More teenagers are being caught with a knife or bladed weapon than ten years ago, but less are being locked up, new figures show, despite an “epidemic” of youth violence on the streets.
In the year to September 2023 there was a 20 per cent rise to 3,178 in cases of 10 to 17-year-olds caught with or threatening people with a bladed item, the new Ministry of Justice (MOJ) statistics out on Thursday showed.
But just 261 of them were jailed in the same period – a 12 per cent drop in the number of them imprisoned in 2013, with a corresponding rise in community sentences.
For those who were jailed the average sentence length was also reduced by 20 per cent to 6.7 months from 8.4.
It comes as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was shown the array of knives seized by Essex Police during a visit to Harlow police station on Friday.
An MOJ report on the statistics said: “For offences dealt with involving 10 to 17-year-old offenders in the year ending September 2023, 261 offences (were) sentenced to immediate custody, representing a 12 per cent decrease over the decade.
“The most common sentence 10 to 17-year-olds received was community sentence, this represents 59 per cent of all knife and offensive weapon offences for (them).
For all ages, 69 per cent of the 18,997 people caught with a bladed article dodged jail terms as did 39 per cent of repeat offenders.
Last week Patrick Green, CEO of the Ben KInsella Trust, said a ten-year strategy was needed to deal with an “epidemic” of youth knife crime on the streets.
But, the figures came in the same week that a boy, 16, was stabbed to death in the St Philips area of Bristol on Wednesday, just 18 days after Max Dixon, 16 and Mason Rist, 15, were also killed with knives in the Knowle West area of the city.
Four teen aged boys and a man, 44, have been charged with their murders.
Two 15-year-old boys have been arrested in connection with the latest victim who has yet to be named.
The Home Office has revealed that it is in the process of increasing sentences for certain offences involving bladed articles from a maximum of six months to two years in prison.
These are possession, importation, manufacture, sale or supply of prohibited offensive weapons and of selling knives to those under 18.
It is also introducing the new offence of possessing a knife with the intent to use it violently
Currently if gang members were found on a rival estate with knives and wearing face coverings they could only be charged with possession of a bladed article – but the new offence could be used in such circumstances.
Although it has the same maximum four year imprisonment sentence as normal possession of a bladed article, a Home Office spokeswoman said judges were rarely imposing longer terms which would be more likely once the new law is in place through the Criminal Justice Bill in September.
Anti gang and knife crime campaigner Luke Cato said tougher enforcement alone was not the answer.
As a teenager in inner city Birmingham, Mr Cato was expelled from school and arrested several times after being drawn into gangs, drugs and knife crime, before turning his life around through athletics and further education.
He is now producing short films about knife crime and county lines gangs to discourage school children.
He said: “Deterrents only help to a limited extent because some think they don’t have a choice. We show that wise decision making offers a way out by creating interactive short films and games that tackle society’s most pressing problems, equipping frontline educators with digital tools to engage vulnerable young people.
“With the West Midlands Violence Reduction Partnership we’ve reached thousands of secondary school children and this has led to life changing disclosures about the pressures these young people are facing, which in turn allows support to be directed where it is needed most.”
