Police in England and Wales registered a record of almost 200,000 cases of sexual offenses in the year before September 2022, The Times newspaper reported on Thursday, citing data from the UK Home Office
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th January, 2023) Police in England and Wales registered a record of almost 200,000 cases of sexual offenses in the year before September 2022, The Times newspaper reported on Thursday, citing data from the UK Home Office.
According to the Home Office, the number of sexual crimes increased by 22% compared to the year before the pandemic, up to March 2020, The Times said.
However, of more than 199,000 sexual crimes registered by the police in England and Wales, only 6,368 resulted in a suspect being charged, the report said. In 42% of cases, victims dropped the charges because they lost the hope of bringing the offender to justice.
The reasons for such high criminal rates are improvements in how police record crime as well as victims being more willing to come forward in the light of high-profile cases and campaigns, the newspaper added.
In total, police recorded 5.5 million crimes between October 2021 and September 2022.
