In defiance of the falling crime total, Britain is the center of a knife crime scourge, one thing the justice system is struggling to maintain up with.

A complete of 49,265 serious offences involving knives were recorded by police in England and Wales – excluding Devon and Cornwall – within the yr to December 2022, up six % on the earlier yr.

New knowledge from the Ministry of Justice, nonetheless, present just 19,292 knife and offensive weapon offences were formally dealt with by the Criminal Justice System (CJS) throughout the identical interval, down two % on 2021.

This means simply 39 % of instances resulted in a warning, high quality or custodial sentence for the perpetrator. This prosecution hole is widening: 42 % went via the CJS in 2021, 56 % did so ten years in the past.

This can hardly be pinned on the crimes turning into much less extreme, as 2022 additionally noticed the very best tally of homicides involving a pointy instrument on report, at 282.

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The whole variety of crimes dedicated in a given yr has decreased considerably from a mid-Nineties peak, based on the latest Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW), one of the best measure of historic traits.

Knife crime, nonetheless, has been going within the different path for a decade, punctuated solely by a pandemic stoop.

Just 5,790 individuals have been handed a right away custodial sentence in 2022 – 12 % of offenders – fewer than in every other yr since 2015, regardless of the rise in knife crime lethality.

More offenders obtained suspended sentences than in every other yr on report (4,865), suggesting the system is turning into extra lenient.