Knife crime offences 2014 to March 2019 (FOI)

​Request

I am writing to obtain a detailed breakdown of knife offences in Jersey.

When I write knife crime offences, I refer to offences in which a knife / sharp object is involved.

Jersey does not publically release detail on this, but if possible I am looking for offences involving a knife: i) homicide, ii) threat to kill, iii) assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm, iv) robbery and v) rape and sexual assault.

If this breakdown is not available, please supply data which you are able to supply which best captures this request – please do get in contact if this warrants further discussion.

Please supply data on:

A

Please can you supply a breakdown of knife crime offences for the calendar years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to the end of March 2019.

B

Please can you give a breakdown for the calendar years 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and to the end of March 2019 by individual community of knife crime offences, broken down by the number resulting in a charge or summons.

C

Please can you give a breakdown for 2018 calendar year of knife crime offences by ethnicity of the victims; please use the categories a) black, b) white, c) Asian, d) mixed and e) other (as per ONS categories).

D

Please can you give a breakdown for 2018 calendar year of knife crime offences by ethnicity of the suspects; please use the following categories:

• black

• white

• Asian

• mixed race

• other (as per ONS categories)

E

Please can you give a breakdown for 2018 calendar year of knife crime offences by age of the victims please use the following categories:

• under 18

• 25 to 34

• 35 to 44

• 45 to 54

• 55+

F

Please can you give a breakdown for 2018 calendar year of knife crime offences by age of the suspects; please use the following categories

• under 18

• 18 to 24

• 25 to 34

• 35 to 44

• 45 to 54

• 55+

G

Please can you give a breakdown for 2018 calendar year of knife crime offences by gender of the victims

H

Please can you give a breakdown for 2018 calendar year of knife crime offences by gender of the suspects

Response

A

Offences where the use or possession of a knife / bladed instrument was reported and recorded as a crime.

B

Reports where a charge or summons followed can only be provided for 2018. To do so for all years requested would result in the time limit for Freedom of Information responses being exceeded.

C to H 

Offences recorded by police in 2018 where a knife or sharp object was reportedly used. Table by suspect, victim, gender, age and ethnicity.

The number of suspects will differ from the number of victims as some crimes have more than one victim. Crimes such as possession of an offensive weapon may have no victim.

In 11 cases above, the suspect was charged or reported for an offence. In many cases, the report relates to a domestic situation or within employment whereby the police attended the original incident only for the witness(s) to retract their complaint at a later stage. This may negate a charge or prosecution.

Information held by the States of Jersey Police Firearms department advise that a response was considered in the below number of cases. Officers who are authorised to carry firearms/Taser can self-deploy if the circumstances require an immediate response. Not all calls would result in a crime being raised. E.g. if no trace of an individual was found when a call reported somebody with a weapon.

Article applied

Article 16 A scheduled public authority may refuse to supply information if cost excessive

(1) A scheduled public authority that has been requested to supply information may refuse to supply the information if it estimates that the cost of doing so would exceed an amount determined in the manner prescribed by Regulations.

Regulation 2 (1) of the Freedom of Information (Costs) (Jersey) Regulations 2014 allows an authority to refuse a request for information where the estimated cost of dealing with the request would exceed the specified amount of the cost limit of £500. This is the estimated cost of one person spending 12.5 working hours in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting the information.