Knife/Weapon Arrest Statistics Including Under 18s 2018 to 2023
Keywords
Calendar, Years, Arrests, Offences, Knife, Similar, Other, Weapons, Possession, Illegal, Offensive, Firearms, Using, Breakdown, Under 18, Age, Youngest, Offender, Person, People.
Publication Number
PUB 1273
FOI Reference Number
20031
Request Title
Under-18s Carrying a Knife 2018-2023
Date Range
January 2018 to December 2023
Information Requested
How many individuals under the age of 18 have been found to be carrying a knife by your police force in the following years:
2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
18 April 2024
Date of Disclosure
25 April 2024
Related Documents/Links
Charges for Possession of a Bladed Article | Essex Police
FOI 20031 Response
Notes
- For the first table, ‘the number of offences related to knife crime/possession’, all offences that are marked with the ‘Knife Used’ crime flag are included.
- For the second table, ‘number of people who committed offences related to knife crime/possession while under the age of 18’, the same data has been searched but filtered to return offences whereby the linked person ‘Suspect’ was aged between 0 and 17 at the time of the incident (not including all other Suspect categories).
Number of Offences Related to Knife Crime/Possession Per Year – 2017 to 2023
|
Grand Total |
28,404 |
|
Year |
Number of Offences |
|
2017 |
2,779 |
|
2018 |
2,309 |
|
2019 |
3,380 |
|
2020 |
4,714 |
|
2021 |
5,116 |
|
2022 |
5,382 |
|
2023 |
4,724 |
Number of People who Committed Offences Related to Knife Crime/Possession while Under the Age of 18 Per Year – 2017 to 2023
|
Grand Total |
531 |
|
Year |
Number of Suspects |
|
2017 |
32 |
|
2018 |
22 |
|
2019 |
73 |
|
2020 |
85 |
|
2021 |
96 |
|
2022 |
105 |
|
2023 |
118 |
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
Headline data on Possession of Weapons offences by Policing district and outcome can be found within the monthly Essex Police performance reports published by the Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex:
Essex Police Performance - Essex Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner (pfcc.police.uk)
FOI Reference Number
16114
Request Title
Knife/Weapon Arrest Statistics
Date Range
2019 to 2021
Information Requested
I would like information on the number of arrests made in relation to knife and similar weapons crime in Essex in 2021 so far (January - August).
I would like the total number of arrests for possession of an illegal knife/weapon and/or using such a weapon in Essex.
I would also like a breakdown of the ages of the people arrested, including the youngest person arrested over possession or use of a knife/weapon.
Please can similar data in the previous two full calendar years (2020 and 2019) be provided too.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
08 October 2021
Date of Disclosure
22 October 2021
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16114 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 08 October 2021.
All the relevant records were obtained from the Athena Custody Universe.
The Reasons for Arrest Offence Description Dimension was used as a filter to select the options of Possession of Knife Offences, Possession of Offensive Weapons Offences and Possession of Firearms Offences to bring back the relevant arrest records.
Essex Police are unable to advise whether the arrests made for Knife and Weapon Offences included arrests for Possession of an Illegal Knife/Weapon Offences as this information is not available on our recording system.
Dates:
2019: 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2019
2020: 01 January 2020 to 31 December 2020
2021: 01 January 2021 to 31 August 2021.
A total of 4,141 arrests have been made in relation to knife and similar weapons crimes in Essex between 01 January 2019 and 31 August 2021. The results are shown in the table below:
|
Arrest Year |
Number of Arrests |
|---|---|
|
2019 |
1,635 |
|
2020 |
1,515 |
|
2021 |
991 |
|
Total |
4,141 |
The breakdown of the ages of the people arrested in relation to knife and similar weapons crimes, is shown in the below table:
Arrests for Knife and Similar Weapons Crimes by Arrested Offender Age - 2019 to 2021
|
Age Groups |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
11 to 17 |
246 |
212 |
172 |
|
18 to 25 |
512 |
448 |
271 |
|
26 to 40 |
586 |
542 |
349 |
|
41 to 60 |
265 |
289 |
181 |
|
61 or over |
26 |
24 |
18 |
|
Total |
1,635 |
1,515 |
991 |
|
Overall Total |
4,141 |
||
The age of the youngest offender arrested in relation to knife and similar weapons crimes is 11 years old.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
FOI Reference Number
16242
Request Title
Under 18s - Knife/Weapon Arrest Statistics
Date Range
2018 to 2021
Information Requested
I would like to know the number of knife and other weapon related arrests for under 18s in the calendar year of 2021 in Essex.
I would like to compare this data to the previous three years (2020, 2019, 2018).
I would also like to know the age of the youngest person arrested for such an offence.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
15 October 2021
Date of Disclosure
02 November 2021
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 16242 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveats:
The data is correct as at 15 October 2021.
All the relevant records were obtained from the Athena Custody Universe.
The Reasons for Arrest Offence Description Dimension was used as a filter to select the options of Possession of Knife Offences, Possession of Offensive Weapons Offences and Possession of Firearms Offences to bring back the relevant arrest records.
Dates:
2018: 01 January 2018 to 31 December 2018
2019: 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2019
2020: 01 January 2020 to 31 December 2020
2021: 01 January 2021 to 31 August 2021.
A total of 865 under 18 arrests have been made in relation to knife and similar weapons crimes in Essex between 01 January 2018 and 31 August 2021. The results are shown in the table below:
|
Arrest Year |
Number of Arrests |
|---|---|
|
2018 |
235 |
|
2019 |
246 |
|
2020 |
212 |
|
2021 |
172 |
|
Total |
865 |
The age of the youngest offender arrested in relation to knife and similar weapons crimes is 11 years old.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.