Download our statistics update to find out about the latest crime trends

Download our statistics update to find out about the latest crime trends

Find out what the most recent data tells us about the way crime and violence is affecting young people today

Yesterday, we published our second statistics update.

We’ve created these regular briefings to provide you with a quick-to-read, easy-to-understand overview of the latest trends in crime and violence affecting young people. We also draw attention to some of the wider research and indicators about the vulnerability of children and young people to crime and exploitation.

The statistic updates complement our other evidence resources, such as the YEF Toolkit (which summarises the best available research on different approaches to preventing violence) and our other research reports. Through these tools, we’re aiming to give you the information you need to put evidence of what works to prevent serious violence into action.

In our latest statistics update, we’ve summarise data on police recorded crime, youth victims of homicide and modern slavery. Here’s what the data tells us…

Since lockdown measures ended crime has been rising

The total number of offences recorded by the police fell by 13% in 2020 compared to 2019. This includes homicides falling by 15%, robberies by 25%, and violence with injury by 9%. 

Victim-based crime reported by the police increased by 32% when comparing February and December 2021. Theft-related offences saw one of the largest increases, growing from around 93,000 to over 125,000.  

From April to December 2019 there were 1.34m violent offences against the person. Over the same period in 2021, these offences were 1.59m, which is an increase of 19%. This includes homicides rising by 2%, violence with injury rising by 4%, and violence without injury rising by 11%. 

Overall homicide fell during the first year of the pandemic, but child victims increased

The total number of homicide victims fell by 12% between 2019/20 and 2020/21 from 673 to 594. However, victims aged between 0-15 rose by 37% from 43 to 59.

Female victims of homicide aged 0-15 more than doubled, from 10 in 2019/20 to 24 in 2020/21. This resulted in the proportion of victims being girls increasing from 23% to 41%.

There’s growing evidence of the extent of child victims of modern slavery 

The National Referral Mechanism reported 5,468 referrals of potential child victims in 2021. This is an increase of 9% from 5,028 in 2020 and significantly up from the 294 referrals in 2011.

The police recorded 3,239 modern slavery offences involving child victims in 2020/21. This is an increase of 27% from the year before, where there were 2,547. 

Find out more

Download our Statistics update (May 2022) to read the full analysis and access the sources.

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