The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported a new record of 6.6 million crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in 2022. This marks a 20% increase in

violent offenses from pre-Covid levels, totaling 2.1 million, while sex crimes rose by 19%, totaling 189,731.

The number of rapes reported also increased by 17%. However, the government's preferred measure of crime, the Crime Survey of England and Wales, suggested overall crime was down 12% compared with pre-pandemic levels. The proportion of crimes leading to suspects being charged or summonsed was just 5.6%, roughly the same as the previous year.

Despite the early signs of progress in improving the charge rate for sex crimes, the number of criminals brought to justice remained low. The data also showed that imitation firearms are now the primary type of weapon used in gun crime in England and Wales, accounting for 35% of gun crime, while knife crime was down 9% from pre-pandemic levels to 49,265 offenses, with threats to kill using a knife up by 22%. Photo by Southbanksteve from London, UK, Wikimedia commons.