What is gun and knife crime?

The police record crime into different offence categories, e.g. robbery. If a weapon is used to assist a crime the offence will also be classified as a gun or knife enabled offence, e.g. a knife enabled robbery.

Owning or carrying an illegal gun or knife is an offence in its own right, even if it hasn’t been used to carry out a crime.

Are crimes involving guns and knives common?

Gun and knife enabled offences are uncommon. In London during 2004/05, only 2
percent of all recorded violent crime involved a gun and 5 percent involved a knife.

This said, in 2003/04 more gun-enabled crimes were recorded in London than any other
region in England and Wales: around 40 percent of the national total1. This may seem a large figure but it equates to around 6 offences per 10,000 Londoners per year.

Source: MPS recorded crime and Povey, D (2004) Home Office

Is gun and knife crime increasing?

Long term crime trends between April 2003 and August 2005 show consistent levels of
gun and knife enabled offending in London. Monthly fluctuations occur but the number
of offences have not increased or decreased significantly over this period.

Recent trends, comparing the July to September quarter for 2004/05 with that of
2005/06, indicate that there have been increases in gun-enabled violence (14 percent)and also increases for gun enabled homicide and knife enabled homicide (4 more
offences for each compared to period in the previous year).

Source: MPS recorded crime

What types of crime involve guns and knives?

It is important to note that crimes involving guns and knives do not always result in physical injury; guns and knives are also used to threaten, and damage property.

To what extent are victims of gun and knife crime harmed or killed?

Victims of any crime suffer a certain amount of trauma. The involvement of a weapon is
likely to increase the severity of an offence and also increase the risk of serious physical harm.

A threatening situation involving a weapon can escalate quickly and become violent.
Weapons increase the likelihood of someone being killed, be it the intended victim or
the attacker themselves.

The probability of serious injury is four and a half times greater when a knife is used to assist a crime. The risk of serious injury is more than twice as great for knife-enabled crimes than for gun-enabled crimes.

It is important to consider these statistics in context however: gun and knife enabled
homicide is very rare and accounts around 1 percent of gun and knife enabled violence
each year.

Source: MPS recorded crime and MPA report 10

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