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Knife Crime Rises 90
Knife Crime Rises 90
16 November 2022
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• Knife crime
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Twenty-two people were killed by a knife in Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire last
year
More than 100 serious knife crimes are committed every week in Yorkshire and
northern Lincolnshire, figures show.
Offences including robbery, assault and murder have nearly doubled in the region in the
past decade, according to the latest police data.
Campaigners claimed carrying a weapon had become as "normalised" among young
people as using a mobile phone.
It comes as police across the country this week run a coordinated operation aimed at
tackling knife crime.
A total of 5,257 serious offences involving a blade were recorded by forces in Yorkshire
and northern Lincolnshire in the year up to June 2022.
The figure is an 12% rise on the previous 12 months and up 90% from 2012.
Sarah Lloyd, whose 17-year-old son Kieran Butterworth was stabbed to death in
Leeds in 2013, said she was "disheartened" by the increase but "not surprised at all".
She told the BBC: "I see it every day. I see kids carrying knives, kids getting excluded
from school for being caught carrying knives. It's getting worse.
"If you speak to the youth, it's just normalised now. It's like picking up your keys and
your phone - and your knife."
'Fighting a losing battle'
Assault and robbery make up the majority of the region's knife crimes, but offences such
as homicides and sexual assault involving knives have also risen in the past decade.
The region's four police forces recorded 2,739 assaults with a bladed weapon in the past
year, up 11% from the previous 12 months, and 1,573 knife robberies, a rise of 16%.
There were 22 homicides and 107 rapes or sexual assaults involving a knife across the
region.
In South Yorkshire, which has seen the biggest rise in knife crime, police recorded 1,609
serious knife offences in the year to June 2022. This was a 20% increase on last year and
an 85% rise in a decade.
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to yorkslincs.news@bbc.co.uk.
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