A CROSS THE country, some children are becoming victims, others perpetrators. On November 3rd a 15-year-old was stabbed in the chest in Swindon. Two days later, an 18-year-old was knifed in the leg outside a school in Bedford. On November 6th two teenagers suspected of stabbing a younger boy in Manchester were arrested. The boy was struck several times in front of other children out for Halloween.

But the media has focused on London, where there have been 119 murders this year, about the same as the number killed in the whole of 2017, excluding terrorist attacks. Four in ten victims were 24 or younger. In the six days from October 31st, there were five fatal stabbings in the capital. The hosts of “Good Morning Britain”, a television programme, berated Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London. “Sort it out, Mr Mayor!” one said.

This narrow focus is partly justified. Stabbings are far more common in London than anywhere else in the country, and not only because it is so much bigger: it sees more violence per person than less populous areas. In 2017-18 it accounted for 22% of all murders and 36% of knife crime in England and Wales, though Londoners make up 15% of the population. Attacks in the capital also appear to be more ferocious than those elsewhere. Its murder count has risen more sharply than the country’s.

Yet the biggest increases in knife crime have been outside London (see chart). Since 2010-11 it has risen by a tenth in the capital, and by a third in the rest of England and Wales. During the same period, knife crime leapt more sharply than the national average in the patches around Sheffield, Leeds and Liverpool. The number of stabbings began to tick up in North Wales, Norfolk and Essex well before they did in London. Jacqueline Sebire, assistant chief constable of Bedfordshire Police, recently dealt with four stabbings in 24 hours. “It’s wrong that people are placing the sole focus on London,” she says.