The number of knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the police in London rose to approximately 15,016 in 2023/24, compared with 12,786 in the previous year. This was the highest number of knife crime offences reported in London since 2019/20, when there were 15,928 offences. Between 2015/16 and 2019/20, knife crime in London increased yearly, with a particularly large increase occurring between 2016/16 and 2017/18. A wider trend The increase in knife crime witnessed in London has occurred alongside a general increase in overall crime throughout England and Wales. In 2022/23, there were approximately 6.74 million crime offences across England and Wales, compared with just over four million ten years earlier. During a similar time period, the number of knife homicides also increased, and reached 282 in 2021/22, compared with 186 in 2014/15. Due to strict gun laws in the United Kingdom, firearms are rarely used to commit homicides, with knives or other sharp instruments being used in over 41.4 percent of homicides in 2022/23. Acid and moped attacks While knife crime in London has certainly been given a lot of attention by the British media, the increase in acid and moped attacks during the same time period also generated many headlines. In 2017, for example, there were 471 acid attacks recorded by the Metropolitan Police, compared with just 51 in 2007. Moped crime also reached high levels in 2017, with both types of crime declining to much lower levels by the early 2020s. Although overall crime in London continued to rise until 2019/20, this fell back during the COVID-19 pandemic, but by 2023/24, the number of crimes committed in the capital had exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).

There were 252,545 violent crime offences recorded by the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police Forces in London in 2023/24 an increase when compared with the previous reporting year. From a low of 186,488 violent crimes in 2015/16, violent crime has increased in almost every year. This reflects a pattern of increasing violent crime replicated across England and Wales as a whole, with a peak of 2.1 million offences reported in 2022/23. Overall offences also rising The overall crime figures for London also show a trend of increasing crime in the UK capital. In 2015/16 for example, there were 743,728 crimes recorded in London, compared to 938,020 in 2023/24. This follows a similar pattern seen in the rest of the United Kingdom, which has witnessed an uptick in crime after reaching historic lows in the mid-2010s. In 2013/14 for example, there were approximately 62 crimes per 100,000 people in England and Wales, compared with 89.7 in 2023/24. Police budgets rising again Due to the austerity policies enacted by UK governments in the 2010s, the amount the UK government spent on the police was effectively frozen between 2013/14 and 2016/17. This policy has since been reversed, with the overall UK police budget reaching 25.3 billion pounds in 2022/23. The amount budgeted for the Metropolitan Police by the Mayor of London for 2023/24 was 4.53 billion British pounds, a significant increase on the 3.33 billion budgeted in 2018/19.

Handguns are by far the most common murder weapon used in the United States, accounting for 7,159 homicides in 2023. This is followed by firearms of an unstated type, with 5,295 cases in that year. Why do murders happen in the U.S.? While most of the time the circumstances of murders in the U.S. remain unknown, homicides due to narcotics come in as the second most common circumstance – making them more common than, for example, gang killings. Despite these gruesome facts, the violent crime rate has fallen significantly since 1990, and the United States is much safer than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. Knife crime vs disease: Leading causes of death The death rate in the U.S. had hovered around the same level since 1990 until there was a large increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic in recent years. Heart disease, cancer, and accidents were the three leading causes of death in the country in 2022. The rate of death from heart disease is significantly higher than the homicide rate in the United States, at 167.2 deaths per 100,000 population compared to a 5.7 homicides per 100,000. Given just 1,562 murders were caused by knife crime, it is fair to say that heart disease is a far bigger killer in the U.S.

Recorded crime figures for CSP areas. Number of offences for the last two years, percentage change, and rates per 1,000 population for the latest year.

