“The latest crime figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) offer a grim outlook on the state of criminal justice in England and Wales. Almost as if to head off criticism, the bulletin starts: ‘Over recent decades, we’ve seen continued falls in overall levels of crime but in the last year the trend has been more stable’.

Isn’t that an odd way of introducing a rise in serious violent offences?”

Professor James Treadwell explores whether ‘Knife Crime and Homicide Figures Reveal the Violence of Austerity’ on The Conversation.