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Knife Crime – Minors (112A/23)

Request

For each question, I would like data for each of the following time periods: 

  • January 2020 – December 2020
  • January 2021 – December 2021
  • January 2022 – December 2022

1a. How many minors under the age of 18 have been arrested for possession of a knife blade or sharply pointed article?
1b. Please provide a break down by age and sex?

2a. How many minors under the age of 18 have been charged for possession of a knife blade or sharply pointed article?
2b. Please provide a break down by age and sex?

3a. How many minors under the age of 18 have been charged specifically with murder or manslaughter, as a result of a knife blade or sharply pointed article being used?
3b. Please provide a break down by age and sex?

4a. What is the youngest age of a minor that has been arrested for possession of a knife blade or sharply pointed article?

5a. How many minors under the age of 18 have been recorded by your police force as being a seriously injured by a knife blade or sharply pointed article?
5b. Please provide a break down by age and sex?

6a. How many minors under the age of 18 have been recorded by your police force as being a fatal victim by a knife blade or sharply pointed article?
6b. Please provide a break down by age and sex?

Response

Please find attached (112A_23_attachment.pdf).

Please note that these data should be interpreted with caution. Comparing numbers of incidents/crimes can be misleading and does not necessarily indicate the likelihood of someone being a victim of crime. In addition, the number of incidents/crimes recorded in an area over a period of time can be influenced by a number of factors. Consequently, statistics on incidents/crimes for one period may not necessarily be a good indicator of future incidents in that area.

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.

Attachments

112A_23_attachment