Violence
Violent crime in England and Wales
The British Crime Survey (BCS), from the Research Development and Statistics Directorate, is the most reliable measure of crime. This latest report estimates that violent crime has fallen since 1995 and is now stable, but the nature of violent crime is changing. Domestic violence and acquaintance violence have fallen since 1995 while stranger violence and muggings have remained stable.
Title: Violent crime in England and Wales
Author: Research
Development and Statistics Directorate
Series: Report 18/04
Number of pages: 22
Date published: April 2004
Key points
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The majority of violent crimes involve no significant injury to the victim and about a half involve no injury at all. In the 2002/03 BCS 11% of incidents resulted in medical attention from a doctor and 2% in a hospital stay.
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Young men aged 16 to 24 are most at risk of becoming a victim of violent crime. The risk of violence is higher for men than for women in each of the crime types except domestic violence. Violent incidents are most likely to involve male offenders and those aged 16 to 24.
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The BCS shows an increase in the quantity of violent crimes that are reported to the police, from 35% in 1999 to 41% in 2002/03. In the same period the BCS estimates that the recording of reported crime increased from 36% to 52%.
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Police figures show that recorded violent crime is concentrated in relatively few areas. This is particularly prominent for robbery, where two-thirds of all crimes are accounted for by just one tenth of all Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, which contain 22% of the population.
Overview of violent crime in England and Wales
The British Crime Survey (BCS) estimated that there were 2,715,000 violent incidents experienced by adults in England and Wales, based on year ending December 2003 interviews, comprising 22% of all BCS crime. Just over one million violent offences were recorded by the police in 2003 (18% of all recorded crime).
Police recorded and BCS violence by offence, 2003
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There was no injury in at least 51% of all recorded violence against the person offences in 2003.
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The more serious offences within violence against the person accounted for 5% of recorded violence in the year to December 2003.
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In 48% of all BCS violent incidents there was no injury, rising to 62% and 63% for common assault and robbery respectively.
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11% of BCS violent incidents, from 2002/03 BCS interviews, resulted in medical attention from a doctor. 2% of all BCS violent incidents resulted in a hospital stay, ranging from 6% of wounding victims to 1% of robbery victims.
Risk of becoming a victim
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The risk of being a victim of violent crime one or more times a year for those interviewed by the BCS in 2003 was 4.1%. According to the 2002/03 BCS, young men aged 16 to 24 were most at risk, with 15 % experiencing violence in the recall period
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The risk of experiencing acquaintance violence (for those aged 16 and over) was 1.3 % and for stranger violence 1.6%. For mugging the risk was 0.9 % and the chance of being a victim of domestic violence 0.6 %
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Overall, the risk of violence was higher for men than for women. The risk of stranger violence for men was over three and one-half times that for women; men also had twice the risk of acquaintance violence. Domestic violence was the only type of violence that women were at greater risk than men
Types of violent crime
Violent crime measured by the BCS can be sub-divided into a typology of 4 groupings, broadly on the basis of the relationship between suspect and victim:
Domestic violence - includes all violent incidents, except mugging, which involve partners, ex-partners, household members or other relatives.
Mugging - comprises robbery, attempted robbery, and snatch theft from the person.
Stranger violence - includes common assaults and woundings in which the victim did not know any of the offenders in anyway.
Acquaintance violence - comprises woundings and common assaults in which the victim knew one or more of the offenders at least by sight.
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Violent crime in England and Wales 
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Last update: 30 April 2004