Recent crime related articles and bulletins

Crime in England and Wales

Victim-based crime has generally fallen over the last ten years with some notable exceptions, such as sexual assault. Latest estimates from the CSEW showed that there were an estimated 8.8 million incidents of CSEW headline crime (which includes theft, robbery, criminal damage, fraud, computer misuse and violence with or without injury) in YE March 2024. This was 22% lower compared with YE March 2017 (the earliest comparable year for CSEW headline crime, including fraud and computer misuse).

Looking at the short-term picture, there has been no change across many crime types in the last year. However, we have seen falls in fraud while seeing increases in computer misuse and some forms of theft, such as shoplifting and theft from the person. Notably, shoplifting has continued to see increases and remains at its highest level in 20 years. In addition, robbery, offences involving knives or sharp instruments and offences involving firearms have also increased over the last year while remaining below pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels. Find out more in the full bulletin.

Exploring the feasibility of a survey measuring child abuse in the UK: June 2024

We are currently in phase two of our feasibility project, which includes developing and conducting a pilot survey with children and young people aged 11 to 25 years. The University of Edinburgh and the University of Greenwich were contracted to design two questionnaires: one for the school survey of those aged 11 to 16, and one for the online survey of those aged 16 to 25. They also designed the accompanying safeguarding procedure for the pilot. Within the ONS we have been developing the methodological and operational design for the pilot. Find out more in the full report.

A full list of our publications is available on the Crime and Justice webpage.