Cornwall and Devon homicide rates show a decline, reaching the lowest since 2016, per Home Office data released.
Home Office data shows 570 homicide victims, covering the year ending in March 2024. That number is down three percent from the prior year, which had 585 victims. This latest number is the lowest since 2016.
Nine homicides happened in Devon and Cornwall. The drop was because of fewer female victims, their numbers falling by ten percent. Male victim numbers stayed about the same, increasing slightly from 412 to 414.
Most homicide victims were male, at seventy-three percent. Twenty-seven percent were women. Over a third of female victims died because their partner or ex-partner likely killed them.
If police identified a suspect, this was the most common link. Eleven percent of female victims were killed by a parent. Six percent were killed by a son or daughter. Only four percent were killed by a stranger.
Only two percent of male victims were killed by a partner. Instead, friends and acquaintances were often responsible, accounting for twenty-three percent. Strangers killed twenty percent of male victims.
Cornwall had four homicides, while Devon had the other five. Police use interactive maps to show where homicides happen.
Most suspects were male in cases where victims were either male or female. Ninety-three percent of suspects killed men, while eighty-eight percent of suspects killed women.
Young adults died most often, specifically those sixteen to twenty-four years old, with 105 victims. The next most affected age group was 35–44-year-olds, comprising 103 victims.
Sixty-four homicide victims were teens between thirteen and nineteen. Eighty-three percent of these deaths involved knives or other sharp instruments.
Sharp instruments caused a lot of deaths. Half of male victims died this way, representing fifty percent. For women, it was less, although still high, with thirty-five percent of female victims dying that way.