Over the last decade, we've actually seen a decrease in youth offending rates overall, which is a positive trend.¹ But, there's been an increase in knife or offensive weapon-related offences, and in hospital admissions due to 'assault by sharp object'. The majority of knife offences are related to possession rather than actual threatening behaviour,¹ suggesting that young people are ultimately more likely to carry these weapons, than these them.

Curiously other data shows that young people are generally becoming less worried over time, about being a victim of a crime (see Chart 8 in this section). One explanation is that knife crime is localised to specific areas, rather than being a widespread risk for young people across the UK.

During the pandemic, rates of knife crime and hospital treatment dipped a little, but not as much as they had surged between 2012 and 2018. So, the big question is, will these numbers continue to decrease post-pandemic? We'll have to wait for more data to know for sure.