Knife crime in London is higher than it was before the pandemic, the latest ONS figures reveal.
Knife and sharp instrument offences have increased by 137 cases to 14,817 in 2025, up from 14,680 in 2019.
This is despite the capital recording its lowest ever homicide rate in more than a decade.
Tom Jewkes, head of programmes at the Ben Kinsella Trust, said: “We still have intolerable levels of serious violence and knife crime predominantly affecting young people.”
“Just one life lost, one family devastated, one community shattered… is too many.”
The figures also show a 64% increase in the last 10 years up from 9,016 cases in 2015.
Jewkes highlights the dire economic context knife crime charities and the wider community have been operating in.
He said: “This is all against a backdrop of over a decade of austerity. We’ve had billions of pounds pulled out of the youth sector.”
“At the same time cuts to policing have removed positive opportunities and pathways away from young people.”
Despite these long-term trends, London has seen a 12% decrease in knife crime in the past year, down from 16,619 offences in 2024.
Jewkes attributes this to unprecedented levels of investment in prevention and early intervention.
London’s Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), established in 2019, is a primary example, which joins up the community with local authorities to tackle serious violence at its root.
This includes stationing youth workers in police custody and investing in school programmes to reduce exclusions.
Jewkes said: “The emerging positive signs suggest that the preventative programmes are really starting to take root, but we need to continue that investment for at least another generation’s worth of young people.”
According to the ‘Keeping Young People Safe’ 2024 report by the Ben Kinsella Trust, learnt behaviour around weapon carrying starts at 10 years old and the scope for criminality peaks at around 15-16.
Jewkes said that this is the window to enact generational change, which coincides with the current hyperfocus on tackling this issue through intervention.
“There’s so many amazing community-based organisations that have contributed to this. They need to be properly funded and resourced for at least another generation’s worth of young people, if we are going to turn the tide on the current levels of knife crime.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “We are having real success tackling the crimes that terrorise communities. Homicides are at their lowest level for almost 50 years. Knife crime continues to fall.
“But the crimes that tear at the fabric of communities, like shop theft and shop robbery, continue to rise and we must do more.
“That is why we are putting 13,000 more neighbourhood officers on the beat, and have invested £2bn more in forces across the country since we took office.
“But we must also reform policing. This week, we set out reforms that will strengthen neighbourhood policing. Local forces will be focused on policing their area and protecting their communities. A new National Police Force will tackle nationwide and cross-border crime, and protect us all.”
Featured image credit: Unsplash
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