Biennial statistics on the representation of sex groups as victims, suspects, defendants, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Earlier editions: Women in the criminal justice system 2009-10

Biennial statistics on the representation of females and males as victims, suspects, offenders and employees in the Criminal Justice System.

These reports are released by the Ministry of Justice and produced in accordance with arrangements approved by the UK Statistics Authority.

Introduction

This report provides information about how females and males were represented in the Criminal Justice System (CJS) in the most recent year for which data were available, and, wherever possible, across the last five years. Section 95 of the Criminal Justice Act 1991 requires the Government to publish statistical data to assess whether any discrimination exists in how the CJS treats people based on their gender.

These statistics are used by policy makers, the agencies who comprise the CJS and others (e.g. academics) to monitor differences between females and males, and to
highlight areas where practitioners and others may wish to undertake more in-depth analysis. The identification of differences should not be equated with discrimination as there are many reasons why apparent disparities may exist.

Specific findings

Women as victims of crime

The most recent data show differences in the level and types of victimisation between females and males. Key findings:

• The 2011/12 CSEW estimated three in every 100 adults were a victim of violent crime. As in previous years, a smaller proportion of women than men interviewed reported being victims of violence (2% versus 4% in the 2011/12 CSEW).
• The 2011/12 CSEW self-completion module on intimate violence showed that a greater proportion of women (7%) reported being victims of intimate violence than men (5%).
• Findings from the child component of the 2011/12 CSEW showed that, in the 12 months prior to interview, a smaller proportion of girls (aged 10 to 15) reported being victims of violence than boys (5% per cent versus 11%).
• Data from the Homicide Index showed that fewer females (201) than males (435) were victims of homicide in 2010/11. As in the previous four years, a greater proportion of female than male victims knew the principal suspect (78% and 57% respectively in 2010/11).

Women as suspects

Fewer than one in five arrests recorded by the police in 2010/11 and in the preceding four years involved females. Key findings:

• Between 2006/07 and 2010/11, there was an 8% reduction in the number of arrests by police forces in England and Wales (from 1,482,156 to 1,360,451). There was a 13% decrease for females and a 7% decrease for males.

Women as defendants

Data on out of court disposals and court proceedings showed some differences in the types of disposals issued to males and females, and also in sentence lengths.

These may relate to a range of factors including variations in the types of offences committed.

Key findings:

• In 2011, females accounted for 24% of the 127,530 PNDs and 24% of the 231,483 cautions administered to individuals of known gender. Retail theft (under £200) was the most common offence type for which females were issued a PND (54% of PNDs issued to females), and drunk and disorderly for males (31% of PNDs issued to males).
• Overall, 1,246,320 persons of known gender were convicted and sentenced at all courts in 2011; again 24% were female and 76% were male.
• Theft and handling stolen goods (which includes shoplifting) was the most common indictable offence group for which both females and males were sentenced at all courts between 2007 and 2011 (52% of females and 33% of males sentenced for indictable offences in 2011).
• Overall, a higher proportion of all males than all females were sentenced to immediate custody in 2011 (10% versus 3%), and females more commonly received a fine (77% versus 61% of males). These patterns were also consistent in the four preceding years.
• The average custodial sentence length (ACSL) for all indictable offences was consistently higher for males than for females between 2007 and 2011 (in 2011, 17.7 months for males compared to 11.6 months for females).

Women as offenders: under supervision or in custody

Across the five year period, there were substantially fewer women than men both under supervision and in prison custody. A greater proportion of women were also serving shorter sentences than men, which is again likely to be attributable to a range of factors including differences in the offence types committed by men and women. Key findings:

• In 20

The open data tables are updated every three months to incorporate any changes such as reclassifications or crimes being cancelled or transferred to another police force, which means that they are more up-to-date than the tables published on this webpage which are updated once per year. Additionally, the open data tables are in a format designed to be user-friendly and enable analysis.

