London recorded 3,491 knife-crime victim records across the capital during the summer, with more than 1,100 recorded in each month.
June saw the highest monthly total, with 1,215 victims recorded. This fell to 1,147 in July before dropping again to 1,129 in August.
The breakdown by sex shows that men made up the overwhelming majority of victims. Across the three months, 2,773 male victim records were recorded, compared with 601 female victim records. A further 117 records had the victim’s sex marked as unknown or missing.
In June, there were 973 male victims and 197 female victims. July recorded 906 male and 205 female victims, while August saw 894 male and 199 female victims.
The age breakdown also reveals that hundreds of young people featured in the figures. There were 690 victim records for people aged between 10 and 17 across the three months. A further 793 were aged between 18 and 25, while 1,883 were aged over 25. The data also recorded six victims aged between one and nine.
The figures land on the same day the Home Office’s No Place for Knives campaign launched in Westminster and Croydon, aiming to halve knife crime over a decade through advertising, smarter metal detection, rapid-response e-bikes and live facial recognition. The campaign’s pilot areas include Croydon, where a mural has been unveiled at Boxpark.
There have been several major knife incidents making headlines in the capital recently. A zombie knife and suspected gun were found in north-west London on 29 October, where officers came across a teenage boy suffering injuries to his head. A 13-year-old boy was arrested after reports of a knife brought into Dagenham Park School on 15 October. Two men were arrested after a stabbing near Dollis Hill station on 18 October, in which the 25-year-old victim was taken to hospital by the London Ambulance Service with a knife wound.
Other recent crime coverage includes a man charged with attempted murder after an Islington shooting and stabbing and a Kilburn family still awaiting justice two years after a fatal shooting.
