Crime in England and Wales: year ending June 2023

The latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ending June 2023 showed that total crime decreased by 10% (to an estimated 8.4 million offences) compared with the year ending June 2022, mainly caused by decreases in fraud and criminal damage offences. This follows the long-term downward trend and recent falls since the beginning of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, with total crime 18% lower than the year ending March 2020. Compared with the previous year, estimates for individual crime types showed that:

• criminal damage decreased by 28%

• fraud decreased by 13%

• and computer misuse increased by 33%

The CSEW remains the best estimate of long-term trends in crimes against the household population. However, estimates for the year ending June 2022 and June 2023 should be interpreted with additional caution. The CSEW estimates presented for the year ending June 2022 are based on nine months of data collection rather than the normal 12-month interview period, and both years are subject to lower response rates, which may affect the quality of the estimates. CSEW estimates have been temporarily suspended of their National Statistics status while we assess data quality since the pandemic. For more information, see the Office for Statistics Regulation's Temporary suspension of National Statistics status for estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales note.

Although police recorded crime does not tend to be a good indicator of general trends in crime, it can give more insight into lower-volume but higher-harm offences, including those that the survey does not cover or capture well. Data for the year ending June 2023 showed:

• the number of homicides decreased by 10% to 602 offences compared with the year ending June 2022 (667 offences)

• police recorded robbery offences increased by 11% to 77,337 offences compared with the year ending June 2022 (69,432 offences), however, they remained 14% lower than the year ending March 2020 (90,194 offences)

• offences involving knives or sharp instruments (excluding Devon and Cornwall Police) increased by 3% (to 50,833 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (49,435 offences), but remain 7% lower compared with the year ending March 2020 (54,417 offences)

• offences involving firearms (excluding Devon and Cornwall Police) increased by 13% (to 6,645 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (5,860 offences), and are now at a similar level to the year ending March 2020 (6,511 offences)

According to Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates for the year ending June 2023, people aged 16 years and over experienced 8.4 million offences. This was a 10% decrease compared with the year ending June 2022 (9.4 million offences; Appendix Table A1c), and an 18% fall compared with the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic year ending March 2020 (10.2 million offences).

Since the mid-1990s, there have been long-term falls in overall CSEW crime estimates (Figure 1). However, long-term trends vary by crime type. For more information, see Table A1 in our Crime in England and Wales: Appendix tables.

For the crime types and population it covers, the 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 showed that approximately 84% of people aged 16 years and over did not experience any of the crimes asked about in the survey (Figure 2). The likelihood of being a victim varied by crime type, with fraud having the highest likelihood of victimisation (6%), followed by vehicle-related theft (3.2%).

Trends in police recorded crime

Police recorded crime has wider coverage than the CSEW and includes crimes against all people (including those aged under 16 years and the non-household population), and businesses, as well as victimless crimes, such as drug taking.

Police recorded crime in England and Wales in the year ending June 2023 was 4% higher than the previous year with 6.7 million crimes recorded compared with 6.5 million in the year ending June 2022. These increases were predominantly influenced by rises in shoplifting and fraud offences against businesses and other organisations, which are not included in the CSEW. 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).

Table 1: Overview of main crime types

Download the data

Notes:

1. PRC and CSEW data for the year ending June 2022 and June 2023 are not designated as National Statistics.
2. CSEW data relate to people aged 16 years and over. PRC data relate to crimes against individuals (including children), households, businesses, and society.
3. Data on knife or sharp instrument offences exclude Greater Manchester Police for the whole timeseries back to the year ending March 2011 and exclude Devon and Cornwall Police for the years ending March 2020 to June 2023.
4. Estimates for fraud, theft, violent crime and computer misuse are statistically significant at the 5% level. PRC figures are not subject to significance testing as they are not estimates but counts.

The police recorded 602 homicide offences in the year ending June 2023, a 10% decrease since the year ending June 2022 (667 offences).

The rate of homicide in the population for the year ending June 2023 remained low at 10 per 1 million people, compared with 11 per 1 million people in the year ending June 2022.

Of all recorded homicides in the year ending June 2023, the proportion of homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was the method of killing was 41%. This was similar to the year ending June 2022 (40%) (proportions for homicides where a knife or sharp instrument was the method of killing exclude data from Devon and Cornwall police).

For the latest analysis on homicide offences held within the Home Office Homicide Index, see our Homicide in England and Wales: year ending March 2022 article.

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 in the year ending June 2023 increased by 3% (50,833 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (49,435 offences). This was still 7% lower than pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic levels in the year ending March 2020 (54,417 offences). All figures exclude Devon and Cornwall Police. For further information, see Section 15: Strengths and limitations.

