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Shiv (weapon)

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File:Made in RSA.jpg
A shiv confiscated in a South African prison
Shivs hidden in a book, Hong Kong

Shiv, more generally called chiv and hivvie is a homemade knife-like weapon, especially one fashioned in prison.

Usage

The word is prison slang for an improvised knife. A Chiv can be anything from a glass shard with fabric wrapped around one end to form a handle, to a razor blade stuck in the In the 1950s, British criminal Billy Hill described his use of the Chiv:

I was always careful to draw my knife down on the face, never across or upwards. Always down. So that if the knife slips you don't cut an artery. After all, chivving is chivving, but cutting an artery is usually murder. Only mugs do murder.[1]

In the Federal Bureau of Prisons, weapons, sharpened instruments, and knives are considered contraband and their possession is punishable as a greatest severity level prohibited act.[2]

References

  1. ^ Campbell, Duncan (2008-07-30). "When crime grabbed the limelight". The Guardian, 30 July 2008. Retrieved on 2012-01-29 from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2008/jul/30/biography.billyhill
  2. ^ U.S. Dept of Justice (2011) "Inmate Discipline Program". Retrieved on 2017-05-29 from https://www.bop.gov/policy/progstat/5270_009.pdf