it. I wanted to start to make a change. I initially did this through my youth work and mentoring, but wanted to put my hobby of filmmaking together with my youth work.”

 

Growing up in a council estate, he saw the poverty disparity first hand. Right next to his estate, there were million-pound houses.

This disparity has been exacerbated by gentrification, large parts of London and especially south London have seen an increase in house prices as more people move into the capital. This has meant people who have spent their whole lives in these communities have become distant from their areas.

Josh said: “Suddenly for a lot of these young people their community and the people they can relate to is suddenly fading away. People are moving into these areas but aren’t assimilating or becoming part of the community - it is breaking the community spirit down.

“This spirit is important for young people as the community would reign in your behaviour if this doesn’t exist their behaviour will get worse. We need to identify the amazing charities and organisations who are doing brilliant work.

“They need more funding and support and communities need to come out and use these facilities – it doesn’t matter if they’re in trouble or not – these services are for anybody. The investment must be regular and not just one-off sources of funding.”

In the documentary, there is a clip of Sadiq Khan at Lewis Elwin’s funeral in 2016. Lewis was a focus of the documentary. He was stabbed to death on Penwortham Road, which is near London Mayor Sadiq Khan’s home. His murder remains unsolved.

 

SEE MORE: Lewis Elwin murder

Josh emphasised the important role politicians play in reaching out to these communities and identifying why these young men are joining gangs. He acknowledged that it is difficult to understand this way of life, unless politician put themselves in that person’s shoes or speak to them.

But he also believes that ‘very few politicians have ever done this’. He said: “They probably don’t understand. They must recognise the correlation between budget cuts to youth services and the increase in crime rate within those ages groups and areas where those budget cuts were found.

“We have seen the figures and stories of families who have lost loved ones, you’d have to be ignorant to not be aware. The current situation is extremely volatile and dangerous. The solution needs to be preventative rather than reactive.”

 

Through VICE Community, Josh and the team have shown the documentary at schools and youth centres. This is something Josh believes is extremely important in order to get the message out to those most affected. Working with OMG Education to promote the issues has also proved fruitful. “The documentary is a tool that everybody can use to educated and inform people about this way of life.” Josh said.

Watch On a Knife Edge online on VICE now.