More than two-thirds of knife crime convictions in Nottinghamshire were first-time offenders

Anti-knife crime charity The Ben Kinsella Trust said urgent change is needed to address this trend, as it suggests “for some, carrying knives has become normalised behaviour”.

Ministry of Justice figures show 378 first-time knife criminals in Nottinghamshire went through the criminal justice system in the year ending March 2023. They account for 70 per cent of all those found guilty of knife and offensive weapon offences. Of these, only 13 per cent were jailed immediately.

Patrick Green, trust chief executive, said this showed the law is not providing a sufficient deterrent and many first-time knife criminals would go on to become serial offenders.

Across England and Wales, the proportion of offenders sent into immediate custody for a knife offence fell from 37 per cent in the year ending March 2020 to 30 per cent this year.

In Nottinghamshire, offenders were cautioned or sentenced 541 times for knife-related crimes. Of those, 130, 24 per cent, resulted in immediate jail sentences – fewer than in 2019-20, when the figure stood at 32 per cent.

Nottinghamshire Police caught children aged under 18 with knives 109 times in 2022-23, a decrease from 114 the year before.

Mr Green said: “One possibility is young people are feeling increasingly unsafe and are mistakenly carrying knives for protection.

“Protecting our youth and fostering a safe environment for all should be a government priority.”

He said children are also influenced by social media, which “often portrays knives in a glamorised way” and said young people must be provided with the necessary support, education, and opportunities to steer them away from violence.

Of those cautioned or sentenced, 91 per cent were men, up on 88 per cent the year before.

Overall, there were 19,086 knife offences that resulted in a caution or sentence in England and Wales to March this year, which was a slight decrease on last year’s figure of 19,674.