Crime in England and Wales: year ending June 2022

Patterns of crime over recent years have been substantially affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and government restrictions on social contact. During the coronavirus pandemic, the mode for collecting survey data changed to the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW). This is the first bulletin to return to using face-to-face Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates across all crime types. These estimates are directly comparable with pre-coronavirus pandemic estimates, which improves the ability to evaluate whether there are sustained impacts of coronavirus on levels of crime.

While this is the first comparable survey data with pre-coronavirus pandemic data, they are not National Statistics and caution must be taken when using these data. The CSEW statistics presented in this year ending June 2022 release are based on nine months of data collection between October 2021 and June 2022, rather than the normal 12 month interview period, and on a lower response rate, which may impact on the quality of the estimates.

The latest figures from the CSEW for the year ending June 2022 [note 1] show that compared with the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020, total crime has decreased by 8%. Focusing on individual crime types:

• theft significantly decreased during the coronavirus pandemic, and in the year ending June 2022, estimates showed that theft has decreased by 19% compared with year ending March 2020; while it is too early to say whether this represents a new long-term trend, it does suggest a sustained impact of coronavirus

• fraud significantly increased during the coronavirus pandemic because of behavioural changes, and in the year ending June 2022, estimates showed that fraud has returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels (no change compared with the year ending March 2020); this suggests increases were specific to the coronavirus pandemic, rather than a sustained change in trends

• estimates from the TCSEW showed an increase in computer misuse offences during the coronavirus pandemic, while some of this increase was likely to be genuine, comparability analysis shows the different mode and methodology of the TCSEW may have also contributed to a rise in the figures; year ending June 2022 estimates showed a 27% decrease compared with pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, suggesting that any real increase was likely specific to the coronavirus pandemic

Police recorded crime data give insight into lower-volume but higher-harm crimes that the survey does not cover or does not capture well. It can also provide insight into crimes that are well reported to and recorded by the police. Compared with the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020, we have seen decreases in such crime types for the year ending June 2022, specifically:

• burglary (down 28%)
• robbery (down 23%)
• vehicle offences (down 19%)
• knife-enabled crime (down 9%)
• offences involving firearms (down 10%)
• homicide (down 5%)

It is too early to say whether these decreases represent a change in long-term trends.

Police recorded sexual offences have risen by 21% compared with the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020. This continued increase to 196,889 offences is the highest annual figure recorded in England and Wales. Caution is needed when interpreting these figures as they may reflect a number of factors including the impact of high-profile cases and campaigns on victims’ willingness to report incidents.

Notes for main points:

1. The year ending June 2022 refers to nine months of data collection between October 2021 and June 2022. Data collected during this period includes experiences of crime in the 12 months before the interview month. Further information can be found in our Crime in England and Wales QMI.

According to Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates for the year ending June 2022, adults aged 16 years and over experienced 9.4 million offences. This was a statistically significant decrease (8%) compared with the year ending March 2020. This was predominantly because theft offences decreased by 19% (from 3.3 million to 2.7 million offences).

Since the mid-1990s, there have been long-term falls in overall CSEW crime estimates (Figure 1). Long-term trends also vary by crime types.

For the crime types and population it covers, the face-to-face CSEW is a better indicator of long-term trends than police recorded crime. It is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices.

Likelihood of victimisation

The latest CSEW estimates show that for the year ending June 2022, approximately 8 in 10 adults did not experience any of the crimes asked about in the CSEW (Figure 2). The likelihood of being a victim of crime varied by crime type, with fraud having the highest likelihood of victimisation (7%), followed by vehicle-related theft (3%).

Trends in police recorded crime

Police recorded crime levels in England and Wales have been substantially affected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and restrictions on social contact. In line with CSEW comparisons, police recorded crime levels are compared with pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in the year ending March 2020. Comparisons with the year ending June 2021 show patterns in crime since the easing of social restrictions.

Police recorded crime in England and Wales in the year ending June 2022 exceeded pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. The 6.5 million crimes recorded was 7% higher compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1 million offences). This overall increase was largely driven by increases in the offence categories that are most subject to changes in reporting and recording practices.

In the year ending June 2021, police recorded crime fell to 5.8 million offences driven by national lockdowns and restrictions to social contact during this period. The impact that government policies had during the coronavirus pandemic on levels of police recorded crime can be clearly seen when looking at quarterly figures (see Figure 3). Since the year ending June 2021, police recorded crime has increased by 12% in the year ending June 2022.