Dundee City's crime rate of 847 crimes per 10,000 people was the highest of any region of Scotland in 2023/24. The rate for the whole of Scotland was 550 per 10,000 people, which appears to be driven by low crime in places such as the Orkney and Shetland Islands, with almost all Scottish cities reporting higher than average crime rates. In Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, the crime rate was 812 crimes per 10,000 people, while in the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, the crime rate was 679 per 10,000 population. Comparisons with the rest of the UK When compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, Scotland has experienced a noticeable decline in its overall crime rate. In 2008/09 for example, Scotland's crime rate was higher than that of England and Wales, as well as Northern Ireland, the other two jurisdictions in the UK. In 2022/23, however, Scotland's crime rate was the lowest in the UK, with the crime rate in England and Wales rising noticeably during the same period. Scotland's homicide rate has also fallen, from being the highest in the UK in 2002/03, to the lowest as of 2022/23. Theft and fraud drive recent crime uptick There was a slight increase in the number of crimes recorded by the Scottish police in 2023/24, when compared with the previous year. Although many other types of crimes declined during this reporting year, the number of theft offences has increased, reaching 111,054 offences in 2023/24. Fraud crime has also increased significantly in recent years, with 16,789 offences in 2022/23, compared with just 6,913 in 2014/15. The recent uptick in fraud and theft offences is also reflected in the jurisdiction England and Wales.

There were 1,248 firearm offences recorded in London 2023/24, compared with 1,085 in 2022/23. Compared with previous years, there were far fewer offences in 2020/21 and 2021/22, which may have been due to the lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. This is also reflected in London's overall crime rate, which fell from 102.4 crimes per 1,000 people in 2019/20, to 83.3 in 2020/21, before increasing to 92.8 in 2021/22, and 105.8 in the most recent reporting year. Firearm homicides rare in the UK The United Kingdom has some of the strictest gun laws in the world, resulting in relatively low levels of gun crime and firearm homicides. In 2022/23 just 4.9 percent of homicides in England and Wales were the result of shootings, compared with 85.7 percent in the United States in 2021. The most common method of killing for homicides in England and Wales was by far the use of a sharp instrument at 41.4 percent of homicides in the 2022/23 reporting year. London police budget rising In 2023/24 the budget for policing in London reached 4.53 billion British pounds, compared with 4.44 billion pounds in the previous financial year. This is the sixth-consecutive year of London's police budget increasing, compared with the period between 2013/14 and 2018/19, when it remained around 3.3 billion pounds, and was actually smaller than in 2012/13 when the budget was 3.62 billion. These budget increases have occurred alongside a recruitment drive for police officers. In 2023, there were 35,900 police officers in London, compared with just 31,087 in 2018.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner. The What Worked? Policy Mobility and the Public Health Approach to Youth Violence study sought to further the ESRC's strategic objective of a 'safer, fairer society' through establishing a new evidence-base on public health approaches to violence reduction, and the ways such policies transfer between jurisdictions, to shape policy, guide best practice, and inform academic and public debate. Its main aim was to respond to the urgent social problem of rising youth violence. England and Wales have seen marked increases in homicide, knife crime, and hospital admissions for stab wounds, with particular concentrations in the city of London. Cressida Dick, when Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, stated that tackling youth violence was her 'number one priority.' In March 2019, UK Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled a consultation on a new public health strategy for youth violence. This approach, which seeks to address violence using principles of prevention and education rather than policing and justice, marks a major step-change in policy. The interest in developing this approach stems primarily from Scotland, where radical reductions in violent crime over the last decade have been attributed to the adoption of a public health model. There was however a lack of clear understanding of 'what worked' in the Scottish context. While there have indeed been marked declines in youth violence, the mechanisms that have driven this decrease are poorly understood. There is confusion over what public health approaches are, how they work, and the conditions under which such ideas can travel. As a result, despite significant potential, the implications of the public health approach remain vague. This study was delivered in a three work-streams approach, over a three-year period: 1. What Worked Through interviews with elite actors/professionals - senior police, politicians, and civil servants - the research team aimed to establish an expert appraisal of the causes of violence reduction in Scotland. This was complemented by a detailed documentary analysis, investigating the social, political, and cultural conditions in which violence reduction occurred, and a series of 20 semi-structured interviews with practitioners and residents of communities affected by violence to establish a 'bottom-up' account of change. Finally, available statistical data on violence and health was leveraged to triangulate explanations. These data sources were combined to produce a policy briefing, two journal articles, and a short film on the theme of 'what worked'. 2. Policy Travels Using flexible and responsive ethnographic methods, the research team aimed to track the evolution of the public health approach in London as it evolved in real-time, entering the 'assumptive worlds' of policy through attendance at key meetings and events. Observations were complemented by a series of semi-structured interviews with elite actors engaged in violence reduction in London, and 20 semi-structured interviews with residents and youth practitioners, exploring the factors that promote or impede change. Mirroring data-collection in Scotland, relevant statistical data was used to evaluate the extent to which policy changes are impacting on violence reduction. These data were used to produce a second policy briefing, two journal articles, and a series of podcasts on 'how ideas travel'. 3. Connecting Communities Data from these work-streams will be connected via an open access data set to enhance understanding of best practice in violence reduction. Data will be analysed and published as an academic monograph aimed at scholars working in the areas of criminology, public health and social policy. Through our advisory group and engagement with policy user-groups, the research team will engage directly with policy actors at the highest level, and using cooperative methods will create a practitioner toolkit. Communities of policy, practice and public will be connected through a website, a series of events and a roadshow.Further information and outputs can be found on the UKRI What Worked? Policy Mobility and the Public Health Approach to Youth Violence project page.The UKDS study currently includes 127 qualitative interview transcripts, drawn from policy-makers and community participants. See the 'Data List' in the documentation for more details. Main Topics: Purposive selection/case studies Face-to-face interview

