This is an Official Statistics bulletin produced by statisticians in the Ministry of Justice, Home Office and the Office for National Statistics. It brings together, for the first time, a range of official statistics from across the crime and criminal justice system, providing an overview of sexual offending in England and Wales. The report is structured to highlight: the victim experience; the police role in recording and detecting the crimes; how the various criminal justice agencies deal with an offender once identified; and the criminal histories of sex offenders.

In 2023/24 there were 188,893 sexual offences recorded by the police in England and Wales, a decrease when compared with the previous reporting year. Between 2002/03 and 2012/13 the number of sexual offences remained quite stable, but from 2013/14 onwards the number of sexual offences has risen dramatically.

Statistics report/overview on sexual offending in England and Wales

Source agency: Justice

Designation: Official Statistics not designated as National Statistics

Language: English

Alternative title: An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales

In 2023/24, approximately 44,283 people were arrested for sexual offences in England and Wales, compared with 39,249 in the previous reporting year.

Sexual offence numbers, prevalence and victim characteristics, including breakdowns by type of incident, sex, victim-perpetrator relationship and location based upon findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales and police recorded crime.

In the 2023/24 reporting year there were 3.1 sexual offences per 1,000 population in England and Wales, with Cleveland police force reporting the highest rate of 4.4 sexual crimes per 1,000 people.

Nature of sexual assault by rape or penetration experienced by adults since the age of 16 years, including breakdowns by age, sex, victim-perpetrator relationship, location and other factors. Analyses from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

Rape offences have increased dramatically in England and Wales since 2012/13 when there were 16,038 offences. After this year, rape offences increased substantially, reaching a high of 69,973 offences in the 2021/22 reporting year, before falling slightly to 68,949 in 2022/23, and to 67,928 in 2023/24. When 2023/24 is compared with the 2002/03 reporting year, there was an almost sixfold increase in the number of rape offences recorded by the police in England and Wales. Similar patterns in Scotland and Northern Ireland While there has also been an increase in the number of rape and attempted rape offences in Scotland, the increase has not been quite as steep, with offences reaching 2,459 in 2022/23 compared with 924 in 2002/03. In Northern Ireland there has been a sharp rise in overall sexual offences, rising from 1,438 in 2002/03, to 4,232 by 2022/23. This rise in overall sexual offences is also observable in Scotland, with 15,049 offences in 2022/23, compared with 6,623 in 2002/03. Explaining the increase Although overall crime has shown a noticeable uptick recently, the rise in sexual offences has been much more pronounced. Rather than falling in the mid-2010s and then rising again towards the end of the decade, like overall crime, sexual offences remained at a relatively stable figure, until 2013/14 when it increased dramatically, a pattern mirrored in both Scotland and Northern Ireland. This is possibly due to better reporting practices by the police as well as an increasing willingness of victims to come forward, including historic victims of sexual violence.

For the year ending March 2023, there were 53,915 offences recorded by the police in England and Wales as; 'sexual assault on a female aged 13 and over', the most of any sexual offence in this reporting year.

This dataset relates to quantitative information about sexual offences, their reporting and prosecution, which has been abstracted from the Annual Criminal Justice Statistics for England and Wales 1918-1970 (Command Papers series). The dataset was created as part of the ESRC-funded project ES/M009750/1 ‘Historicising “historical child sexual abuse” cases: social, political and criminal justice contexts’.

This research project will carry out rapid deck-based research, using very significant sets of online sources that are already available in digital form, but whose potential for research into the history of child sexual abuse has not been realized. It will cover four significant areas: (1) We will construct quantitative profiles of the extent of the reporting and convictions of sexual offences from 1918 to 1990, making use of the published Criminal Justice Statistics for England and Wales; (2) We will carry out a qualitative longitudinal study of the role of the national and local newspaper press in reporting cases of child sexual abuse, and in shaping social attitudes towards young people and sexuality in the period 1918-1990. The newspaper press was a crucial arena through which public opinion was shaped and shifting moralities were discussed and debated for much of the twentieth century. Whilst the press cannot be viewed as an unproblematic barometer of opinion, it provides historians with an important lens through which to access a range of viewpoints and to chart dominant tropes and narratives. A survey of the newspaper press also enables us to access reports of the decisions that were made in the court-room and thus to further explain the trends for reporting and conviction that analysis of the criminal justice statistics reveal; (3) We will examine the shifting viewpoints of key professional groups, including social workers and lawyers, by undertaking a survey of publications associated with these occupational groups; (4) We will begin a mapping of organisations, bodies and associations who have commented on and campaigned around issues relating to children and sexuality across the broad period 1918-1990. This initial mapping will involve research into the availability of archival and manuscripts sources (including those held in the National Archives and local repositories) and will form the basis of a further funding application. Our time-table is designed to coincide with the undertaking of the public enquiries and the preparation of the further report relating to the NHS and Department of Health Investigations. We will run seminars/workshops for civil servants, lawyers and other professionals involved in these investigations, and make our findings available in a free and easily accessible format as briefings on the History & Policy website. Thus our project will provide essential knowledge to shape discussion, debate, and inform the final public inquiry reports.

Data on prosecutions, convictions and sentencing for sexual offences, England and Wales.

This statistic shows violent crimes and sexual offences in England and Wales (UK) from 2001/02 to 2018/19, by the offender's relation to the victim. In 2018/19, there were more violent offences commited by strangers than acquaintances. To see the number of domestic violence incidents click here.

Between April 2021 and March 2022 there were over 4,000 sexual offences recorded by the police in Northern Ireland, of which 1,210 were rape offences, the most of any sexual offence in this time period.

There were 24,334 police recorded sexual offences in London in 2023/24, compared with 24,958 in the previous reporting year, with a peak for sexual offences occurring during 2021/22.

There were two sexual trafficking offences recorded by the police in England and Wales in 2017/18, compared with seven in 2016/17. This type of crime cateogry has been discontinued, with offences related to sexual trafficking now included with the "modern slavery" crime offence.

Analyses from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) of sexual assaults experienced by adults aged 16 to 59, including by type, sex and personal characteristics, and police recorded sexual offences.