Information on case outcomes can be found in the Home Office's Crime outcomes in England and Wales publication

Crime survey and police recorded crime data can be used together to develop a more complete picture of crime (Table 1). The CSEW data showed decreases in computer misuse and theft offences compared with the year ending March 2020. Police recorded crime showed decreases in individual theft offences, such as burglary and vehicle offences compared with the year ending March 2020.

The police recorded 679 homicide offences in the year ending June 2022, a 5% decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (716 offences) [note 1]. Levels have increased by 13% since the year ending June 2021 (599 offences) during which social restrictions were still in place.

The rate of homicide in the population remains low at 11 per 1 million people in the year ending June 2022, compared with 12 per 1 million people in the year ending March 2020 and 10 per 1 million people in the year ending June 2021.

Of all recorded homicides in the year ending June 2022, the proportion of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was the method of killing was 38%.

For the latest analysis on homicide offences held within the Home Office Homicide Index, see our Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2021 article.

Notes for Homicide:

1. The year ending March 2020 included the incident where 39 migrants were found dead inside a lorry.

Police recorded crime provides a better measure than the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) of higher-harm but less common types of violence, such as those involving a knife or sharp instrument (knife-enabled crime).

Knife-enabled crime recorded by the police remained 9% lower (49,991 offences) than pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels in the year ending March 2020 (55,076 offences). This is mainly because the number of knife-enabled robbery offences (17,757 offences) was 27% lower in the year ending June 2022 than in the year ending March 2020 (24,314 offences).

Levels of knife-enabled crime fell to 46,081 offences in the year ending June 2021 because of government restrictions on social contact. It has increased by 8% in the year ending June 2022 while remaining below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. There were increases across all knife-enabled violent and sexual offences except for homicide, which decreased by 1% to 259 offences.

The latest increase (8%) in knife or sharp instrument offences compared with the year ending June 2021 can be broken down by Police Force Area (PFA)[note 1]. The Metropolitan, West Midlands and Greater Manchester are the three PFAs with the highest volume of knife-enabled crime. Knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the Metropolitan increased from 10,605 offences to 11,232 offences in the year ending June 2022, to a rate of 125 per 100,000 population. The West Midlands saw an increase from 3,299 recorded offences to 4,958 offences (to 169 per 100,00 population) and Greater Manchester from 3,297 offences to 3,563 offences (to 125 per 100,000 population).

Police recorded "possession of article with a blade or point" [note 2] offences were 9% higher in the year ending June 2022 (25,287 offences) than the year ending March 2020 (23,242 offences). This was a 13% increase compared with the year ending June 2021 (22,340 offences). This could have been influenced by increases in targeted police action to tackle knife crime.

The Home Office and police forces have continued to roll out a new methodology for identifying recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments (knife-enabled crime). Currently 37 forces have switched to the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) data collection methodology. Work continues in moving the remaining six forces to the new methodology. Estimates in this release include a combination of both new and old data collection methods.

For more information, including the differences in data collection methods, please see our Police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments: methodology changes and our Improving data collection for knife enabled crime in England and Wales blog.

Other sources of data

The latest provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales show a continued decrease in the number of admissions for assault by a sharp object in the year ending June 2022 (4,098 admissions). This was 14% lower than the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020 (4,769 admissions) and 4% lower than the year ending June 2021 (4,284 admissions).

Data related to stop and searches can be found in the Home Office's Police powers and procedures England and Wales statistics publication.

Notes for Knife or sharp instrument offences

1. Data cannot be compared across all police forces because of changes in data collection methods. Currently 37 police forces have switched to the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS) data collection method. Six remaining police forces are still submitting knife or sharp instrument offences data through a special collection (North Yorkshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Mercia, Dorset, Gloucestershire). For more information, please see the methodology Police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments: methodology changes.

2. Offences of "possession of an article with a blade or point" are covered separately by a specific recorded crime category, which is the specific crime of possessing an article with a blade or point illegally.

Police recorded 5,976 offences involving firearms [note 1] in the year ending June 2022 (Figure 6). This was a 10% decrease compared with the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic year ending March 2020 (6,618 offences). Levels remained similar to the year ending June 2021 (5,881 offences).

Broken down by type of weapon, offences using handguns (1,866 offences) were 29% lower than the year ending March 2020 (2,623 offences) and offences using shotguns (439 offences) were 31% lower than the year ending March 2020 (633 offences). However, offences using imitation firearms (2,060 offences) were 37% higher than the year ending March 2020 (1,506 offences) [note 2].

