Data on knife crime in the United States are collected by the federal government and available from the Department of Justice in a program called Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR)
In the November issue of Knife Magazine, attorney and knife expert Dan Lawson examines “Statistics and Steak Knives” how the data collected lumps many items into the category often used to discuss knife crime.
The program may generate a reliable set of statistics regarding the number of victims cut, stabbed, or so threatened. It does not provide any data regarding the type of cutting or stabbing weapon involved. The crime weapon data category for crimes involving “knives” is labeled “knives and other cutting instruments” and includes:
Weapons which are used as cutting or stabbing objects, e.g., knives, razors, hatchets, axes, cleavers, scissors, glass, broken bottles, ice picks, and other such instruments. A ring, key, ball-point pen, etc., should be classified as an “other cutting instrument” only if it was used as a cutting or stabbing object.
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