Teenagers accused in 67 stabbings in 2022, including 10 which were fatal

Knife violence among teenagers is on the rise, according to an analysis by ANP. The police accused the group of younger people in about seventy stabbing incidents in 2022, the highest number in recent years. Ten people died from those incidents in 2022, more than in 2020 and 2021 combined. Youth care workers previously issued warnings about young people more often being found in possession of weapons.

Police reported 67 stabbing incidents with teenage suspects last year. The final known case in 2022 took place in Bladel, Noord-Brabant on New Year's Eve where an 18-year-old boy was stabbed to death. A resident of the municipality, also 18, was arrested for the crime, but the motive is still unknown. At the end of October, a 14-year-old boy was stabbed to death at his school in Hoorn in an incident that shocked area residents, which led to the arrest of a 16-year-old boy. Other fatal stabbings in 2022 took place in Middelburg, Amsterdam, Horst, Rosmalen, Breda, Vlaardingen, Vlissingen and Nijmegen.

In all of 2021, according to police reports, teenagers were involved in nearly 50 stabbings. Three of these had fatal consequences. A 17-year-old boy was killed in an attack in The Hague. Friends of that victim were said to have stabbed a 14-year-old boy at another location in The Hague shortly before, for which his friends then wanted to take revenge. In Rozenburg, a village in the municipality of Rotterdam, a 17-year-old allegedly stabbed a 21-year-old to death, and in Rijswijk a 26-year-old walking in the park was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old seemingly at random.

In 2020, the police reported nearly sixty stabbing incidents carried out by teenagers, which caused four deaths in total. Two fatal stabbings that year happened in Rotterdam, the other two in Alphen aan den Rijn and at the Scheveningen Pier. There were six deaths out of almost sixty cases of knife violence in 2019. Three people died that year in The Hague, with the others killed in Amsterdam, Breda and Hoofddorp.

In total, the police reported 228 stabbing incidents by teenagers in the past four years. Most of these happened in Rotterdam. The city has had thirty reported cases in the past four years. This is followed by The Hague with 26 incidents. Amsterdam had nine stabbing incidents involving teenage suspects in the past four years. There were six incidents in Breda, Spijkenisse and Goes, and five in Hoofddorp. Groningen, Zoetermeer, Purmerend and Middelburg had four cases and Beverwijk, Rijswijk, Roosendaal, Schiedam, Vlaardingen and Zaandam each had three.

Zuid-Holland leads the list among the provinces. There were a total of 94 reported stabbing incidents by teenagers in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. Noord-Holland had 47 cases, Noord-Brabant 22, Gelderland 18, Zeeland 17, while Groningen, Limburg and Utrecht each had six. That was followed by Flevoland with five, three in Overijssel, and two in both Drenthe and Friesland.

The figures are based on reports from the police in which the ages of the suspects were mentioned, or in which the police explicitly said that the suspects are teenagers, minors, boys or girls. When the police left this unstated, the incident was not included on the list. The overview also does not include whether the Public Prosecution Service has prosecuted the suspect, or whether a suspect has been convicted or acquitted. As a result, more data is needed before a final accounting can be made.