FOI reference: FOI-2025-3244
You asked
I would be interested to see knife crime by ethnicity January 2020 to January 2025 if possible including race of perpetrators.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We publish statistics primarily from two sources: the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and Home Office police recorded crime. These sources of data focus on crime as it is experienced by victims.
In terms of knife crime figures by ethnicity, the most relevant data we hold can be found in table 12 of our Homicide in England and Wales publication. This provides the number of offences recorded as homicide by a sharp instrument, broken down by age and ethnic appearance of the victim from the year ending March 2014 to the year ending March 2024.
You may also be interested in worksheets 8-11, which contain various breakdowns of offences recorded as homicide by sharp instrument or apparent method of killing up to the year ending March 2024. Unfortunately, we do not hold this information broken down by ethnicity of the victim.
Homicide data for the year ending March 2025 is provisionally scheduled for release in February 2026. If interested, you can keep an eye on this and search for upcoming releases on the ONS release calendar.
We produce data on offences involving a knife or sharp instrument and NHS hospital admissions data for assault with sharp objects in tables 20-24 of our Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables. These tables cover various timelines up to the year ending March 2025, but unfortunately we do not hold these statistics broken down by ethnicity of the victim.
We also produce quarterly updates to knife crime statistics in Crime in England and Wales publications. However, we also do not hold these statistics broken down by ethnicity.
Data on police recorded crime figures are provided to us by the Home Office. We do not hold police recorded crime figures on overall offences involving a knife or sharp instrument by ethnic group of the perpetrator. For further information on this, the Home Office can be contacted via email at: CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk.
The Ministry of Justice are responsible for data on prosecutions and convictions. Their latest release concerning the ethnicity of offenders is Ethnicity and the Criminal Justice system 2022. If you have any other questions, the Ministry of Justice can be contacted via email at: CJS_Statistics@justice.gov.uk.
Our statistics only cover England and Wales. Information on crime in Scotland can be found on the Scottish government website or by contacting Justice_Analysts@gov.scot. Information on crime in Northern Ireland can be found on the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency website.
If you have any further questions, please contact us at CrimeStatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.