Homicides by method of killing in England and Wales 2022

Knives or other sharp objects were involved in 41 percent of homicides in England and Wales in 2021/22, the most of any method of killing. Homicides which involved hitting or kicking without a weapon made up 17 percent of murders, while shootings were identified as the method in four percent of homicides. Overall, there were 697 homicides in this reporting year, which was slightly lower than in 2019/20, when there were 720, but noticeably higher than in 2013/14, when there were 533.

Firearm homicides rare in the UK

In 2021/22, there were 282 knife homicides in England and Wales, the highest figure in recent years. By comparison, homicides which involved the use of a firearm were far less common, with just 28 in the same reporting year. With strict gun laws and low levels of ownership, the UK contrasts starkly with the United States, which has struggled with various levels of gun violence in recent years. Although some specialist UK police officers are licensed to carry firearms, the majority of police officers are unarmed. In 2022/23, for example, there were just 6,038 armed police, out of around 135,570 police officers.

Overall knife crime on the rise

Like many other types of crime, knife crime offences in the 2010s started to decline at the start of the decade before creeping up again from 2014 onwards, reaching 22,285 by 2019. In London where much of the media’s attention on knife crime is focused, there were 15,928 knife crime offences alone in 2019/20. Although this fell during subsequent reporting years which were influenced by COVID-19 restrictions, it remains to be seen if the trend will continue.