For the year ending March 2023, 5.7 percent of crime offences resulted in a charge or summons in England and Wales. While this was an improvement when compared with the previous four quarters, it was far lower than in the first quarter of 2015, when 15.5 percent of crimes were solved.

With approximately 122.1 crimes per 1,000 population, Cleveland, in North East England, had the highest crime rate of all the police force areas in England and Wales in 2024/25. High crime rates are evident in other areas of northern England, such as West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester at 114.5 and 108.2, respectively. In the UK capital, London, the crime rate was 105.5 per 1,000 people. The lowest crime rate in England was in the relatively rural areas of Wiltshire in South West England, as well as North Yorkshire. Overall crime in England and Wales The number of crimes in England and Wales reached approximately 6.74 million in 2022/23, falling slightly to 6.66 million in 2023/24, and 6.59 million in 2024/25. Overall crime has been rising steadily across England and Wales for almost a decade, even when adjusted for population rises. In 2022/23, for example, the crime rate in England and Wales was 93.6, the highest since 2006/07. When compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, England and Wales is something of an outlier, as crime rates for Scotland and Northern Ireland have not followed the same trajectory of rising crime. Additionally, there has been a sharp increase in violent crimes and sexual offences since the mid-2010s in England and Wales. While theft offences have generally been falling, the number of shoplifting offences reached a peak of 530,640 in 2024/25. Troubled justice system under pressure Alongside rising crime figures, many indicators also signal that the justice system is getting pushed to breaking point. The percentage of crimes that are solved in England and Wales was just 5.7 percent in 2023, with sexual offences having a clearance rate of just 3.6 percent. Crimes are also taking far longer than usual to pass through the justice system. In 2022, it took an average of 407 days for a crown court case to reach a conclusion from the time of the offence, compared with 233 days in 2018. This is most likely related to the large backlog of cases in crown courts, which reached over 67,750 in 2023. Furthermore, prisons in England and Wales are dangerously overcrowded, with the government even releasing some prisoners early to address the issue.

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 over 40 percent of homicides In the 2022/23 reporting year, homicides involving a sharp instrument were involved in 244 incidents, a decline on the previous reporting year, when there were 282 such homicides. As a proportion of all homicides, sharp instruments were the main method of killing, and were used in 41.4 percent of all homicides in 2022/23. Firearm homicides are quite rare in England and Wales with shooting homicides only accounting for 4.9 percent of all homicides in the same reporting year. Between 2011/12 and 2022/23, there were 347 firearm homicides in England and Wales, compared with 2,785 knife homicides in the same period. Homicide rate highest in North East England Although London, with 124 homicides, was the UK region with the highest number of homicides in 2022/23, it was behind North East England when it came to the homicide rate. At 15.9 homicides per one million people, the North East was ahead of London at 12.9, and the rest of England and Wales, at 10.1. When compared with the rest of the UK, the homicide rate in England and Wales was above that of Scotland, which was 9, but below Northern Ireland at 12.6. Although Scotland's homicide rate is currently lower than that of England and Wales, before 2015/16 it was consistently higher, particularly in 2004/05 when it was 27, compared with 16.4 in England and Wales.

There were 116 homicides recorded by the police in London in the 2023/24 reporting year, compared with 112 in 2022/23. During this provided time period, 2017/18 had the most homicides in London at 159, with the fewest occurring in 2016/17, when there were 107. Comparisons with the rest of the UK With a homicide rate of 13.1 per million people, London had the highest homicide rate among UK regions in 2023/24. On a more localized level, the Metropolitan Police of Greater London reported a lower homicide rate than other police force areas that cover major cities, such as the West Midlands Police Force, while the highest homicide rate among UK police forces was in Cleveland, in North East England. Across England and Wales as a whole, the number of homicides in 2023/24 was 583, compared with 581 in the previous year. Knives the most common weapon used In 2022/23 there were 244 homicides in England and Wales involving a knife or other sharp instrument. As a comparison, there were just 29 homicides caused by a firearm in the same reporting year. While guns are generally difficult to obtain in the United Kingdom, knives are far more prevalent and have become a major problem for the police, particularly in London. The number of knife crime offences in London rose from 9,752 in 2015/16 to over 15,928 by 2019/20, before falling back recently, to 12,786 in 2022/23. Although 2023/24 saw a return to near pre-pandemic levels, with 15,016 offences.