There were 10,835 handling offensive weapon crimes recorded by the police in Scotland between March 2023 and April 2024, a peak for this type of crime during the provided time period.

There were 583 homicides recorded in England and Wales in 2023/24, two more than in the previous reporting year, when there were 581 homicides. Between 2002/03 and 2013/14 the number of homicides in England and Wales fell significantly, from 1,047, to 533. The recent rise in homicides has occurred alongside an increase in the overall number of crimes, with police officials linking this to long-term cuts to their manpower and resources. Knives involved in over 40 percent of homicides In the 2022/23 reporting year, homicides involving a sharp instrument were involved in 244 incidents, a decline on the previous reporting year, when there were 282 such homicides. As a proportion of all homicides, sharp instruments were the main method of killing, and were used in 41.4 percent of all homicides in 2022/23. Firearm homicides are quite rare in England and Wales with shooting homicides only accounting for 4.9 percent of all homicides in the same reporting year. Between 2011/12 and 2022/23, there were 347 firearm homicides in England and Wales, compared with 2,785 knife homicides in the same period. Homicide rate highest in North East England Although London, with 124 homicides, was the UK region with the highest number of homicides in 2022/23, it was behind North East England when it came to the homicide rate. At 15.9 homicides per one million people, the North East was ahead of London at 12.9, and the rest of England and Wales, at 10.1. When compared with the rest of the UK, the homicide rate in England and Wales was above that of Scotland, which was 9, but below Northern Ireland at 12.6. Although Scotland's homicide rate is currently lower than that of England and Wales, before 2015/16 it was consistently higher, particularly in 2004/05 when it was 27, compared with 16.4 in England and Wales.

Monthly London Ambulance Service call out data by type of incident and borough.

This excel file contains numbers for ambulance calls for each borough in London including: All incidents attended, All assault incidents attended, Assaults on women, Assaults on teenagers, Gun injuries, Knife injuries, All weapon injuries, Animal injuries, Binge drinking (alcohol poisoning where patient aged under 40), Cocaine, and Heroin overdoses

Volumes are derived by searching a database holding the records of all ambulances despatched in London.

The records consist of data collected by paramedics or other ambulance staff, who record retrospectively if they believe an assault to have taken place. They also collect data on whether a weapon was used, or if the attended patient is suffering from an alcohol related illness.

Each record has information from the 999 Call Handler. This can include data on specific type of weapon is collected. This is how we derive gun or knife injury as well heroin or cocaine overdose.
From time to time the data collected may not be an accurate representation of the actual event. However the data is relevant for understanding broad patterns in different types of crime and disorder nonetheless.

The number of incidents where a animal bite injury has been reported to the ambulance service. This data is filtered to include only bites from large animals (there are no specific data on dog bites, however the data is used to derive broad trends on dog issues.)
The number of incidents where the ambulance service have attended someone suffering from an alcohol related illness. Focussing on patients under 40 allows broad trends in Binge Drinking to be identified. Older age groups may be more likely to be attended by the ambulance service for longer term alcohol related health issues.