Policing Sexual Violence: A Five-Year Descriptive Analysis of Police-Recorded Sexual Offence Crime Trends and Regional Variation Across England and Wales

This study examines temporal and regional patterns in police-recorded sexual offences across England and Wales between the years ending June 2021 and June 2025. Using Office for National Statistics (ONS) police-recorded crime data, a quantitative descriptive analysis was conducted examining annual offence counts, year-on-year percentage change, overall percentage change, population-adjusted regional offence rates (per 10,000 population) and the proportion of sexual offences within overall recorded crime across England and Wales, between 2021 and 2025. The findings indicate an overall increase in police-recorded sexual offences across the five-year observation period, alongside clear regional variation. The Northeast, Northwest, and Yorkshire and the Humber, generally recorded higher rates per population, whereas London and the East of England generally recorded lower rates. Sexual offences represented a relatively small but regionally variable proportion of all recorded crime. The observed patterns may reflect not only underlying offending but also differences in victim reporting, police recording practices, legislative change and policing activity. By providing an up-to-date five-year regional analysis during a post-pandemic period, marked by policing reform and legislative change, this study contributes new evidence on recent geographical and temporal patterns in police-recorded sexual offences across England and Wales. Although police-recorded crime does not provide a direct measure of the prevalence of sexual victimisation, it offers valuable insights into recent spatial and temporal trends and provides an important evidence base for informing policing priorities, resource allocation and future research.