Professor John Robertson OBA

On BBC Breakfast this morning, the above story and from BBC Devon, two days ago:

An American university and dog trainers in Plymouth are researching how dogs could help police find knives used to commit crime. The dogs involved in the research project do not detect the knives themselves but a chemical compound created by the blades when they make contact with human skin. The smell of a knife in contact with human skin has been synthesised into a liquid form at Texas Tech University and the dog trainers use that to train the dogs, said trainer Brian Mence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgjp5w1y81o

Why have the researchers not chosen Scotland as a location?

Here are some good reasons many are not aware of thanks to a media silence on them in Scotland:

From a Police Scotland FoI request – 25-1604 – Crime stats – Murder by Knife – Age 10-20 – 3 yrs. Stop Search Stats – Knife – age 10-20 – 3 yrs, published today:

Your recent request for information is replicated below, together with our response.

Over the last three years

1.    How many fatal stabbings by the use of a knife have there been in Scotland of young people aged between 10 and 20. Broken down by geographical areas, age and by gender.

In response to your request for the number of fatal knife stabbings of young people aged between 10 and 20 years old, over the last three years I can confirm:

From 01/01/2022 to 31/12/2022, there were no fatal stabbings of young people aged between 10 and 20.

From 01/01/2023 to 31/12/2023, there was one incident which occurred in Edinburgh. The victim was an 18-year-old male, and the male accused was 19 years old. This case has been resolved.

From 01/01/2024 to 31/12/2024, there was one incident which occurred in Glasgow. The victim was a 16-year-old male, and the male accused was 13 years old. This case has been resolved.

From 01/01/2025 to 27/05/2025, there was [sic] two incidents:

1) One incident occurred in Glasgow. The victim was a 15-year-old male, and the males accused were 14 years old and 16 years old. This case is awaiting trial.

2) One incident occurred in Ayrshire. The victim was 16 years old, and the males accused were 17 years old, 17 years old and 14 years old. This case is awaiting trial.

https://www.scotland.police.uk/access-to-information/freedom-of-information/disclosure-log/disclosure-log-2025/june/25-1604-crime-stats-murder-by-knife-age-10-20-3-yrs-stop-search-stats-knife-age-10-20-3-yrs/

So, 0, 1, 1, 2 – a statistically insignificant set of data, telling us that fatal youth knife crime in Scotland is extremely rare.

Here is a statistically significant trend telling us something, from Homicide in Scotland 2023-24 published in October 2024:

Source: https://www.gov.scot/publications/homicide-scotland-2023-24/

What is it telling us? Homicide by young people is in steep decline, fact.

And, knife crime more generally, by young people?

From Knife crime statistics: FOI release published in October 2024 asking:

The number of knife crime offences [homicides], broken down by offence, age of suspect, and ethnic appearance of suspect, for each year for the last ten years (broken down by year), up to the most recent data.

https://www.gov.scot/publications/foi-202400427434/July 2, 2025johnrobertson834crime, news, true-crimeEdit

The recent trends are clear:

1. a four year falling trend from 40 cases in 2019/2020 to 37, 26 and 25 in following years;
2. a three year falling trend among 16-24 year-olds, from 13 in 2020/2021 to 8 and 6 in the following years;
3. zero cases among minors for the last three years after 1 case in each of the previous two;
4. a reliable, statistically significant fall in the 5 year-average, from 35.8 five to ten years ago to 33.4 in the last five years.