The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) asks a sole adult in a random sample of households about their, or their household's, experience of crime victimisation in the previous 12 months. These are recorded in the victim form data file (VF). A wide range of questions are then asked, covering demographics and crime-related subjects such as attitudes to the police and the criminal justice system (CJS). These variables are contained within the non-victim form (NVF) data file. In 2009, the survey was extended to children aged 10-15 years old; one resident of that age range was also selected from the household and asked about their experience of crime and other related topics. The first set of children's data covered January-December 2009 and is held separately under SN 6601. From 2009-2010, the children's data cover the same period as the adult data and are included with the main study.

The Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) became operational on 20 May 2020. It was a replacement for the face-to-face CSEW, which was suspended on 17 March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It was set up with the intention of measuring the level of crime during the pandemic. As the pandemic continued throughout the 2020/21 survey year, questions have been raised as to whether the year ending March 2021 TCSEW is comparable with estimates produced in earlier years by the face-to-face CSEW. The ONS Comparability between the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales and the face-to-face Crime Survey for England and Wales report explores those factors that may have a bearing on the comparability of estimates between the TCSEW and the former CSEW. These include survey design, sample design, questionnaire changes and modal changes.

More general information about the CSEW may be found on the ONS Crime Survey for England and Wales web page and for the previous BCS, from the GOV.UK BCS Methodology web page.

History - the British Crime Survey

The CSEW was formerly known as the British Crime Survey (BCS), and has been in existence since 1981. The 1982 and 1988 BCS waves were also conducted in Scotland (data held separately under SNs 4368 and 4599). Since 1993, separate Scottish Crime and Justice Surveys have been conducted. Up to 2001, the BCS was conducted biennially. From April 2001, the Office for National Statistics took over the survey and it became the CSEW. Interviewing was then carried out continually and reported on in financial year cycles. The crime reference period was altered to accommodate this.

Secure Access CSEW data
In addition to the main survey, a series of questions covering drinking behaviour, drug use, self-offending, gangs and personal security, and intimate personal violence (IPV) (including stalking and sexual victimisation) are asked of adults via a laptop-based self-completion module (questions may vary over the years). Children aged 10-15 years also complete a separate self-completion questionnaire. The questionnaires are included in the main documentation, but the data are only available under Secure Access conditions (see SN 7280), not with the main study. In addition, from 2011 onwards, lower-level geographic variables are also available under Secure Access conditions (see SN 7311).

New methodology for capping the number of incidents from 2017-18
The CSEW datasets available from 2017-18 onwards are based on a new methodology of capping the number of incidents at the 98th percentile. Incidence variables names have remained consistent with previously supplied data but due to the fact they are based on the new 98th percentile cap, and old datasets are not, comparability has been lost with years prior to 2012-2013. More information can be found in the 2017-18 User Guide (see SN 8464) and the article ‘Improving victimisation estimates derived from the Crime Survey for England and Wales’.

Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showing breakdowns of victimisation over time and by various demographic characteristics.

Data from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) on violence with and without injury, and harassment, and police recorded crime on violence against the person and sexual offences.

Trends in Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) crime (accredited official statistics) and Home Office police recorded crime (official statistics) for England and Wales, by offence type. Also includes more detailed data on crime such as violence, fraud and anti-social behaviour.

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.

Firearms, knife- and sharp-instrument offences, offences involving a corrosive substance, hospital admissions for assault with sharp objects, fraud, offences flagged as domestic abuse-related, corruption, anti-social behaviour, perceptions, and non-notifiable incidents.

Police recorded crime figures by Police Force Area and Community Safety Partnership areas (which equate in the majority of instances, to local authorities).

There were 535 homicides recorded in England and Wales in 2024/25, the fewest number of homicides in a reporting year since 2013/14, when there were 533. Between 2002/03 and 2013/14, the number of homicides in England and Wales fell significantly before rising again in the late 2010s. This increase in homicides occurred alongside an increase in the overall number of crimes, with police officials linking this to long-term cuts to their manpower and resources. Knives involved in almost half of all homicides In the 2023/24 reporting year, homicides involving a sharp instrument were involved in 262 incidents, an increase on the previous reporting year, when there were 243 knife homicides. As a proportion of all homicides, sharp instruments were the main method of killing, and were used in 46 percent of all homicides in 2023/23. Firearm homicides are quite rare in England and Wales, with shooting homicides only accounting for 3.9 percent of all homicides in the same reporting year. Since 2011/12 there have been 369 firearm homicides in England and Wales, compared with 3,743 knife homicides in the same period. Homicide rate highest in Lincolnshire With 104 homicides, London was the UK region with the highest number of homicides in 2024/25, although it was behind several police areas when it came to the homicide rate. At 17.9 homicides per one million people, Lincolnshire Police had the highest homicide rate in England and Wales in 2024/25. When compared with the rest of the UK, the overall homicide rate in England and Wales was above that of Northern Ireland, but below that of Scotland. In all jurisdictions of the UK, the homicide rate is however far lower in the 2020s than it was during the 2000s.

Between 2019/20 and 2023/24 there have been 47 homicide cases in the Glasgow City local authority area of Scotland, the most of any Scottish local authority in that time period. The City of Edinburgh had the second-highest number of homicides, at 24, while there were zero homicides in the Outer Hebrides.