The Metropolitan, West Midlands and Greater Manchester police force areas (PFAs) were the three areas with the highest volume of knife-enabled crime. Compared with the year ending June 2022, knife or sharp instrument offences recorded by the West Midlands and Greater Manchester PFAs saw decreases of 5% (to 4,724 offences) and 16% (to 3,012 offences), respectively. In contrast, the Metropolitan Police Service saw a 21% increase to 13,503 offences. However, levels were still 8% lower compared with the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020 (14,681 offences).

Police recorded "possession of article with a blade or point" offences were 10% higher in the year ending June 2023 (28,211 offences) than in the year ending June 2022 (25,582 offences). This trend could have been influenced by targeted police action to tackle knife crime.

Other sources of data

The latest provisional admissions data for NHS hospitals in England and Wales showed a decrease in the number of admissions for assault by a sharp object in the year ending June 2023 (3,692 admissions). This was 11% lower than the year ending June 2022 (4,147 admissions) and 23% below the pre-coronavirus pandemic year ending March 2020 (4,769 admissions).

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

The police recorded 6,645 offences involving firearms in the year ending June 2023, a 13% increase compared with the year ending June 2022 (5,860 offences). Levels are now similar to the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic year ending March 2020 (6,511 offences). These figures exclude Devon and Cornwall Police. For further information, see Section 15: Strengths and limitations.

Offences involving firearms can be broken down by type of weapon. Increases were seen across all subcategories except for shotguns. The largest increases were seen in the use of imitation firearms, such as replica weapons and BB guns, which rose by 26% to 2,566 from 2,031 offences. All figures exclude Devon and Cornwall Police.

For data relating to offences involving weapons, see our Offences involving the use of weapons: data tables. For data relating to offences involving firearms, see our Crime in England and Wales: Other related tables.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides the best picture of the overall trends in violent crime experienced by the household population. There were an estimated 0.9 million violence offences in the year ending June 2023, no significant change compared with the year ending June 2022. However, this was 28% lower compared with the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic year ending March 2020 (1.2 million offences). This was mainly because of a 36% fall in violence with injury offences during this period. This follows a general downward trend in violent crime since its peak in 1995 (see Figure 6).

The decreases in violence compared with the year ending March 2020 were reflected in research conducted by the Violence Research Group at Cardiff University (PDF, 675KB). An estimated 164,723 people attended emergency units in England and Wales for treatment of violence-related injury in the year ending December 2022 (the estimate of emergency unit attendance in England and Wales is based on 41,628 people who were treated for violence-related injuries at 88 hospital sites). This was 6% lower than the pre-pandemic year of 2019, when there were an estimated 175,764 attendees.

Following rises in police recorded violence against the person since the year ending March 2015, there was a 1% decrease in the year ending June 2023, to 2.1 million offences, compared with the year ending June 2022. This could suggest that improvements to recording practices are beginning to have less impact on trends in these offences.

There were 700,236 stalking and harassment offences recorded by the police in the year ending June 2023. This was a slight fall (2%) from the year ending June 2022, following rises since the year ending March 2012.

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides a more reliable measure of long-term trends in domestic abuse and sexual offences than police recorded crime data as improvements in police recording practices and increased reporting have contributed to recent increases.

Domestic abuse

Latest estimates from the CSEW showed that 4.4% of people aged 16 years and over experienced domestic abuse in the year ending March 2023. When analysing data over time, we use the 16 to 59 years age range to give a comparable time series. The CSEW for the year ending March 2023 estimated that 5.1% of people aged 16 to 59 years experienced domestic abuse in the last year. This was a significant decrease compared with the year ending March 2020 (6.1%).

The police flagged 885,393 recorded offences as domestic abuse-related in the year ending June 2023. This represented little change compared with the year ending June 2022 (892,132 recorded offences). This included 699,277 violence against the person offences and 32,946 sexual offences that were flagged as domestic abuse-related. These figures exclude Devon and Cornwall Police. Data have been supplied by 22 police forces, based on a new methodology from April 2023 (the National Data Quality Improvement Service; NDQIS), for identifying whether an offence was domestic abuse-related or not.  For further information see Section 14, Measuring the data.

Further information and data related to domestic abuse can be found in our Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview: November 2022 bulletin. The next Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview bulletin is due to be published in November 2023.

