A new report by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) has found that homicide cases involving three or more defendants in England and Wales tripled between 1984 and 2024, from 18 to 54 per year, now accounting for nearly 10% of all homicide prosecutions. Joint enterprise (a legal doctrine allowing individuals to be convicted of crimes they did not physically commit if they were present or associated with the main perpetrator) has also produced harsher sentences over that period, with 42% of secondary manslaughter defendants receiving over 10 years in prison in 2022, up from just 7% in 2012. The report warns that Black people are three times more likely than white people to be convicted under group prosecutions, and calls for legal reform to ensure individuals are held accountable only for their own actions, including a separate sentencing framework for secondary parties.