Violent Crime: year ending December 2017

Violent crime in England and Wales, including minor assaults, harassment and psychological abuse, wounding, physical assault and death

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

This page is part of the latest collection | View all pages in this collection or view previous collections

1.2 million incidents of violence: similar to the last few years

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

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

  • Crime Survey shows long-term reductions in violent crime.
  • About 2 in every 100 adults were a victim of violent crime.
  • 57% of violence victims did not report their experiences to the police.

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Crime Survey shows long-term drop in violent crime but little change in recent years

Around 2 in every 100 adults were a victim of violent crime in the latest survey year, compared with around 3 in 100 adults in the 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.

Long-term reductions in violent crime supported by other data

The longer-term reductions in violent crime shown by the CSEW are backed-up 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.

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.

Similar to the latest CSEW findings, the latest data show little change in 2017 compared with 2016 (1% increase).

Police recorded further rises in less common types of violence

Police reported a larger number of homicide, firearm crimes and knife crimes in the year to December 2017.

While the Crime Survey for England and Wales gives us a good picture of the overall trends in violent crime, it is not good at measuring some types of violence. Police recorded crime is a better measure of the higher-harm but less common types of violence.

Violent crime data

This page mainly reports on data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime.

View all data

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

Other data used on this page

NHS Digital

Cardiff University

Using violent crime data

How do we measure this?

This page is part of our quarterly Crime Collection, which relies on two main sources of data.

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
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?

Strengths and limitations of the data
The Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) has been consistent since 1981 and 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 a good measure for understanding how much work police forces are carrying out. It can be affected by changes in policing practices and victims’ willingness to report crime.

Police recorded crime is not a useful way to monitor crime trends, and we do not recommend using it for this. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

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

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

“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.

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Glossary

Assault with injury and assault with intent to cause serious harm
Offences include injury resulting in permanent disability; more than minor permanent disfigurement; broken bones; fractured skull; compound fractures; substantial loss of blood; internal injury; lengthy treatment or serious psychiatric injury (based on expert evidence); and shock (when accompanied by expert psychological evidence).

Assault without injury
Offences where no more than a feeling of touch or passing moment of pain is experienced by the victim.

Harassment offences
Incidents where no other substantive notifiable offence exists, but when looked at as a course of conduct are likely to cause fear, alarm or distress.

Threats to kill
Where an individual fears that the offender’s threat is real and may be carried out.

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”.

A comprehensive guide to crime types and definitions can be found in the User Guide to Crime Statistics for England and Wales.

More pages in this collection

Crime overview

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

Released: 26 April 2018

Fraud

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

Released: 26 April 2018

Homicide

Homicide has increased by 9% to 653.

Released: 26 April 2018

Weapons crimes

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

Released: 26 April 2018

More about violent crime

Contact us

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

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