Published -
April 3, 2025 This is an update to the statistics published in our Beyond the Headlines report. This update includes latest data on core indicators for knife crime, policing, health, children’s services and the youth sector in England and Wales.
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.
Core Indicators Dashboard
For more details, see the full briefing or our core indicators dashboard.
Children affected by violence
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Homicides
16–24-year-old homicide victims (England and Wales)
- Latest value
- 105
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)6%pre-covid (2019/20)-26%10 years before (2013/14)9% -
Knife crime
Hospital admissions for knife assault (0-17-year-olds)
- Latest value
- 509
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)9%pre-covid (2019/20)-8%10 years before (2013/14)58% -
Violent Offending
Proven violent offences committed by children
- Latest value
- 15,542
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)9%pre-covid (2019/20)-26%10 years before (2013/14)-38% -
Disproportionality
Proportion of children in custody who are Black
- Latest value
- 23.7%
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)-2.1%pre-covid (2019/20)-4.5%10 years before (2013/14)1.3%
Sectors & Society
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Policing
Recorded crimes that were successfully investigated crimes
- Latest value
- 10%
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)0.8%pre-covid (2019/20)-0.8%10 years before (2013/14)-15.1% -
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2020/21)0.3%pre-covid (2019/20)-1.7%10 years before (2012/13)-8.5%
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Indicator performancenachange compared toprevious year (2021/22)N/Apre-covid (2019/20)N/A10 years before (2012/13)N/A
-
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)-1.3%pre-covid (2019/20)9.1%10 years before (2013/14)9.3%
-
Indicator performanceworseningchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)3%pre-covid (2019/20)49%10 years before (2016/17*)105%
-
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)-0.2%pre-covid (2019/20)4.5%10 years before (2013/14)21.6%
-
Youth sector
Local authority expenditure for youth services
- Latest value
- £474m
- Latest Year
- March 2024
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)-0.3%pre-covid (2019/20)7%10 years before (2013/14)-49.5% -
Indicator performancemixedchange compared toprevious year (2022/23)1.4%pre-covid (2019/20)1.6%10 years before (2013/14)-1.9%