Violent Crime in England and Wales: year ending December 2017

Violent crime including minor assaults, harassment and psychological abuse, wounding, physical assault and death.

Released date: 26 April 2018
Next release: 19 July 2018 (provisional)

This is part of the latest release | View previous releases

Little change in levels of violent crime in recent years

England and Wales, year ending December 1981 to year ending December 2017

Source: Crime Survey for England and Wales, Office for National Statistics

Around 2 in every 100 adults (16 and over) were a victim of violent crime.
There were an estimated 1.2 million incidents of violence experienced by adults aged 16 and over; no significant change from the previous year.
Homicide (excluding extraordinary events with multiple victims) has increased by 9% to a total of 653 in year ending December 2017.

More about these statistics

Extraordinary homicide events with multiple victims:

March 2003 includes 172 homicides attributed to Harold Shipman
March 2006 includes 52 victims of the 7 July London bombings
March 2017 includes 96 victims of Hillsborough
December 2017 includes 35 victims of the Manchester Arena bombing and London terror

Summary

The Crime Survey for England and Wales shows long-term reductions in violent crime but little change in recent years

Around 2 in every 100 adults were a victim of CSEW violent crime in the latest survey year, compared with around 3 in 100 adults in the survey year ending March 2007 and 5 in 100 adults in 1995 (the peak year).

However, in the year ending March 2017, the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that more than half of violent crime victims (57%) did not report their experiences to the police. This is a return to levels seen preceding the year ending March 2013, following higher levels of reporting in the previous three years.

Latest police recorded figures, excluding extraordinary events with multiple victims (like Hillsborough, and terrorist attacks), show that there were 54 more homicides than the previous year, a 9% increase to 653. This continues an upward trend seen in homicides since March 2014, indicating a change to the long-term downward trend seen in the previous decade.

Although the deaths at Hillsborough occurred in 1989, an inquest returned a verdict of manslaughter and therefore was recorded as a homicide in the year 2016.

Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime shows a continuing rises in a number of other violence crime offences – firearm offences and knife or sharp instrument offences.

The overall number of offences involving a knife or sharp instrument has seen an increase in the last year, with increases in all offences included within the data collection. The data showed the highest number of offences involving knives or sharp instruments since 2011

The police recorded 39,598 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the latest year ending December 2017, a 22% increase compared with the previous year (32,468) and the highest number in the seven-year series (from year ending March 2011), the earliest point for which comparable data are available.

Long-term reductions in violent crime supported by other data

The longer-term reductions in violent crime (as shown by the CSEW) are seen by recent admissions data for NHS hospitals in England. Assault admissions for the year ending March 20172 (26,450) are 42% lower than the year ending March 2007 (45,890).

Research conducted by the Violence and Society Research Group at Cardiff University (PDF, 502KB) shows similar findings. Results from their annual survey of a sample of hospital emergency departments and walk-in centres in England and Wales, show that serious violence-related attendances in 2017 have fallen 39% since 2010. However, similar to the latest CSEW findings, the latest data show little change in 2017 compared with 2016 (1% increase).

Data

This bulletin mainly reports on data from two sources of crime data: the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime.

More information on both these sources can be found in the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales.

View all related data

More about the data used in this bulletin

Data on homicide offences given in these police recorded crime data will differ from data from the Home Office Homicide Index, which are published annually by ONS, last released as part of Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2017.

Estimates of violence against 10-to-15-year-olds, as measured by the CSEW, can be found in Appendix tables A9, A10, A11 and A12. The estimates are not directly comparable with the main survey of adults, so are not included in the headline totals.

Hospital Admitted Patient Care Activity, 2016-17 and Hospital Episode Statistics, Admitted Patient Care – England, 2006-07 provided by NHS Digital.

Need to know

How do we measure this?

There are two main sources of data for this release:

Crime Survey of England and Wales.
The Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) is a survey which asks people whether they have been victims of a crime over the past 12 months.
Police recorded crime
Police recorded crime is crime that has been reported to the police, and recorded as part of police casework.

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

More information on both these sources can be found in the User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales.

More information on the methodology can be found in the Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information report.

What do you need to know about these numbers?

Strengths and limitations of the data
The Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) is a survey which asks people whether they have been victims of a crime over the past 12 months. The survey has been consistent since 1981 and therefore is the best source to use when looking at trends over time. It is also a better measurement of crimes which are less likely to be reported to the police, such as, sexual offences.

Police recorded crime is crime that has been reported to the police, and recorded as part of police casework, making these figures sensitive to changes in policing practices and victims’ willingness to report crime. Therefore, an increase in the number of crimes recorded by the police does not necessarily mean that crime itself has increased. While it is good for understanding how much work police forces are carrying out, it is not a useful way to monitor trends and we do not recommend using it for exploring crime trends.

Police recorded crime is a good measurement of:

Homicide
Firearm / gun crimes
Crimes involving a weapon

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Time periods covered
The latest Crime Survey for England and Wales figures presented in this release are based on interviews conducted between January 2017 and December 2017, measuring peoples’ experiences of crime in the 12 months before the interview.

The latest recorded crime figures relate to crimes recorded by the police during the year ending December 2017 (between January 2017 and December 2017).

In this release:

“latest year” (or “latest survey year”) refers to the (survey) year ending December 2017
“previous year” (or “previous survey year”) refers to the (survey) year ending December 2016

In the year ending March 2017, the CSEW showed that more than half of violent crime victims (57%) did not report their experiences to the police. This was a return to levels seen preceding the year ending March 2013, following higher levels of reporting in the previous three years.

In addition, police recorded crime statistics may be affected by changes in recording practices and police activity. While the CSEW gives us a good picture of the overall trend in violent crime, it is not good at measuring some types of violence.

In these cases, police recorded crime is a useful source as the better measure of the higher-harm but less common types of violence.

National Statistic

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Glossary

A comprehensive guide to crime types and definitions can be found in the ONS User Guide

Violent crime
Covers a range of offence types from minor assaults, such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm, to murder. This includes offences where the victim was intentionally stabbed, punched, kicked, pushed or jostled, as well as offences where the victim was threatened with violence whether or not there is any injury.

In published crime statistics, violent crime – both as measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and by police recorded crime – is grouped into two broad, high-level categories: “violence with injury” and “violence without injury”.

However, these categories are not directly comparable between the CSEW and police recorded crime, and attempts to cause injury are categorised differently.

In addition to the two broad categories, police recorded crime statistics present a separate category for homicide – such offences are not covered by the CSEW as it is a victim-based survey.

In this release

Crime in England and Wales

Over the long-term, crime has fallen, but some crimes have risen slightly in the previous 12 months

What you need to know

Data on this chart refer to different time periods.

1981 to 1999 refer to crimes experienced in the calendar year (January to December); and from year ending March 2002 onwards the estimates relate to crimes experienced in the 12 months before interview, based on interviews carried out in that financial year (April to March).

Fraud in England and Wales

No change in the volume of fraud offences in the last year

What you need to know

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Weapons crime in England and Wales

Police recorded 7,130 (22%) more crimes involving weapons, with knife crime in cities rising most

What you need to know

Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Contact

Mark Bangs
crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk
+44 (0)2075 928689