Knife crime is now at record highs - but what is driving the increase?

Knife crime stands at record highs at over 40,000 offences in the last year, with London being at the epicentre of the violence.

Just this week, on August 1, a 23-year-old man was stabbed to death in Camberwell. 

In July, dozens of others were impacted by knife crime in the capital, including a teenage boy who was stabbed on a busy Islington street, a 17-year-old in Camberwell during the day and a middle-aged man inside a Leicester Square casino.

With 40,147 offences, knife crime in England and Wales is now at its highest level since the data began to be collected in 2011.

There has been a 56.9 per cent increase in knife crime since 2014, when a low of 25,588 offences was recorded by police.

In the last year alone, the police recorded a 16.2 per cent increase in knife crime - from 34,537 offences in England and Wales, to 40,147.

The surge in knife crime has triggered an increase in murder, with the number of homicides rising by 12 per cent to 701 - the highest for a decade.

Murders have increased by 38 per cent since a low was recorded by police in 2014. They now stand at their highest level since 2008, with London and other cities bearing the brunt of the violent crime wave.