West Midlands Knife Crime: 2,654 Crimes In The Last Five Years
Knife crime peaked in the West Midlands in 2017 with 587 incidents, but has since come down in 2019 to just 317 incidents.
There were 2,654 incidents of knife crime over the last five years in the West Midlands.
In 2014, there 441 incidents of knife crime, and while this has since fallen to 317 incidents in 2019, there was a significant rise in the years in-between.
In 2015, there were 553, and in 2016, 563. In 2017, the city saw an increase in incidents yet again, rising to 587, its peak across the five year period. There was a drop the following year, to 510 in 2018.
In the same time frame, the number of female defendants dropped from 46 to 31, a decrease of 33%.
Why did students choose to cover this story?
The students said: “We chose this topic because people think that only young people get involved with knife crime. However, this is not the case because a lot of older people also have committed knife crimes.”
How did the answers make our journalists feel?
“The answers made us feel that this topic is very important because many people lose their lives to stabbings, and other knife-related crimes.”