An epidemic of knife crime has hit Britain, whose government is scrambling for solutions.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper recently reported that almost 21,000 people had been stabbed or mugged at knifepoint this year. Many of the victims and perpetrators are young people in poor areas.

While overall crime is down, the number of people admitted to the hospital from violence-related injuries has increased by 30 percent across England in the last four years, reports the New York Times.

The government is taking the matter seriously. Metropolitan police have made the issue a top priority along with terrorism. On Monday, Prime Minister Gordon Brown declared measures to address the crisis — prosecution for knife possession for anyone older than 16; a four-year sentence for such crimes; an ad campaign to dissuade young people from knife violence and a program forcing aggressors to take courses on what happens to knife victims.

Mr. Brown also said the government would intervene with as many as 20,000 families whose children are deemed at risk of such violence due to loss of parental control.

Any society facing such a spate of violence must ask itself some profound questions. Policing and prosecutions will help. But attitudes must change before the situation will improve.