Stalking experienced by women and men, including numbers, type and personal characteristics, based upon annual findings from the Crime Survey for England and Wales.

There were *** homicides for every million people in England and Wales in 2024/25, compared with 9.4 in the previous reporting year. In 2023/24, the homicide rate among UK jurisdictions was highest in Scotland, at **** homicides per million people, and lowest in Northern Ireland, which had a homicide rate of ***. Throughout this provided time period, the homicide rate for Scotland has declined substantially. From 2003/04 to 2013/14, Scotland had the highest homicide rate among UK jurisdictions, with a peak of ** homicides per million people recorded in 2004/05. Uptick in violent crimes since the mid-2010s In 2002/03, there were ***** homicides in England and Wales, but by 2013/14, this had fallen to just ***, with similar declines also evident in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Unlike in the latter two jurisdictions, however, there was a noticeable uptick in homicides in England and Wales from 2016/17 onwards, with *** recorded in 2019/20. Additionally, there has been a surge in violence against the person offences in England and Wales, rising from around ******* in 2012/13 to more than *********** ten years later in 2022/23. It is unclear what exactly is driving this trend, but in an attempt to reverse it, the UK government has started to increase the manpower and funding available to UK police forces after several years of cuts. Struggles of the UK justice system Recent boosts to police funding come after almost a decade of austerity was imposed on most public services. Although some government departments were protected from this, the Ministry of Justice saw its budget decline from *** billion pounds in 2009/10 to just **** billion pounds in 2015/16. Although the Justice Budget has also increased recently, there are several signs that the system as a whole is under pressure. There is a significant backlog of cases at Crown Courts in England and Wales, with serious offences taking an average of almost***************** to pass through the court system. Meanwhile, prisons are struggling with severe capacity issues along with upticks in violence and self-harm.

The Commercial Victimisation Survey (CVS) is a survey of the extent of crime and crime related issues experienced by business premises in England and Wales. It provides additional detail on the extent of crime to be used alongside the other main sources of information on crime. These are the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) (formerly the British Crime Survey), which covers crimes against private individuals and households, and the Police Recorded Crime statistics, which cover crimes reported to the police. In common with the CSEW, the CVS also includes crimes that are not reported to the police. The Police Recorded Crime data tables are available from the GOV.UK website.The CVS was previously run as a standalone survey in 1994 and again in 2002. The CVS was then run as an annual publication from 2012 onwards. A break occurred from 2019 to 2021 where CVS underwent a re-design following a consultation, where the coverage of the survey was expanded to cover all commercial business premises. A standalone CVS was run in 2021, covering only the Wholesale and Retail sector, to provide insights on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.Further information on the CVS, with links to findings by year, can also be found on the GOV.UK Crimes against businesses statistics webpage. The Commercial Victimisation Survey, 2022 aims to estimate the extent and nature of crime affecting all commercial business premises in England and Wales. The data includes the prevalence and frequency of crime affecting business premises in England and Wales: as well as impacts on premises, crime prevention measures taken up by premises, experiences of the police, and attitudes to the police.

In 2024/25, there were approximately 78,800 robbery offences reported by the police in England and Wales, compared with 81,000 in the previous year. During the provided time period, the reporting year with the highest number of robberies was 2002/03, when there were around 110,270. From 2002/03 onwards, robberies in England and Wales generally declined and reached a low of just 50,150 offences in 2014/15. Robberies increased from this year onwards, however, with 2019/20 seeing the highest number of offences since 2006/07. What types of crime are increasing? Unfortunately, the rise in robbery offences seen recently has not occurred in isolation. Overall crime in England and Wales also fell for several years before 2014/15 before suddenly climbing upwards and reaching a peak of over 6.74 million offences in 2022/23. Violent crime and sexual offences have both increased substantially, and while overall theft has declined, shoplifting offences have surged since the pandemic, with over 530,600 offences in 2024/25. This crime spike has led to a focus on the police and if they have enough manpower and resources to reverse this trend. The number of police officers was cut by around 20,000 between 2010 and 2016, while spending was reduced in a similar period, though expenditure has since increased and officer numbers are comparable to 2010 levels. Robbery and the UK justice system Robbery is considered one of the most serious criminal offences, defined as both a violent and property crime. The offence carries one of the longest average prisons sentences in England and Wales, at 45.2 months, or almost four years. Serious crimes such as this would typically be tried in Crown Courts, yet as of 2025, there is a significant backlog of cases awaiting trial. This has led to an increasingly delayed justice system, with the average time an offence reached a conclusion in crown courts reaching 407 days in 2022. At the back end of the justice system, prisons are struggling with capacity issues and have been operating with very little spare capacity for several years.

In 2024/25, there were around ****** knife offences recorded in England and Wales, compared with *******in the previous reporting year.

Data the number of hate crimes which involved violence against the victim in England and Wales from 2015 to 2019, sorted by motivational factor, shows that the highest number of hate crimes was found to be due to racial discrimination. During 2018/19, over ** thousand racist hate crimes were recorded, a sharp increase compared to the previous years.