Statistics update (April 2025): Trends in violence affecting children

Summary

In July 2024, we launched a series of 11 indicators that we’ll use to track changes in violence affecting children and in the sectors that are key to supporting children at risk of violence. For more information, see our core indicators and report. Since our last update in January, new data for 2023/24 has been published on six more indicators: homicides, violent offending, disproportionality, youth justice, education and poverty. Taken together, the latest data shows a mixed picture.

The indicators for homicides, violent offending, youth justice and poverty deteriorated in the past year:

• More children and young people were victims of homicide.
• More children were convicted and cautioned for violent offences.
• A greater share of children reoffended.
• A greater share of UK children were living in absolute poverty.

But there have been improvements in disproportionality and education:

• Black children made up a smaller share of children in custody.
• A smaller share of children in England were persistently absent from school.

View our core indicator dashboard below for detailed statistics.