The ten year statistics released by the Ministry of Justice today, 15/2/24, present a 10-year overview of the history of Knife and offensive weapons arrests.

The overall number of knife and offensive weapon offences dealt with by the Criminal Justice System (CJS) has decreased since the year ending September 2022.

The above picture correlates with an overall crime statistic over a 10 year period published by Met Police, in a format they no longer use.

Whilst knife crime and violent crime is disproportionally high in Greater London, the fact that a Met Police statistic and a national statistic look similar show that crime generated in Greater London affects overall crime statistics to a significant proportion. See also previous articles on knife and gun crime in London.

The proportion of offenders receiving an immediate custodial sentence for a knife and offensive weapon offence was 31% in the year ending September 2023.

The proportion of offenders receiving immediate custody has seen a decrease of 1.7 percentage point since the year ending September 2022. Compared to a decade ago, there has been an increase of 2.3 percentage points.

It would be interesting to know how the proportion of suspended sentences relates to Greater London, as our proportion of violent crime has risen.

See the Ministry of Justice website for a deeper insight into more statistics surrounding the issue.

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