Almost half those charged with knife murders in London in the last three years had a prior knife crime record.
Of the 379 charged over fatal stabbings from November 2016 to the end of October 2019, 173, or 46%, had already committed a knife offence, Met Police figures show.
A spokesman for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan blamed Tory cuts to youth services and under-funding of police, prisons and rehabilitation, adding: “You can’t keep the public safe on the cheap.”
Barnardo’s chief Javed Khan said: “The Government needs to find long-term solutions to break the circle of violence.”
Tory London Assembly member Tony Devenish said: “Our prison system needs to both rehabilitate and punish knife offenders.”
However, the proportion of previous offenders charged with knife killings in the capital fell from 71% in the first year of the Met’s figures, to 37% in the last.
Across England and Wales, 22,036 dangerous weapon offences were dealt with in the year to the end of June 2019, Ministry of Justice figures show.
Some 38% (8,446) resulted in a custodial term, compared with 23% for the same period in 2009, while the average term rose from 5.9 months to 8.1.
The proportion of repeat offenders sentenced who had previous convictions for similar crimes rose to a record 29%.