Sexual offences

Latest estimates from the CSEW for the year ending March 2023 showed that 2.1% of people aged 16 years and over had experienced sexual assault (including attempted offences) in the last year. For analysing data over time, we use the 16 to 59 years age range to give a comparable time series. The CSEW for the year ending March 2023 estimated 2.7% of people 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 2022 (2.7%) or the year ending March 2020 (2.2%). The CSEW can also provide important context for police figures, for example, latest estimates showed that fewer than one in six victims of rape or assault by penetration reported the crime to the police (Table 13 of our Nature of sexual assault by rape or penetration, England and Wales dataset).

Following rises in police recorded sexual offences since the year ending March 2015, there was little change in the year ending June 2023 (193,096 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (196,297). Of all sexual offences recorded by the police in the year ending June 2023, 35% (68,109) were rape offences. This was a 3% decrease from 70,456 offences in the year ending June 2022. For a subset of forces supplying data to the Home Office Data Hub, 21% of all sexual offences, and 24% of adult rape offences, in the year ending June 2023 had taken place over a year prior to the incident being recorded.

Further data related to sexual offences can be found in our Sexual offences in England and Wales overview: year ending March 2022 bulletin.

CSEW data on the prevalence of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking for the year ending March 2023 can be found in Tables S40 to S42 of our dataset, Crime in England and Wales: Annual supplementary tables, year ending March 2023.

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 that are well-reported to the police (for example, burglary) and can provide better insight into emerging short-term trends.

There were 2.6 million incidents of theft estimated by the CSEW for the year ending June 2023, no significant change compared with the previous year, but a 20% decrease compared with the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic year ending March 2020 (3.3 million offences). This large fall was seen across most subcategories, including theft from the person (21%), "other theft of personal property" (31%), domestic burglary (32%) and vehicle-related theft (18%).

"Neighbourhood" crime, defined in the Home Office's Beating crime plan, includes robbery and selected theft offences (theft from the person, domestic burglary, and vehicle-related theft). The CSEW estimated that there were 1.5 million "neighbourhood crime" incidents in the year ending June 2023, no significant change compared with the previous year, but a 25% decrease compared with the year ending March 2020.

Police recorded theft has increased by 10% (to 1.7 million offences) compared with the year ending June 2022. This rise was predominantly the result of increases in theft offences against businesses, such as shoplifting (a 25% increase to 365,164 offences). However, similar to trends in the CSEW, the number of police recorded theft offences were 10% lower than in the year ending March 2020 (1.9 million offences). Within theft offences, burglary offences remained 29% lower (272,402 offences) and vehicle offences remained 14% lower (400,861 offences) compared with the year ending March 2020.

Police recorded burglary includes both residential and non-residential burglary, such as those committed against a business premises, and therefore differs from the residential burglary captured by the Crime Survey. Although total burglary remains comparable, a new classification of residential burglary offences was introduced in April 2023 and includes a breakdown of residential burglary from the main home and parts of buildings that are within the boundary of a dwelling.

Police recorded robbery increased by 11% (to 77,337 offences) in comparison with the year ending June 2022 (69,432 offences) but remained 14% lower than in the year ending March 2020 (90,194 offences). Police recorded crime is our preferred measure for robbery as it is not thought to be subject to extensive changes in recording practice, whereas the CSEW estimates are subject to year-to-year volatility because of the small number of victims.

There were approximately 660,000 incidents of criminal damage estimated by the CSEW for the year ending June 2023, a 28% decrease compared with the previous year (approximately 920,000 offences). Similarly, police recorded criminal damage also decreased by 3% (to 496,999 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022.

Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ending June 2023 showed that there were 3.3 million fraud offences. This was a 13% decrease compared with the year ending June 2022 (3.8 million offences). The CSEW can also provide important context for police figures, for example, our latest Crime in England and Wales estimates showed that fewer than one in seven fraud offences were reported to the police or Action Fraud (the public-facing national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre).

Similarly, Action Fraud (the public-facing national fraud and cybercrime reporting centre) reported a 9% decrease in fraud (290,046 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (319,622 offences). Police recorded fraud data presented in this section exclude Devon and Cornwall Police for offences recorded by Action Fraud. 

Despite these decreases, overall police recorded fraud was 15% higher (1.1 million offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (1.0 million offences). The increase in overall fraud was mainly influenced by a rise in offences reported by two industry bodies, UK Finance and Cifas (See Section 14: Measuring the data). UK Finance reported a 46% increase (to 465,894 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (319,311 offences). This was a result of an increase in reporting from their existing members because of engagement from UK Finance. Cifas also reported a 7% increase in fraud (to 366,797 offences) compared with the year ending June 2022 (341,417 offences).

