As I try to shake off the distress which is usually felt by many through such tragic incidents, I get an update saying the woman who was attacked in her home in Midland Road, in Peterborough, had died due to her head injuries whilst her mum is still in hospital.

One woman murdered on her honeymoon in Antigua, women suffering terrible injuries after an attack in their home, men being assaulted, and a stabbing in the city.

As surprised as I was to hear about the week- end events, I am growing somewhat accustomed to reports of these sort of incidents.

However it did leave me wondering about the wider implications for our personal feelings of security and safety reports of such incidents have.

Take knife crimes for example; some may say that we as a country are struggling with an epidemic of violence as a whole but, as one person put it: "In London we have a population estimated at 7,512,400 and if we have 19 people murdered through knife crime, tragic though it is, is there really any cause for concern?"

I think some people view the publicity on knife crime a bit like the forever growing debate on global warming. There is so much publicity, discussion and debate people start to feel it is a problem that is so big there is little we can do about it.

And others (especially those with an agenda)
are quick to throw figures at us to prove crime is decreasing.
Regardless of what the statistics reflect, even if they show that crime, knife crime in particular has not risen over the past years, the most important thing to consider is that our anxieties around the issue have.

It's not the thought of being stabbed that attracts my initial concern, but more the fact that it is happening to anyone and anywhere. Which is why, at first, I could not understand
how the wide variation in sentencing of anyone who is carrying a knife or involved in a knife incident, could hold any substance?

There is a call for tougher sentencing on those caught carrying knives.

But then, of course, to implement such changes there needs to be clarification, justification, human rights to take into account.

We must make laws based on the real situation, not just our own fears about it.