Police interventions for knife crimes have more than tripled in ten years

Police interventions related to crimes involving blade weapons have tripled in the last ten years in Catalonia.

According to data from the Mossos d'Esquadra police force obtained by the Catalan News Agency (ACN), the number of such incidents resulting in criminal procedures has risen from 501 in 2013, up to 1,638 in 2022.

Counting data up to the month of September, there have been 1,290 cases this year already, the highest number recorded between the months of January and September in the past ten years.

By type of crime where knives are involved, most were threats, counting for just over a quarter of them all (27.1%), while 9% were for domestic abuse.

The average age of those arrested for crimes with a knife is 34 years, a figure that has not changed much over the past decade.

The criminal proceedings opened by the Mossos d'Esquadra for crimes involving a knife have not stopped growing since 2016, with a significant jump from 536 to 924 cases in 2017.

These data refer to crimes which included the presence of a bladed weapon, and not to the set of police actions where a bladed weapon is involved. 

Knives seen more commonly

A Catalan police official in Alt Camp and Conca de Barberà, Xavier Hervàs, explained to the Catalan News Agency that in some cases, the knife is used directly as part of the crime, while in other cases, the knife is later found by police but it hasn't been used or displayed during the criminal action.

Automatic knives and blades measuring more than 11 centimeters are illegal, and their mere possession is also a criminal offense.

On the other hand, if the incident involves a "legal" bladed weapon, such as small knives or razors, police also intervene as they are still a potentially dangerous object, but the penalty is administrative.

Hervàs admits that the use of knives is becoming more common. "People have more blade weapons than they had before, and they also carry them in vehicles or on the street," he explained.

In addition, police have detected a "deterioration in neighborhood coexistence" since the pandemic, with more conflicting situations some of which end in a level of tension where these types of weapons can appear.