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) provides a better indication of the volume of computer misuse offences experienced by people aged 16 years and over than those reported to the police, as it captures incidents that go unreported to the police. The latest CSEW estimates showed that fewer than one in twenty computer misuse offences were reported to the police or Action Fraud.

Estimates from the CSEW for the year ending June 2023 showed that there were approximately 850,000 offences of computer misuse. This was a 33% increase from the year ending June 2022 (around 641,000 offences). This was similar to the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic year ending March 2020 (876,000 offences).

The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB) record computer misuse offences and refer those with good investigative leads to the police for further investigation. The NFIB reported a 10% decrease in computer misuse offences referred by Action Fraud (from 28,944 to 26,143 offences) for the year ending June 2023 compared with the year ending June 2022.

Estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) for the year ending June 2023 showed that 34% of people had experienced or witnessed some type of anti-social behaviour (ASB). This was a 15% decrease compared with the pre-pandemic year ending March 2020.

The police recorded 1.0 million incidents of ASB in the year ending June 2023 (including the British Transport Police). This was an 11% decrease compared with the year ending June 2022 (1.2 million incidents).

The CSEW also asks questions around individuals’ perceptions of ASB in their local area, resulting in both a general and more specific measure based on a number of types of ASB. In the year ending June 2023, the CSEW estimated that 23% of people perceived ASB to be a fairly or very big problem in their local area (general measure) compared with 8% of people who perceived their local area had a high level of ASB. Since the year ending March 2013, the trends across both measures have remained consistent, with little change year on year.

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 Section 5: Offence types, of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: March 2023.

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 2023.

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 people aged 16 years and over resumed on 4 October 2021. Crime estimates for the year ending June 2023 are produced from data collected between July 2022 to June 2023 and are based on 30,667 interviews. Data collected during this period include experiences of crime in the 12 months before the interview month, and therefore include crimes committed as early as July 2021. Similarly, the year ending June 2022 (13,752 interviews from nine months of data collection) will include crimes committed during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and as early as October 2020.

Crime Survey estimates for the year ending March 2022 onwards are not designated as National Statistics. Caution should be taken when using these data because of the potential impact of lower response rates on data quality. For more information, see the Office for Statistics Regulation's Temporary suspension of National Statistics status for estimates from the Crime Survey for England and Wales note.

Our Appendix Table A1 presents CSEW crime for the year ending June 2023. These estimates best reflect the current extent of crime and are directly comparable with the main CSEW time-series estimates. 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 before the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. An additional table, Appendix Table A1c has been added to this release to allow comparisons with year ending June 2022. Only estimates for high volume headline crime types are presented in this table because of the lower sample size for the year ending June 2022.

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 their 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 15 September 2023 (for data up to the end of June 2023).

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.

A new data collection method, the National Data Quality Improvement Service (NDQIS), is now in use for two police collections, offences involving knives or sharp instruments and domestic abuse-related offences. NDQIS identifies offences that involved a knife or were domestic abuse-related rather than relying on a manually added marker. Currently, 41 police forces have switched to NDQIS for knife or sharp instrument offences. Two remaining police forces and the British Transport Police have yet to implement the new system (Staffordshire and Gloucestershire). From April 2023, 22 forces (Avon and Somerset, Bedfordshire, Cheshire, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Durham, Gwent, Hertfordshire, Kent, Leicestershire, Merseyside, Norfolk, North Wales, Nottinghamshire, South Wales, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, Warwickshire, West Mercia and Wiltshire) supplied data on offences that were domestic abuse-related based on NDQIS. The new methodology will lead to an increase in offences identified as being domestic abuse-related. Data based on ten police forces on both the old and new NDQIS method showed that the number of additional offences that were identified as being domestic abuse-related across these forces was 2%. Therefore, data for the latest year are not directly comparable with previous data.

For more information on NDQIS, please see our Police recorded offences involving knives or sharp instruments: methodology changes.

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 or over time.

For more information, see our Crime in England and Wales Quality and Methodology Information report.

Issue with Devon and Cornwall Police recorded crime data

Following the implementation of a new IT system in November 2022, Devon and Cornwall Police have been unable to supply data for the period, October 2022 to June 2023 for the following offences: knife or sharp instruments, firearms, those flagged as domestic abuse-related, and those recorded by Action Fraud. 

Violent crime

In published crime statistics, violent crime as measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and police recorded crime differ. This includes large-volume crimes, such as stalking and harassment, which the survey does not publish in its main estimates of crime but are in the police figures. For more information, see Section 4 of our User guide to crime statistics for England and Wales: March 2023.