Knife crime

03/09
26 March 2009
MPA briefing paper 03/2009

Author: Superintendent David Chinchen, MPS

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

The meeting of the Strategic and Operational Policing (SOP) Committee on 5 February 2009 received a report on TP Thematic Performance (Item 8). This provided further detail on Operation Blunt 2 and its impact upon knife crime since commencement on 19 May 2008.

At that meeting members requested a breakdown of the crime types that comprise knife crime. A short briefing was circulated to members in advance of the next meeting of the SOP Committee on 5 March 2009. At this meeting members requested further detail on recorded knife that is now provided in this briefing paper.

Knife crime definitions

Knife crime is recorded by the MPS in accordance with the national Assessments of Policing and Community Safety (APACS) definition. It includes the following offences where a knife or other sharp instrument is involved (used, threatened or intimated).

• Murder and Manslaughter
• Attempted murder
• Threats to kill
• Infanticide
• Wounding or carrying out an act endangering life
• Inflicting grievous bodily harm without intent
• Actual bodily harm and other injury
• Sexual assault
• Rape
• Robbery

The definition therefore includes a range of weapon types beyond those described as knives. It also includes offences (mainly robbery) where the presence of a knife is intimated by words or actions but not seen.

Performance summary

Recorded knife crime in the period April 2008 to February 2009 shows a 12.9% reduction compared with same period in the previous performance year. This equates to a reduction of 1,689 offences (13,043 to 11,354).

Within this overall reduction, most serious violence has declined by 13%, overall violence against the person by 12.3% and personal robbery by 15%. Business robbery is showing a 3% increase (607 to 625).

Domestic violence knife crime offences show a reduction of 7.2% (1,463 to 1,358). In this period, some 11.9% of knife crime arises from domestic violence. Knife crime is not therefore the driver for any increase in domestic violence.

Sexual offences account for 1.1% of total knife crime. Sexual offences involving a knife show a 9.4% reduction (138 to 125).

The sanction detection rate for knife crime stands at 26.6% for performance year to February compared with 22.1% for the same period in the previous year.

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