This site uses cookies

Some of these cookies are essential, while others help us to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.

For more detailed information please check our Cookie notice


Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies enable core functionality. This website cannot function properly without these cookies.


Cookies that measure website use

If you provide permission, we will use Google Analytics to measure how you use the website so we can improve it based on our understanding of user needs. Google Analytics sets cookies that store anonymised information about how you got to the site, the pages you visit, how long you spend on each page and what you click on while you’re visiting the site.

Using UK Data Service data to explore weapon carrying among young people

Type of case study: Research

About the research

Beyond the Crime Survey for England and Wales (formerly the British Crime Survey), other datasets within the wider UK Data Service collection can also be used to explore concepts within the theme of crime. For example, one topic currently of great concern to the UK Government and the public is the extent to which young people feel the need to carry a knife for their own protection.

Finding suitable data sources The Offending, Crime and Justice Survey (OCJS), conducted by the UK Home Office, surveys around 5,000 young people aged 10-25 years in England and Wales about their lifestyles, behaviour, attitudes towards, and experiences of, crime and offending. The OCJS includes questions on knife-carrying, covering prevalence and frequency, and type of knife carried.

Data from the 2004, 2005 and 2006 OCJS have shown some consistency over time, in that around 3.5-4 per cent of respondents each year admitted to carrying a knife, with the highest prevalence of knife-carrying occurring among the 15-18 year-old age group. Just under half of those who had admitted to carrying a knife had done so ‘once or twice’ rather than more regularly, and the majority of knives carried were of the pen-knife type.

Impact

How are data used for research

An example of how data sources such as the OCJS can be used for research is demonstrated in ‘Tackling knife crime’: A review of literature on knife crime in the UK, a high-profile report published in 2007 for the Royal Armouries Museum.

This report gathered information from several sources, including the OCJS, to examine the nature and extent of knife crime, the reasons why knives were carried, and who might be most affected by the problem of knife crime. It also examined potentially effective ways to reduce knife crime.

youth sitting

Among other conclusions, the report called for more research into the motivations for carrying knives to enrich the data sources with more detailed contextual information, and noted that “Young people who carry knives are more likely to do so if they have been victims of a crime. They often do so because they feel unsafe, and easy distinctions between victim and offender do not necessarily apply.” (p.31)

Other sources of data – how does Scotland compare?

The Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime (ESYTC) is a longitudinal study set in Scotland. It periodically surveys a cohort of approximately 4,300 young people who were aged between 11.5 and 12.5 years in 1998, resident in Edinburgh. The ESYTC dataset currently held by ESDS comprises data from the first four waves of the study, up to 2001 and includes data on knife-carrying by cohort members, gathered as part of one question covering weapons of all kinds. The question demonstrates the development of survey methodology over time, in that it has become more complex as the cohort members have grown older.

  • for the first wave of the survey, the question covered prevalence and frequency of weapon-carrying, whether the respondent was caught with the weapon by an adult or police, and asked respondents to write down the kind of weapon carried
  • the second wave question gathered further information, categorising weapons carried by type, including differing size of knife, air rifles and metal weapons (such as hammers), and also asked respondents what consequences they had faced if caught with the weapon
  • by the fourth sweep, when the cohort members were aged 13 or 14, the question also covered whether the weapon was used and the kind of injuries inflicted with it; at this stage, the question produces a rich source of data on weapon-carrying among cohort members, and the consequences

Comparing data sources

The ESYTC and the OCJS are of a markedly differing design; for example ESYTC cohort members are at the lower end of the age group covered by the OCJS, and sampled from a much smaller geographic area. However, the information about weapon-carrying yielded by the ESYTC, design effects aside, provides an example of the type of detail and context noted by the CCJS report.

The Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research (SCCJR) is currently undertaking a major project, Youth Gangs and Knife Carrying, aimed at improving the understanding of these concepts in Scotland. The research will use case studies in several locations to produce an ethnographic account of gangs and knife carrying in these settings and recommend possible interventions. A principal investigator of the ESYTC is part of the SCCJR project team, and similar data sources could provide contextual background for such a project.

Finding further data sources on related concepts

Beyond the OCJS and ESYTC, other datasets in the UK Data Service collection also include questions related to knives and other weapons; examples include the Young People and Crime Survey, 1992-1993 (a precursor to the OCJS), and the Cambridge Study in Delinquent Development, 1961-1981, which also focus on youth. Examples of qualitative studies covering similar themes include Conflicts and Violence in Prison, 1998-2000, and Context and Motive in the Perpetuation of Racial Harassment and Violence in North Staffordshire, 2004.

One of the most effective ways to find data on crime within our Data Catalogue is to search for ‘crime’ or the using the subject facet of ‘Law, crime and legal systems’ . This will find studies (including the OCJS and the ESYTC) which are largely concerned with crime or law-related issues, rather than those where such topics form only a small part of the study.