If you have any concerns about the way these data are presented please contact us by emailing CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk. Alternatively, please write to

The areas of focus include: Victimisation, Police Activity, Defendants and Court Outcomes, Offender Management, Offender Characteristics, Offence Analysis, and Practitioners.

This is the latest biennial compendium of Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System and follows on from its sister publication Statistics on Women and the Criminal Justice System, 2017.

Introduction

This publication compiles statistics from data sources across the Criminal Justice System (CJS), to provide a combined perspective on the typical experiences of different ethnic groups. No causative links can be drawn from these summary statistics. For the majority of the report no controls have been applied for other characteristics of ethnic groups (such as average income, geography, offence mix or offender history), so it is not possible to determine what proportion of differences identified in this report are directly attributable to ethnicity. Differences observed may indicate areas worth further investigation, but should not be taken as evidence of bias or as direct effects of ethnicity.

In general, minority ethnic groups appear to be over-represented at many stages throughout the CJS compared with the White ethnic group. The greatest disparity appears at the point of stop and search, arrests, custodial sentencing and prison population. Among minority ethnic groups, Black individuals were often the most over-represented. Outcomes for minority ethnic children are often more pronounced at various points of the CJS. Differences in outcomes between ethnic groups over time present a mixed picture, with disparity decreasing in some areas are and widening in others.

Key findings

Victims

• The Asian ethnic group had the lowest proportion of both adults (2%) and children (5%) who had experienced personal crime in the last year. In 2018/19, both adults and children from the Asian ethnic group were half as likely to report victimisation when compared to the White ethnic group.
• A higher proportion of Black homicides were against children, 17% of Black victims were 17 or younger, compared to an average of 11% across all ethnicities. Between 2015/16 and 2017/18, Black children made up 20% of all child victims, while Black victims made up 13% of victims across all age groups.

Police Activity

• The proportion of stop and searches conducted on White suspects decreased from 75% in 2014/15 to 59% in 2018/19 and increased for all minority ethnic groups. The largest increases were from 13% to 22% for Black suspects and from 8% to 13% for Asian suspects.
• In the last five years, the proportion of stop and searches involving Black suspects in London increased from 30% to 37%, now equal to the number of White suspects searched. In 2018/19, 48% of all stop and searches (where ethnicity is known) were conducted in London, and increasingly involving a higher proportion of suspects from minority ethnic groups when compared to the rest of England and Wales.
• Black suspects had the highest proportion of arrests that resulted from stop and searches in the latest year, at 20% which has increased from 15% since 2014/15. This is driven by a higher number of stop and searches in London, where resultant arrests accounted for 22% of all arrests, compared to 5% for the rest of England and Wales. For other groups, between 6% and 13% of arrests resulted from stop and searches.
• In 2018/19, two thirds (67%) of children arrested in London were from minority ethnic groups, compared to 21% of children arrested in the rest of England and Wales. Just over half (52%) of adults arrested in London were from minority ethnic groups, compared to 22% of adults arrested in the rest of England and Wales.

Defendants

• In the latest year, the largest fall in the volume of prosecutions and convictions for indictable offences was seen in the Asian group, down by 22% and 20% respectively. Prosecutions and convictions fell by 18% and 16% for Black defendants, by 13% each for White defendants, by 8% and 10% for defendants from Mixed ethnic groups and by 7% and 14% for defendants from Chinese or Other ethnic groups.
• White defendants consistently had the highest conviction ratio for indictable offences over the last 5 years (with the exception of 2015) and was 85% in 2018. The conviction ratios for White, Asian (83%) and Black (81%) defendants have converged with each other over the last 5 years, remained constant for defendants from Mixed ethnic groups (77%) and fallen for Chinese or Other ethnic groups (75%).
• Compared to White defendants (38%), larger proportions of Asian (40%), Mixed ethnicity (45%), Black (46%) and Chinese or Other (46%) defendants were remanded in custody for indictable