Police recorded crime in England and Wales had a Crime Severity Score of 16.3 in the year to March 2025, from 87 offences per 1,000 people
Crime Severity Score of police recorded crime, by type of offence, England and Wales, 2002-03 to 2024-25. The score is offences per 1,000 people, each weighted by how severely that offence is typically sentenced.
Latest figures
| Series | Period | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Violence against the person | 2024-25 | 4.9 |
| Sexual offences | 2024-25 | 5.4 |
| Robbery | 2024-25 | 1.3 |
| Theft | 2024-25 | 3.3 |
| Criminal damage and arson | 2024-25 | 0.2 |
| Other crimes against society | 2024-25 | 1.3 |
Notes
- The score counts each crime recorded by the police, weighted by how severely courts typically sentence that offence (from the share given custody and its average length, community orders and fines), per 1,000 people. More serious crimes count for more, so the score can rise while the number of crimes falls. In the year to March 2025 it was 16.3, from 87.2 offences per 1,000 people; in the year to March 2003 it was 15.9, from 110.6 offences per 1,000 people.
- The score fell to 9.3 in the year to March 2013 and has risen since, while the Crime Survey shows crime still falling. Violence and sexual offences account for 99% of the rise: police recorded 10.7 offences of violence per 1,000 people in the year to March 2013 and 31.9 in the year to March 2025, and 1.0 and 3.4 sexual offences. The share of adults the Crime Survey found were victims of violence was 2.2% in the year to March 2013 and 1.3% in the year to March 2026. The ONS puts much of the rise in police figures down to recording and reporting: a 2014 inspection found forces were failing to record many crimes, especially violence and sexual offences, after which recording became more complete, and more victims now report sexual offences and domestic abuse, including offences from years before. It treats the Crime Survey as the better guide to trends in the crimes the survey covers. Homicides and hospital admissions for knife assaults, which depend much less on recording, are in a separate chart.
- Fraud and computer misuse are not included. The ONS publishes the score as official statistics in development.
Sources
More on crime
- The Crime Survey found 17.1% of adults in England and Wales were victims of crime in the year to March 2026, or 9.6% excluding fraud and computer misuse
- England and Wales had 8.6 homicides per million people in the year to March 2025, and 54 hospital admissions for assault with a sharp object per million in the year to March 2026