Only 15% of rapes are reported

Submitted by Matthew on 20 February, 2013 - 9:00

The Home Office statistics bulletin on sexual offending in England and Wales estimates that 2.5% of women and 0.4% of men were the victims of sexual assault in 2011/12, representing around 473,000 adults. The police recorded a total of 53,000 cases of sexual assault over the same period.

It is estimated that around 0.5% of women and 0.1% of men were victims of rape or sexual assault by penetration in 2011-12, 85,000 and 12,000 respectively. The total number of “most serious sexual crimes” recorded by the police in the same period was 42,976, less than half.

The Home Office bulletin reported that only 15% of women who were raped or sexually assaulted had reported the attack to the police.

“Frequently cited reasons for not reporting the crime were that it was ‘embarrassing’, they ‘didn’t think the police could do much to help’, that the incident was ‘too trivial or not worth reporting’, or that they saw it as a ‘private/family matter and not police business’”.

Even when crimes are reported, often the cops don’t record them. The Office for National Statistics reckons that the police fail to record about a third of the crimes reported to them.

That one-third non-recording is better than things were. Before 2002 the cops recorded only about 50 to 60% of the crimes reported to them, according to the ONS. The recording rate rose to 90% between 2002 and 2007, but that was thanks to an audit system now abolished.

Working out whether crime is falling or rising is, therefore, tricky.

The ONS crime statistics for July 2011-June 2012 suggest an overall fall in crime and a drop in most crimes.

A BBC article on the 24 January suggested that the fall in crime “might be exaggerated”. The police record shows a fall in crime of 33% over the last five years. The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is based on asking a random sample of the population about their experience. It shows a fall of 17%.

The police record has a more detailed breakdown of specific crimes. The CSEW does not try to record sexual offences due to a low rate of reporting in face-to-face interviews. The Home Office collects figures separately.

Common sense amongst criminologists is that the economic pressures of a recession lead to a rise in property crime. Professor Mike Hough called the apparent reduction in crime “striking and unexpected, especially in view of the fiscal crisis, whose impact is bearing down sharpest on the poorest and most marginal social groups.”

Brian Wheeler, writing for the BBC, offered several possible explanations: success for anti-social behaviour orders, smartphone games having “killed boredom” amongst young people, a reduction in under-age drinking, a reduction of the amount of lead in the atmosphere and harder-to-break bus shelters...

The reduction in gun related crime may be explained by a spike in the price of illegal firearms in the UK (article by Paul Peachey in the Independent). In 2006 a handgun and ammunition could be bought for around £1,000, but recently this seems to have risen to around £3,500. West Midlands Police report a rise in older guns using home made ammunition and guns being shared, re-used rather than disposed of and even rented out.

The CSEW shows a rise in domestic violence over the past two years and the police record shows small rises (less than 5%) in harassment, racially or religiously aggravated public fear, alarm or distress, racially or religiously aggravated assault without injury, sexual activity including a child under 13 and causing sexual activity without consent. There were increases in soliciting for the purpose of prostitution, abuse of position of trust of a sexual nature and sexual grooming.

There was very small rise in the number of reported rapes of women over the age of 16 between from 2010-11 to 2011-12. However, cases of rape of women over 16 have risen year on year since 2007-8 from 7610 to 9776 in 2011-12.

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