Is knife crime in Australia getting worse after a spate of recent stabbings?

A series of high-profile stabbing incidents in Australia, including this year’s Bondi Junction attacks, the Wakeley attack on Bishop Mari Emmanuel and last year’s stabbing murder of New South Wales paramedic Steven Tougher, have sparked fears that knife crime is spiraling out of control runs.

But is that true? What is the history of knife crime in Australia? And how does knife crime here compare to other countries, such as Great Britain and Canada?

Crime trends in Australia

Overall, crime has fallen across Australia since 2009.

Over the same period, homicide rates have remained relatively stable.

Other crimes that often involve knives, such as attempted murder and armed robbery, have declined since 2004.

However, between 2010 and 2023, knives were the most commonly used weapon in murders in Australia.

So while official police statistics show that knife crime is not getting worse across Australia, the fact that knives have been used in a number of high-profile murder cases could partly explain the growing concern.

What type of knives are used?

Just as there are different types of firearms, there are also different types of knives.

Knives are also referred to by police as blades or sharp implements, a term that also includes axes, tomahawks, machetes, ‘zombie knives’, bayonets, swords and even syringes.

Comparisons with Great Britain and Canada

Unlike Australia, knife crime has risen in both Britain and Canada.

Britain was shocked at the end of July this year when three young girls were stabbed to death and others seriously injured during a dance class in Southport.

Shortly afterwards, an 11-year-old Australian girl survived a knife attack in broad daylight in London’s busy Leicester Square.

There are four reasons why there has been increasing attention to knife crime in Britain in recent years.

Firstly, in London, knife crime has increased by 18% between 2022 and 2023.

Secondly, crime in England and Wales has increased overall from around 4 million crimes in 2012 to 6.65 million in 2023-2024.

Consistent with these two factors was the removal of approximately 20,000 police officers between 2011 and 2019, although this trend has reversed somewhat in recent years.

Finally, and unsurprisingly, Britain’s strict gun laws mean that guns are rarely used in murders, compared to knives.

Canada has seen an overall crime increase of 10% since 2020. But stabbing deaths have increased dramatically over the past decade – up 72.5% between 2012 and 2022.

Despite the increase in knife deaths in Canada, the Canadian Parliament, unlike Britain, has not introduced specific legislation on knife crime.

However, police numbers in Canada have remained stable over the past decade.

One possible explanation for the increase in knife crime in Canada is a combination of a lack of specific knife legislation and stagnant police numbers. The police may not be able to keep pace or focus on knife crime, unlike in Britain.

Knife crime is not new

In 1669, King Louis XIV of France saw the connection between pointed house knives on his dining table and violence. He was so concerned that he passed a law requiring the points of all table and street knives to be sharpened smooth.

That’s why we have round dinner knives these days.

A century ago in Australia, knife crime came to public attention with a hybrid slang term called ‘Razorhurst’, when residents of the Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst demanded politicians tackle violent crime. Criminal gangs in the 1920s regularly used killer razors to slice open the faces of their victims.

What cemented the popularity of killer razors, as opposed to guns, was the introduction of the NSW 1927 Pistol Licensing Act.

This legislation was introduced to specifically discourage men who had become familiar with the use of firearms during the First World War from using weapons after returning home to Australia.

This law only led to the entrenched use of killer razors, which turned into the use of knives instead of firearms.

How laws have changed in recent decades

In modern times in Australia, knife laws have changed significantly following the stabbing murder of NSW police officer David Carty in 1997.

Some of these changes included the ban on ‘credit card knives’ and knives disguised as non-weapons, while making it illegal to sell knives to people under the age of 18. It also became illegal to carry a pocket knife in public unless it was for a specific person. , lawful purpose.

The death of Jack Beasley in Queensland in 2019 resulted in “Jack’s Law” legislation. And in the past year, most Australian state and territory governments have introduced new laws to tackle and prevent knife crime.

There have also been calls for police to make widespread use of electronic, portable metal detectors to check whether someone is carrying a knife, as has recently happened in NSW.

The reality of knife crime in Australia

So if knife crime hasn’t risen as much as in places like Britain or Canada, what gives the impression that Australia is suffering from an epidemic of knife crime?

The recent series of high-profile incidents has sparked widespread public concern, which in turn has prompted calls from politicians to crack down on knife crime. This could be an easy political victory.

Since every kitchen and garage in Australia has more than one knife or blade, removing them is not an option.

But the fear of knife crime is greater than the reality that we are falling victim to it.