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides the best picture of the overall trend in violent crime.

Estimates from the CSEW showed that there were 1.2 million violent offences in the year ending June 2022. There was no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020.

Overall, police recorded violence against the person continued to increase to 2.1 million offences in the year ending June 2022 (20%) compared with the year ending March 2020 (1.8 million offences). Violence with injury was 7% higher (576,892 offences) than levels recorded in the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020 (540,696 offences).

Stalking and harassment rose to 718,317 offences. This was a 45% increase compared with the year ending March 2020 and a 7% rise compared with the year ending June 2021. This continued the trend of year-on-year increases since the year ending March 2012, though this was partially driven by changes in Home Office Counting Rules across this period.

Domestic abuse

The police flagged 912,181 recorded offences as domestic abuse-related in the year ending June 2022. This represented a 14% increase from 798,607 offences in the year ending March 2020. This included 723,164 violence against the person offences flagged as domestic abuse-related, a 15% increase compared with the year ending March 2020. Some of this continued increase may reflect improvements seen in recording and reporting over the last few years.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides a more reliable measure of long-term trends in domestic abuse, sexual assault, stalking, and harassment than police recorded crime data.

Estimates from the CSEW showed that 5.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022. There was no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%).

On the return of face-to-face CSEW interviewing in October 2021, the upper age limit of respondents completing the self-completion modules was removed (it was previously increased from 59 years to 74 years in March 2017). The CSEW estimated that 5.0% of adults aged 16 years and over had experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2022.

Further information and data related to domestic abuse can be found in our Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2021 bulletin. The next Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview is due to be published in November 2022.

Sexual offences

Sexual offences recorded by the police were at the highest level recorded within a 12-month period (196,889 offences) in the year ending June 2022. This was a 21% increase from the year ending March 2020 (Figure 8). Within these figures, the number of recorded sexual offences were lower during periods of lockdown but there have been substantial increases since April 2021.

Of all sexual offences recorded by the police in the year ending June 2022, 36% (70,600) were rape offences. This was a 20% increase from 59,046 in the year ending March 2020. Other sexual offences increased to 126,289 offences; a 21% rise compared with the year ending March 2020.

High levels of non-reporting combined with changes in reporting trends can have a significant impact on sexual offences recorded by the police. Prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number of police recorded sexual offences was well below the number of victims estimated by the CSEW, with fewer than one in six victims of rape or assault by penetration reporting the crime to the police.

The latest figures may reflect a number of factors, including the impact of high-profile incidents, media coverage, and campaigns on people’s willingness to report incidents to the police, as well as a potential increase in the number of victims.

Estimates from the CSEW for the year ending March 2022 showed that 2.7% of adults aged 16 to 59 years had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the last year. There was no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (2.2%). The CSEW estimated that 2.3% of adults aged 16 years and over had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the last year.

Further data related to sexual offences can be found in our Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2020 bulletin.

CSEW data on the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking for the six months ending March 2022 can be found in Tables F15 to F19 in our Other related tables, year ending March 2022.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is the most reliable indicator for long-term trends in the more common types of crime experienced by the general population, such as theft. However, police recorded crime data can give reliable indications of trends in some offences involving theft (for example, domestic burglary) that are well-reported to the police and can provide a better measure of short-term trends.

There were 2.7 million incidents of theft estimated by the CSEW for the year ending June 2022. This was a statistically significant decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (19%). This large fall was seen across most subcategories, with a 33% decrease in "other theft of personal property", followed by a 26% reduction in domestic burglary and a 23% fall in "theft from the person" offences.

"Neighbourhood" crime, defined in the Home Office Beating crime plan, includes robbery and selected theft offences (theft from the person, domestic burglary, and vehicle related theft). The CSEW estimated that the number of "neighbourhood" crime incidents decreased by 18% compared with the year ending March 2020.

Police recorded theft offences in the year ending June 2022 remained 18% lower (1.6 million offences) than pre-coronavirus pandemic levels in the year ending March 2020 (1.9 million offences). This included a 28% decrease in burglary offences.

Levels of theft increased after restrictions related to the third national lockdown were lifted. There was a 17% increase compared with the year ending June 2021 (1.4 million offences). This rise was seen across most subcategories including theft from the person (66%), all other theft offences (27%) and shoplifting (18%).

