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One in four offenders caught with knife gets a caution
Martin Bentham12 Mar 2009
A quarter of knife offenders are still being let off with a caution despite government promises that they would face "severe" punishments, figures reveal today.
Statistics released by the Ministry of Justice show that 1,706 people caught with a blade during the final three months of last year - equivalent to 25 per cent of those convicted of the offence - received a caution.
The treatment of juveniles was even more lenient with 34 per cent of those caught with blades escaping with a caution during the same period and only eight per cent being sent to jail.
A total of 8,368 cautions were issued to knife offenders for the whole of last year, meaning that they did not even go before a court despite admitting the crime.
Ministers today said the figures showed that more offenders were receiving an immediate custodial term and that the prison sentences handed down are getting longer.
In the final three months of the year, for example, 1,386 offenders caught with a blade or other offensive weapon (21 per cent of the total convicted for these crimes) received an immediate jail sentence.
That compares with 1,125 people (17 per cent of those convicted) who received an immediate custodial term for the offences during the same period in 2007.
For those who did go to jail, 399 offenders received a sentence of six months or more in the last three months of last year, compared with 153 who were handed such a penalty a year earlier. There was also an increase in the length of community sentences.
Justice Secretary Jack Straw said a pledge by Gordon Brown last June that knife offenders would face "a presumption of either prison or a tough community payback" was being delivered.
A total of 4,899 people were treated in hospital for stab wounds between December 2007 and November last year, according to the NHS Information Centre.
That is an eight per cent drop on the previous year's figure (5,350). The number of teenagers with stab wounds fell by 14 per cent, from 1,159 to 995, in the same period.
Reader views (3)
How many of those cautione then went on to commit a knife related crime...absolutely no deterrent...lets see the statistics on this then.
- Rosie, watford, 08/05/2009 16:48
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There are far worse crimes going unpunished.
Objects do not kill people, People kill people.
- Trunk, US, 12/03/2009 23:30
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Is there a rumour going around that from April 6th 2009 offenders will receive "gift vouchers" in the hope that they will buy something useful instead of knives?
- Fraser, Telford Park, 12/03/2009 17:20
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