The sex crime epidemic... One MILLION adults are victims in just 12 months

MORE than a million people were victims of sexual offences in a year, according to official estimates.

Figures from the Crime Survey of England and Wales suggest 1.1million people aged 16 and over suffered a sexual assault in the 12 months to March 2022.

The total was made up of 798,000 women and 275,000 men, and also included attempted offences.

Some one in six people – equivalent to 7.9million – had been a victim of a sex crime at some point in their lives since the age of 16. Of those, 1.9million had been raped – 7.7 per cent of women and 0.2 per cent of men.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) had previously estimated that a total of 773,000 people were victims of a sex crime in the year to March 2020.

It advised that the latest figures should be treated with ‘caution’ because they had been gathered in a ‘reduced data collection period’ due to the Covid pandemic. It means the totals cannot be compared. The ONS said ‘unwanted sexual touching’ was the most common type of sex assault experienced by adults.

The Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW) figures, based on interviews with 35,000 people and then extrapolated to the population of both countries, are regarded by ministers as the more accurate picture of crime levels.

The ONS has indicated that CSEW figures are more complete than reported crime data – the number of offences actually reported to police – because not all of the victims make a complaint.

Yesterday’s ONS report on sex crimes showed that 193,566 sexual offences were reported to the police in the year to March 2022.

That headline figure, first published in October, rose to a record 199,021 in more updated figures covering the year to

‘More people coming forward’

September. The ONS said: ‘ The increases in police recorded sexual offences seen in recent years largely reflect improvements made by the police in how they record these crimes and an increased willingness of victims to come forward and report.’

It added that high-profile incidents, media coverage and campaigns are ‘likely to have affected people’s willingness to report both recent and historical incidents’.