Police recorded robbery increased to 69,363 offences; this remained 23% lower than the year ending March 2020 (90,203 offences) but increased by 10% in comparison to the year ending June 2021 (62,792 offences).

Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) showed that there were 3.8 million fraud offences in the year ending June 2022, no significant change compared with the year ending March 2020 (3.7 million offences). Within fraud offences, bank and credit account fraud significantly decreased (15%) to 2.1 million offences and advance fee fraud increased tenfold to 611,000 offences compared with the year ending March 2020 (60,000 offences). This may indicate fraudsters taking advantage of behavioural changes during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, such as increased online shopping as shown in our How our spending has changed since the end of coronavirus restrictions publication. For example, advance fee fraud offences included scams where victims transferred funds to fraudsters for postal deliveries.

Previous estimates from the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) showed that levels of fraud increased during the coronavirus pandemic, as shown in our Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2022 article. CSEW estimates for the year ending June 2022 have shown that fraud has now returned to pre-coronavirus pandemic levels. As we found no differences in estimates of fraud between CSEW and TCSEW in our comparability report this trend is likely to be genuine and increases in fraud were specific to the coronavirus pandemic, rather than a sustained change in trends.

Fraud offences investigated by the police are recorded and collected by the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) from Action Fraud and two industry bodies, Cifas and UK Finance. Police recorded fraud increased by 11% in the year ending June 2022 compared with the year ending June 2021. This increase needs to be interpreted in the context of differences in coverage and fraud types captured by each reporting body as well as administrative changes [note 1].

The increase was mainly driven by a rise in offences recorded by UK Finance, who reported a 108% increase (to 319,311 offences) compared with the year ending June 2021. This was a result of an increase in reporting from their existing members because of engagement from UK Finance, as well as reports coming in from new members who joined towards the end of 2021. Cifas also reported a 9% increase (to 341,417 offences) compared with the year ending June 2021.

In contrast, Action Fraud (the public-facing national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre) reported a 23% decrease in fraud offences (to 326,753 offences) compared with the year ending June 2021, when offences were at record levels (424,397 offences). This was driven by a 34% decrease in "Other fraud" (to 98,956 offences) and a 25% decrease in consumer and retail fraud (to 117,985 offences) and may be related to changes in behaviour as restrictions to social contact were lifted.

Notes for Fraud:

1. The UK Finance figures and NFIB totals presented in this bulletin and accompanying data tables are supplemented by provisional data provided by UK Finance. This is as a result of inconsistencies in the data collection process impacting a small percentage of the records supplied by UK Finance. The NFIB and UK Finance are working to ensure that all referrals from this period are processed, at which point the need for provisional data will be removed.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides a better indication of the volume of computer misuse offences experienced by the adult population than those reported to the police, as it captures incidents that go unreported to the police. This can be seen by the large difference in the volume of computer misuse offences between the two sources, which also cannot be compared because of differences in coverage.

Estimates from the CSEW showed that computer misuse offences decreased by 27% in the year ending June 2022 (to 641,000 offences), compared with the year ending March 2020. This includes a 72% decrease in computer virus offences.

This was a marked change compared with findings from the Telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) for the year ending March 2022, where we reported an 89% increase in computer misuse offences. While some of the reported increase in TCSEW estimates were likely to be genuine, our updated comparability report showed that part of this increase can be explained by survey bias. These new estimates from the CSEW provide our best estimate of the current level of computer misuse and suggest any real increase measured by TCSEW was likely specific to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) record computer misuse offences and disseminate them to the police for investigation. The NFIB reported a 4% increase in computer misuse offences referred by Action Fraud (from 28,464 to 29,637 offences) for the year ending June 2022 compared with the year ending June 2021.

The police recorded 1.2 million incidents of anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the year ending June 2022. This was a 16% decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (1.4 million incidents) and a 35% decrease compared with the year ending June 2021 (1.8 million incidents). Levels of ASB incidents were particularly high in the year ending June 2021, in part, because of people reporting breaches of coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions in their local area since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which most police forces logged under ASB on their crime and incident recording systems.

We recently consulted on the Redesign of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). The purpose of the consultation was to update survey data users on the methodological redesign of the CSEW, including a new panel design with multi-modal waves and to provide the opportunity to comment on survey content. A summary of responses to the consultation and our next steps will be published by 13 November 2022.

