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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes data on the nature of violent crime in England and Wales. It looks at the extent of violent crime, including long-term trends, the use of weapons and victim characteristics. The ONS’s most recent data covered the year to March 2022, which it published on 9 November 2022. This data is based on the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) and police recorded data. In March 2020, surveys conducted in person as the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) were paused due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
1. Extent of violent crime
The TCSEW estimated that 1.9% of adults aged 18 years and over were a victim of violent crime in the year ending March 2022. This equated to 1.5mn incidents of violence. However, around two-thirds (65%) of all TCSEW violent incidents did not result in an injury to the victim.
The ONS said that there was no change in the number of TCSEW violent incidents compared with the CSEW for the year ending March 2020. However, the number of victims decreased by 29%. The ONS explained that this change was driven by falls in violence where the offender was a stranger and likely reflected a decrease in violence taking place in public spaces during national lockdown restrictions.
The police recorded 2.1mn instances of violence against the person offences in the year ending March 2022, an increase of 18% from the 1.8mn instances in the year to March 2021.
2. Police recorded trends for violent crime
2.1 Homicide
Police recorded crime showed that the number of homicides in the year ending March 2022 had increased by 25% to 709 offences compared with the year ending March 2021. The ONS explained that this was a similar level to the year ending March 2020 where there were 716 offences, including the Grays lorry incident which involved the deaths of 39 migrants. Excluding the Grays incident, the ONS said that the most recent period would have been 5% higher than the year ending March 2020. It also said that the number of homicides had returned to the levels seen pre-pandemic. Looking at the overall rate of homicide, the ONS noted that it remained “relatively low”, with 12 homicides per 1 million people.
2.2 Offences involving firearms
In the year to March 2022, firearms were used in approximately 0.2% of all police recorded offences, excluding fraud and computer misuse. The ONS reported that this proportion had remained stable for the past 10 years.
In the year ending March 2022, there was a 3% increase in offences involving firearms (including air weapons) to 8,565 compared with the previous year. This remained 9% lower in comparison to the year ending March 2020. For firearms offences excluding air weapons, there were 5,750 offences in the year ending March 2022, a 1% increase compared with the previous year. However, this was a 13% decrease compared with the year ending March 2020.
2.3 Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument
Offences involving a knife or sharp instrument increased by 10% (to 48,931 offences) in the year to March 2022 compared to the previous year. However, they remained 11% lower than in the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020. Of the offences recorded in the year ending March 2022:
- 50% (24,337) were assaults with injury and assaults with intent to cause serious harm offences
- 35% (16,994) were robbery offences
- 12% (5,868) were threats to kill offences
The ONS said that there had been a rise in the number of recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in recent years. The year ending March 2021 was an exception, with the ONS saying this was likely due to Covid-19 lockdowns. It also argued that increases from the year ending March 2014 to the year ending March 2020 may partly be explained by improvements in crime recording practices.
3. Relationships between victims and perpetrators
In the year to March 2022, the ONS said that the TCSEW showed that the most common perpetrators of violence were strangers (44%, 666,000), followed by acquaintances (34%, 505,000), with the remaining 22% (328,000 offences) categorised as domestic violence. The number of victims of stranger violence fell by 43% compared with the CSEW year ending March 2020; however, there was no change in the other categories.
The ONS also presented analysis of data from 18 police forces which showed that a greater proportion of police recorded violent offences against women were committed by an intimate partner. For female victims, 43% of suspects were an intimate partner, compared with 23% for male victims. The proportion of offenders who were a family relative was similar for both males and females. For male victims, offenders were more likely to be acquaintances and strangers (33% and 20% respectively) compared with women (24% and 9%).
4. Groups most likely to be victims
The ONS also outlined the groups most likely to be victims of violent crime. The TCSEW showed that in the year ending March 2022, men were more likely to be victims of violent crime than women (2.2% compared to 1.6%), although it argued that this likely underestimated the number of female victims. Younger people aged 18 to 24 years (3%) and 25 to 34 years (2.9%) were more likely to be victims than older people (those aged 65 and over). In addition, those living in the most deprived areas of England were more likely to be victims than those living in the least deprived areas (1.2% to 0.5%).
5. Long-term trends in violent crime
The ONS reported that victimisation rates shown by the CSEW have been decreasing in the long term. They peaked in the year ending December 1995, when 4.7% of adults were a victim of violent crime. Rates have remained below 2% since the year ending March 2014.
In contrast to the downward trend shown by the CSEW, the ONS highlighted that police recorded violent crime increased between the years ending March 2013 and March 2022. The ONS explained that these increases are thought to be driven by improvements in police recording practices.
6. Methodology
Some of the estimates used in this release were based on Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) data for the year ending March 2022. Until March 2020, data was collected through face-to-face interviews as part of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). However, the CSEW was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The TCSEW was designed to allow the ONS to continue measuring crime and data collection and started in May 2020. While the TCSEW closely replicated the face-to-face CSEW, it used a smaller sample size and contained a reduced number of questions. As a result of these changes, the CSEW and TCSEW are not directly comparable. In the most recent release, percentage changes in TCSEW estimates and CSEW estimates for the year ending March 2020 are presented using figures adjusted for these differences. Due to these changes the CSEW lost its status as a national statistic during this period.
The release also contained police recorded data which is supplied by 43 police forces. This data has wider offence and population coverage and is a good measure of offences that are well-reported to and well-recorded by the police, as well as lower volume crimes like homicide. However, there are concerns about the quality and consistency of police data. As a result, such data does not meet the standards required to be designated as a national statistic. In addition, trends in police recorded data can be influenced by changes in recording practices or police activity as well as public recording of crime. This causes issues in making long-term conclusions.
Cover image by Max Fleischmann on Unsplash.