asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many persons were murdered in each of the years 1952 to 1979 inclusive in England and Wales.
In a case of homicide, it is not possible in the absence of a court decision to distinguish between offences of murder, manslaughter and infanticide. The number of offences initially recorded by the police as homicide for the years 1957 to 1978 and the number of offences decided by the court to be murder for the years 1968 to 1978 are published in Tables 9·1 and 9·3 of " Criminal Statistics, England and Wales, 1978 " (Cmnd. 7670); one offence is counted for each victim. Information for 1979 is not yet available. The information available for earlier years is given in the following table:Offences initially recorded by the police as homicide and offences decided by the courts to be murder
ENGLAND AND WALES | ||
Year | Offences initially recorded by the police as homicide | Number of offences Offences decided by the courts to be murder |
1952 | 400 | .. |
1953 | 327 | .. |
1954 | 311 | .. |
1955 | 279 | .. |
1956 | 315 | .. |
1957 | 36 | |
1958 | 26 | |
1959 | 44 | |
1960 | 41 | |
1961 | 38 | |
1962 | 38 | |
1963 | 38 | |
1964 | 47 | |
1965 | 54 | |
1966 | 64 | |
1967 | 66 | |
Not available. |