Fall in killings across South Yorkshire, despite high profile murders, according to latest homicide figures

South Yorkshire saw a fall in the number of reported killings last year, new crime figures new

Across England and Wales, police logged the lowest number of homicide victims since 2016-17, excluding 2020-21, which was affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

Office for National Statistics figures show South Yorkshire Police recorded 20 people dying because of a homicide incident in the year to March – down from 21 the year before.

It meant there were 13.2 victims per million residents over the last three years.

Nationally, the number of victims fell by 14 per cent from 684 to 590, with 10.2 homicides logged per million people.

Homicide figures are a total of murder, manslaughter and infanticide incidents, where one incident can have more than one victim.

The figures also show a black person is more than four times more likely to be killed by homicide than a white person, with 39.8 victims per million people, compared with 8.7 victims per million white people.

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A Home Office spokesperson said: "Everybody has the right to be safe in their neighbourhoods and communities and we are pleased to see overall homicides down year on year by 14 per cent, but we are not complacent.

"Differences in rates between ethnic groups are likely to reflect a range of factors, including differing age profiles, geographical distributions and socioeconomic differences.

"Our programme of activity and interventions, such as Violence Reduction Units, are targeted in hot-spot areas based on the prevalence of crime and are designed to help address homicide and drug misuse among other crimes."