Nearly nine in 10 unsolved London murder victims are from minority ethnic backgrounds, according to new research highlighting a sharp gap in homicide outcomes across the capital. The analysis found that Black Londoners are particularly overrepresented among unresolved cases, although researchers and the Metropolitan Police say factors including the nature of street violence, fear among witnesses and low trust in policing can make some investigations harder to solve.
The findings were published on Sunday, 23 August, by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), which examined London homicide cases over a decade and compared unsolved killings with wider homicide figures.
People with information about an unresolved killing are being encouraged to come forward to police. The research does not establish that a victim’s ethnicity itself causes a murder to remain unsolved, nor does it prove that detectives devote less effort to cases involving minority ethnic victims.
Between 2019 and 2023, non-White British people accounted for 61.7% of reported homicide victims in London but 92.9% of victims in cases that remained unsolved, according to AOAV.
Black Londoners made up about 40.1% of all homicide victims during the same period but 73.4% of victims in unresolved murder cases. The average age of victims in unsolved cases was 28, compared with about 36 across London homicides generally.
Shootings prove harder to solve
The type of killing appears to be an important part of the disparity. Between 2019 and 2023, shootings accounted for only 8.7% of all London homicides, but they represented 38% of the 41 cases from that period that remained unsolved. Stabbings were much more common overall but were less heavily represented among unresolved cases compared with shootings.
Gun attacks can present particular difficulties for detectives. They may happen quickly in public places, offenders can hide their faces and escape on motorbikes or e-bikes, while firearms can leave less evidence connecting an attacker directly to a victim.
Witnesses may also fear reprisals or be reluctant to speak to police. AOAV said these factors could help explain why young Black men, who are disproportionately affected by some forms of street and gun violence, also appear more frequently among unresolved homicide victims.
The Metropolitan Police has acknowledged that confidence in policing remains lower among some of the communities most affected by serious violence.
Commander Paul Brogden, the Met’s head of homicide, said serious violence disproportionately affected some communities, particularly young Black men, and that lower trust could make victims and witnesses less willing to provide information.
He said: “We pursue every case relentlessly, regardless of a victim’s background, and no investigation is ever closed.”
What does ‘unsolved’ mean?
The term unsolved murder does not necessarily mean police have stopped investigating or have no idea who may have committed the crime.
AOAV classified a case as unsolved if nobody was facing an active homicide prosecution and nobody had been convicted or otherwise held criminally responsible when the research was completed.
That category can include cases where no suspect has been identified, a suspect was arrested but not charged, a prosecution collapsed, an accused person was acquitted or a suspected offender is believed to have left the UK.
Researchers used the publicly available MurderMap database and checked individual cases against news reports and later developments. AOAV also acknowledged limitations in determining ethnicity because its classifications sometimes depended on descriptions in published reports rather than how individuals identified themselves.
Across the longer period from 2015 to 2024, AOAV identified 1,222 homicides in London, of which 110 — about 9% — remained unresolved at the time of publication.
London murder rate has fallen
The findings come despite a substantial fall in the overall number of killings in London.
The Metropolitan Police recorded 97 homicides in 2025, down from 109 in 2024 and the lowest annual total since 2014. The force said 95% of its homicide investigations in 2025 resulted in what it describes as a positive outcome.
The Met has also said young Black men remain disproportionately exposed to serious violence. In August, the force said Black males under 25 were estimated to be 9.1 times more likely to become murder victims than White males of the same age group in 2026.
New Daily Prime has previously covered serious violence and criminal justice cases in Britain, including a weapons case involving a man jailed after taking a hatchet, knife and petrol to a Greater Manchester school and the death of an elderly woman following an assault in Wiltshire.
It has also reported on a South London criminal case in which two men were jailed for raping a teenage girl in Brixton.
AOAV said the figures risk worsening perceptions that some communities receive unequal protection if families repeatedly see killings go unresolved. However, the data alone cannot establish whether racial discrimination is responsible for the difference in outcomes.
The organisation called for stronger witness protection, improved community relationships, more specialist resources for firearms investigations and greater investment in preventing young people from becoming involved in serious violence.
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