 of offenders were handed immediate prison terms in the last year, the lowest proportion since 2011, despite rising knife crime. It is down from a peak of 42.9 per cent of offenders jailed in 2019 and comes as the number of knife possession offences hit a record high of 24,546 in the year ending March 2022. There has also been a tandem slump in the proportion of offenders being charged, leading to warnings that criminals are becoming emboldened by the declining police prosecution rates. The proportion of knife possession offences resulting in a charge has nearly halved from 63.7 per cent in 2015-16 to 36.4 per cent in 2021-22. In London, the proportion of knife offences – defined as any attempted murder, homicide, threat to kill, assault, robbery or rape involving a knife – which result in a sanction or detection has fallen from 24.1 per cent in 2016 to 16.4 per cent, one in six. David Wilson, emeritus professor of criminology at Birmingham city university, said: 'We are seeing figures that point to a dysfunctional criminal justice system that has lost confidence in itself. 'The police no longer feel confident to do the job they did, barristers have been on strike, courts are plagued by delays and backlogs. It is a criminal justice system that is creaking. These figures show how much it has lost direction.' The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data also showed 45.5 per cent of repeat knife offenders avoided jail, the highest rate since 2016 when the Government introduced its 'two strikes and out' laws that require courts to impose a jail term 'unless it would not be in the interest of justice to do so'. This was up from a peak of just 26 per cent who avoided jail in 2020 as judges increasingly opted for suspended or community sentences to punish repeat knife offenders. System is 'collapsing' Harvey Redgrave, a former ad){kind=link}
Data show a ‘dysfunctional criminal justice system that has lost confidence in itself’, according to experts
The number of knife offenders going straight to jail has fallen to a ten-year low despite a surge in crime, new figures show.
Only a quarter (26.1 per cent) of offenders were handed immediate prison terms in the last year, the lowest proportion since 2011, despite rising knife crime.
It is down from a peak of 42.9 per cent of offenders jailed in 2019 and comes as the number of knife possession offences hit a record high of 24,546 in the year ending March 2022.
There has also been a tandem slump in the proportion of offenders being charged, leading to warnings that criminals are becoming emboldened by the declining police prosecution rates.