Selection of time series of different scientific publications and of publication of the official statistics:

EUROSTAT, European Statistical Office OECD: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development; ONS: Office for National Statistics, England; SCB: Statistiska Centralbyran, Sweden; Federal Statistical Office, Wiesbaden. Deutschland; WHO: World Health Organization.

The research project is a subproject of the research association “Strengthening of integration potentials within a modern society” (Scientific head: Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Heitmeyer, Bielefeld) which contains 17 subprojects and is supported by the ministry of education and research.
In almost all the economically highly developed countries violent crime increased significantly in the second part of the last century - in contrast to the long term trend of decline of individual (non-governmental) violence since the beginning of modern times. The authors develop an explanatory approach for these facts which is inspired mainly by Norbert Elias´s civilization theory and Emil Durkheim´s theory on society. Detailed time series on the development of different forms of violent crime are presented and set in relation with certain aspects of economic and social structural changes in three countries and also refer to the changes in integration of modern societies. The analysis deals especially with effectivity and legitimacy of the governmental monopoly of violence, the public beneficial security and power system, forms of building social capital, economic and social inequality, precarity of employment, different aspects of increasing economization of society, changes in family structures and usage of mass media and modern communication technologies.

Register of tables in HISTAT:

A: Crime statistics

A.01 Frequency of types of crimes in different countries (1953-2000) A.02 Suspects by crimes of 100.000 inhabitants of Germany, England and Sweden (1955-1998) A.03 Murders, manslaughter and intentional injuries by other persons by sex of 100.000 persons after the statistics of causes of death (1953-2000) A.04 Clearance rate by types of crimes in Germany, England and Sweden (1953-1997) A.05 Prisoners of 100.000 inhabitants of Germany, Great Britain and Sweden (1950-2000)

B: Key indicators for economic development in Germany, Great Britain, Sweden and the USA

B1: Data on the overall economic framework

B1.01 Percent changes in the real GDP per capita in purchasing power parities (1956-1987) B1.02 Percent changes in GDP per capita in prices from 2000 (1955-1998) B1.03 GDP of Germany, Sweden and the United Kingdom in purchasing power parities in percent og the US GDP (1950-1992) B1.04 Labor productivity index for different countries, base: USA 1996 = 100 (1950-1999) B1.05 GDP per hour of labor in different countries in EKS-$ from 1999 (1950-2003) B1.06 Foreign trade - exports and imports in percent of the GDP of different countries (1949-2003) B1.07 GDP, wages and Unit-Labor-Cost in different countries (1960-2003)

B2: Unemployment

B2.01 Standardized unemployment rate in different countries with regard to the entire working population (1960-2003) B2.02 Share of long-term unemployed of the total number of unemployed in different countries in percent (1992-2004) B2.03 Youth unemployment in different countries in percent (1970-2004) B2.04 Unemployment rate in percent by sex in different countries (1963-2000)

B3: Employment

B3.01 Employment rate in percent in different countries (1960-2000) B3.02 Share of fixed-term employees and persons in dependent employment in percent in different countries (1983-2004) B3.03 Share of part-time employees by sex compared to the entire working population in different countries (1973-2000) B3.04 Share of un-voluntarily part-time employees by sex in different countries (1983-2003) B3.05 Share of contract workers in different countries in percent of the entire working population (1975-2002) B3.06 Share of self-employed persons in different countries in percent of the entire working population (1970-2004) B3.07 Shift worker rate in different countries in percent (1992-2005) B3.08 Yearly working hours per employee in different countries (1950-2004) B3.09 Employment by sectors in different countries (1950-2003) B3.10 Share of employees in public civil services in percent of the population between 15 and 64 years in different countries (1960-1999) B3.11 Female population, female employees and female workers in percent of the population between 16 and 64 years in different countries (1960-2000) B3.12 Employees, self-employed persons in percent of the entire working population in different countries (1960-2000)

B4: Taxes and duties

B4.01 Taxes and social security contributions in percent of the GDP (1965-2002) B4.02 Social expenditure in percent of the GDP (1965-2002) B4.03 Social expenditure in perc...

The conviction rate for the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales was 83.1 percent in 2024/25, compared with 82.7 percent in the previous reporting year.