Fatal Stabbings (155A/24)
Request
a. The number of fatal stabbings investigated by West Midlands police for the last five years? (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023)
b. The youngest victim for each year?
Response
See table below and Please Note the following statement:
“Clearly there are people out there who think it’s acceptable to carry a knife.
“Carrying a knife is never the right thing to do. There are serious, life-changing consequences for people who make the choice to carry one.
“Every time you do, you run the risk of arrest, or being involved in a serious crime which can have deadly consequences. It can ruin your life, and the lives of countless others who may be affected by your actions.
“The police can’t solve this issue on our own. This is a shared responsibility across the West Midlands, and policing works closely with partners through the Violence Reduction Partnership.
“This means together we can focus on the causes of violence and the reasons why young people get drawn into a life of crime to deter and divert young people from criminal and anti-social activities.
“Our work is ongoing and it’s important we all play a part in continuing to reduce violence.”
Table – Fatal Stabbings, 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2023:
| Year | Total | Youngest victim (age in years) |
| 2019 | 20 | 16 |
| 2020 | 25 | 15 |
| 2021 | 22 | 14 |
| 2022 | 23 | 5 |
| 2023 | 20 | 16 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
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