The information requested on arrests for serious sexual assaults is not available centrally. Information on arrests is based on persons arrested for recorded crime “notifiable” offences by main offence group (i.e. sexual offences, theft and handling stolen goods, violence against the person and burglary etc.) and therefore does not identify individual offences or offence classes.
Information from the Court Proceedings database held by the Office for Criminal Justice Reform showing the number of defendants convicted of serious sexual assaults is shown in the following table. Figures for 2005 will be available in November 2006.
Offence class Defendantsfound guilty 17 Sexual assault on a male 356 19 Rape 751 20 Sexual assault on a female 2,252 21 Sexual offences (including with child under 13) 92 22 Sexual offences (including with child under 16) 306 Total 757 1 These data are on the principal offence basis. 2 Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from large administrative date systems generated by the police forces and courts. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when those data are used.