Computer misuse

Computer misuse is when fraudsters hack or use computer viruses or malware to disrupt services, obtain information illegally or extort individuals or organisations.

Criminal damage

Criminal damage results from any person who, without lawful excuse, destroys or damages any property belonging to another. This includes either intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged.

Fraud

Fraud involves a person dishonestly and deliberately deceiving a victim for personal gain of property or money or causing loss or risk of loss to another. The majority of incidents fall under the legal definition of "Fraud by false representation" - where a person makes a representation that they know to be untrue or misleading (for example, banking and payment card frauds and dating scams). Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates cover a broad range of fraud offences, including attempts, involving a loss and incidents not reported to the authorities. See the Glossary section of our Nature of fraud and computer misuse in England and Wales: year ending March 2022 article for definitions of the different fraud types.

Overall theft offences

CSEW theft offences include all personal and household crime where items are stolen, including theft from the person, other theft of personal property, domestic burglary, vehicle-related theft and bicycle theft.

Robbery

Robbery is an offence in which force, or the threat of force, is used either during or immediately prior to a theft or attempted theft. Mugging is an informal term for robbery. In this bulletin, we use the term "robbery".

Violent crime

Violent crime covers a range of offence types from minor assaults, such as pushing and shoving that result in no physical harm, to murder. This includes offences where the victim was intentionally stabbed, punched, kicked, pushed or jostled, as well as offences where the victim was threatened with violence, regardless of injury.

More information and further definitions can be found in the "offence type" section of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: measuring crime during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates continue to provide important information in relation to longer-term trends in crime from the year ending December 1981 to the year ending June 2022.

The face-to-face CSEW was suspended on 17 March 2020 because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A telephone-operated Crime Survey for England and Wales (TCSEW) was designed to continue measuring crime while the face-to-face CSEW was suspended. TCSEW data collection took place between 20 May 2020 and 31 March 2022.

Face-to-face CSEW interviewing for adults aged 16 years and over resumed on 4 October 2021. Crime estimates for year ending June 2022 are produced from nine months of data collection between October 2021 to June 2022. Estimates are derived from a total of 13,572 interviews conducted with household residents in England and Wales aged 16 years and over. CSEW estimates can be compared with the year ending March 2020 estimates throughout this bulletin, the last time period for which CSEW data were published.

Face-to-face interviewing for children aged 10 to 15 years resumed in April 2022. The first crime estimates for children aged 10 to 15 years are expected to be published in July 2023.

CSEW estimates for the year ending June 2022 have been temporarily suspended of their National Statistics status. Caution should be taken when interpreting these estimates because of the impact of the reduced data collection period and lower response rates on the quality of the estimates.

The Appendix Table A1 presents CSEW crime for the year ending June 2022. These estimates best reflect the current extent of crime and are directly comparable with the main CSEW time-series estimates.

Further information is available in our Crime in England and Wales QMI.

Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime data are supplied to us by the Home Office, who are responsible for the collation of recorded crime data supplied by the 43 territorial police forces of England and Wales, plus the British Transport Police. These data are supplied to the Home Office on a monthly basis for each crime within the notifiable offence list.

The recorded crime figures are collated through a live administrative system that is continually being updated as forces submit data. The data represent a “snapshot” of the live database taken on 9 September 2022 (for data up to the end of June 2022).

Figures may differ slightly from those published in subsequent bulletins for the same period, although this does not mean that the figures previously published were inaccurate at the time that they were reported. Police recorded crime data are not designated as National Statistics.

Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW)

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) includes crimes that are not reported to, or recorded by the police, but is limited to crimes against people resident in households and does not cover all crime types.

The CSEW is a better indicator of long-term trends for the crime types and population it covers, than police recorded crime because it is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police or police recording practices. The victimisation methodology and the crime types included in the main count of crime have remained comparable since the CSEW began in 1981.

Police recorded crime

Police recorded crime has wider offence coverage and population coverage than the CSEW. It is the primary source of local crime statistics and is a good measure of offences that are well-reported to and well-recorded by the police, including lower volume crimes (for example, homicide). In addition, the time lag between occurrence of crime and reporting results tends to be short, providing an indication of emerging trends.

Police recorded crime excludes offences that are not reported to, or not recorded by, the police. Trends can be influenced by changes in recording practices, or police activity and public reporting of crime, making it difficult to make long-term comparisons. There are also concerns about the quality of recording and that crime is not recorded consistently across police forces.

For more information see Crime in England and Wales QMI.