Homicides by method of killing in England and Wales 2023

Knives or other sharp objects were involved in 41.4 percent of homicides in England and Wales in 2022/23, the most of any method of killing. Homicides which involved hitting or kicking without a weapon made up 19.3 percent of murders, while shootings were identified as the method in 4.9 percent of homicides. Overall, there were 602 homicides in this reporting year, which was slightly lower than in the previous year, when there were 697, but noticeably higher than in 2013/14, when there were 533. 

Firearm homicides rare in England and Wales

In 2022/23, there were 244 knife homicides in England and Wales, compared with 282 in 2021/22, which was the highest figure in recent years. By comparison, homicides which involved the use of a firearm were far less common, with just 29 in the 2022/23 reporting year. With strict gun laws and low levels of ownership, the UK contrasts starkly with the United States, which has struggled with high levels of gun violence. Although some specialist police officers in England and Wales 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 150,697 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. In 2022/23, the number of knife offences in the capital was higher than in the previous two reporting years, but still below annual figures between 2017/18 and 2019/20.