We can’t follow specific cases the whole way through, or directly compare data from different stages, but by looking at all data available, we can build up a picture of what happens from incident to conviction.

At stage 1 the data is about victims, stages 2 and 3 are about the incidents/offences, and stages 4 and 5 are about known offenders.

While there is data for rape incidents which are reported to the police but not formally recorded as crimes, there is no equivalent data for other sexual offences.

Click ‘next’ to understand more about each stage of the process.