Why are there so many stabbings in Britain?

<i>Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP via CNN Newsource</i><br/>Belongings of passengers are seen on the ground at the entrance to Huntingdon train station after a mass stabbing on a London-bound train.

By CNN Newsource

Published November 4, 2025 5:33 AM

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN

London (CNN) — A gruesome train stabbing that left nine people with life-threatening injuries over the weekend has put the spotlight back on the United Kingdom’s widespread knife-crime problem.

A 32-year-old British man has been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder in connection with the attack, which took place on a train traveling through central England to London on Saturday evening. He has not yet entered a plea.

British politicians condemned the attack, with Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood telling the House of Commons on Monday that knife crime “claims far too many lives in our country.”

Successive governments have vowed to tackle knife crime but it remains a significant issue in a country where access to firearms and other weapons is tightly controlled.

A total of 51,527 knife crime offenses were recorded in England and Wales in the 12 months up until June 2025, excluding the region of Greater Manchester, according to the UK’s Office of National Statistics (data is recorded differently in Manchester). Of these offenses, 196 were homicides, the ONS said.

Notably, the overall number of recorded knife crime offenses in the year leading up to June 2025 fell 5% when compared with the year before.

How common are lethal stabbings in the UK?

While the issue of knife crime is a “serious social concern,” it “should not be a source of moral hysteria,” Iain Overton, executive director of the non-governmental organization Action on Armed Violence told CNN on Monday.

In the year leading up to March 2024, 570 homicides took place in England and Wales, according to ONS, with 262 homicides committed using a knife or other sharp instrument. The most commonly used instrument in these homicides was a kitchen knife, ONS said. Shooting killed only 22 of the victims.

A total of 64 teenagers aged between 13 and 19 were killed in this time frame, ONS said, with 83% of these victims being killed by a knife or sharp instrument.

Because not all knife crime offenses are reported to police, hospital data can also help in understanding the extent of the issue.

From April 2024 to 2025, there were 3,494 instances in which patients were admitted to hospital in England for assault by sharp object, according to NHS England data. Nearly 90% of patients treated were male, with 16% of patients aged 18 or under.

Scotland and Northern Ireland record crime separately to England and Wales. A total of 28 homicides were committed by sharp instrument in Scotland from 2023 to 2024, and four in Northern Ireland in the same time frame.

In the United States, a total of 1,704 people were killed by a “cut” or “pierce” in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This type of crime is the result of “an incision, slash, perforation, or puncture by a pointed or sharp instrument, weapon, or object,” according to US public service organization The National Safety Council.

The homicide rate for England and Wales was 9.5 per million people in the year from March 2023 to 2024, according to the ONS. In the US, the rate was much higher, with 68 homicides per million people in 2023, according to the CDC.

In the European Union, home to nearly 450 million people, there were 3,980 intentional homicides in 2023, according to Eurostat, the statistical office of the EU.

What are the root causes of the problem?

In a briefing issued in October, the UK’s Local Government Association called knife crime a “multifaceted issue that cannot be solved through enforcement alone.”

Deprivation, mental health issues, exclusion from school and family struggles can all contribute to a person’s involvement in knife crime, Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, economist and director of the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Crime, Justice and Policing, told CNN on Monday.

While a decade ago the majority of knife crime perpetrated by young people was related to gangs, this is no longer the case, James Alexander, an associate enterprise fellow in criminology at London Metropolitan University, told CNN.

“It was really predictable,” Alexander said. “Now with young people, you can’t predict it. There are people getting involved in knife crime, getting arrested for carrying knives or being stabbed or stabbing people that have got no criminal record whatsoever, no indications (that they might commit knife crimes),” he said.

With violence, or the threat of it, being so pervasive in today’s society, many young people now carry knives out of fear for their own safety, Alexander said. If they feel threatened, instead of running away or fighting without weapons, they resort to using knives, often with devastating consequences.

Some of the young people who have grown up in a “culture where violence is accepted” then go on to become violent adults, Alexander said.

“You’ve got a lot of unsupported young men becoming adults that are not developing in the way that they would if they were supported. Then they’re taking their violent tendencies into adulthood, which is a big concern for lots of people.”

What is being done to tackle knife crime?

During campaigning for Britain’s 2024 parliamentary elections, the now-governing Labour Party pledged to try to “halve knife crime in a decade.”

According to the Home Office, “nearly 60,000 knives have been removed from streets in England and Wales through new knife surrender schemes and police operations” since Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government took office.

Weapons including so-called zombie knives and ninja swords have also been banned, and age verification checks for the online sale and delivery of knives are being strengthened,the Home Office said. The progress made this year includes a 5% fall in all knife crimes, including an 18% reduction in homicides by knife, the Home Secretary told lawmakers on Monday.

However, Overton from Action on Armed Violence said that while enforcement helps in combating knife crime, “this is not simply a policing issue.”

“Cuts to youth and mental-health services, poverty, exclusion, and the exploitation of children by drug networks have all helped create the conditions for violence,” he said. “The real work lies in prevention: through education, community investment, and early intervention.”

One example of effective prevention is Operation Divan, a police-led initiative that aims to discourage the carrying of knives by young people in the English county of North Yorkshire, Bandyopadhyay said.

Under the initiative, if there are concerns that a young person might be interacting with knives, the police will work with local services to discuss the dangers of knives with that young person. This also helps authorities to learn more about why young people are interacting with knives.

There is a “significant opportunity for (the) early diversion” of young people away from knife crime through “voluntary educational interventions,” Bandyopadhyay said.

Alexander from London Metropolitan University said that while he had evaluated “quite a few amazing interventions” when it comes to knife crime, they often only run for a few years due to a lack of funding.

“The government is doing some really practical things” when it comes to clamping down on the sale of sharp weapons, Alexander said. “But I think actually, when you look at a lot of young people, they (are)… quite damaged young people.”

They need support, he continued, “but it doesn’t necessarily need to be done by a therapist. They just need a space where they can be a child” and feel safe without needing a knife.

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