Nearly one in seven robberies in Avon and Somerset involves a knife, new figures have revealed.
Official crime data released in April showed there were a total of 596 knife crimes in the policing area last year - up from 550 in 2017.
Now a breakdown of the figures has identified which crimes in Avon and Somerset are most likely to be carried out with a knife.
It shows there were a total of 196 knifepoint robberies, roughly four a week on average.
They made up 14 per cent of the total 1,447 robberies across Avon and Somerset during 2018.
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Of the 15 homicides in Avon and Somerset in 2018, eight also involved a knife or other sharp object.
The data shows there were 331 knife-related assaults with injury or intent, 41 threats to kill that involved a knife, and 12 cases of knifepoint rape or sexual assault.
The overall number of knife crimes - 596 - works out as an average of 11 a week during 2018.
The figure has been rising during the past decade.
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There were 514 knife crimes in Avon and Somerset in the year to March 2017, 397 in the year to March 2015, and 464 in the year to March 2013.
Part of that increase could be due to a growing focus on identifying and prosecuting knife crime among police officers, rather than an underlying increase in actual incidents.
Knife crime on the rise
Across England as a whole, there were 18,778 knife-point robberies during 2018.
They made up 23 per cent of the 80,809 robberies that happened, in total, over the course of the year.
There were also 253 homicides that involved a knife.
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In total, the figures showed, there was a six per cent increase in all crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument, with a total of 40,829 offences in 2018.
This figure excludes Greater Manchester Police, as the force has changed their methodology after identifying an undercount of crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument.
'Poverty of hope'
Barnado's chief executive Javed Khan said the figures confirmed “we are now living through a knife crime crisis".
He added: “Children are not born with knives in their hands.
“They don't feel safe. And they don't believe there's an alternative on offer - too many see little or no possibility of a positive future - what we call a 'poverty of hope'.”
Policing minister Nick Hurd, responding to overall increase in crime nationally, said the Government was taking "urgent and unprecedented action to reverse this terrible trend".
