From the information collected centrally, it is not possible to identify those offences which are alcohol or drug-related. Such offences are not specifically defined by statute and details of the individual circumstances of offences do not feature in the recorded crime data series.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) provides information on the proportion of violent incidents in England and Wales where the offender was thought to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. According to the latest BCS (2005/06) the offender was thought to be under the influence of alcohol in 44 per cent. of violent incidents, and under the influence of drugs in 23 per cent. of violent incidents (see table 1 for figures for previous years).
The proportion of other crime-related incidents where the offender was thought to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs has not been estimated.
This information was published by the Home Office in the “Crime in England and Wales 2005/06” and “Violent Crime Overview, Homicide and Gun crime 2004/05” publications. This information is via Home Office websites:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0506.html
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0405.html
Percentage 1997 1999 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 Under influence of alcohol Yes 42 40 47 44 50 48 44 No 48 50 44 45 40 43 47 Do not know 10 9 9 11 10 9 9 Under influence of drugs Yes 18 18 21 20 19 18 23 No 53 55 56 52 50 52 53 Do not know 29 27 23 27 30 30 25
From the information collected centrally, it is not possible to identify those offences which are alcohol-related. Such offences are not specifically defined by statute and details of the individual circumstances of offences do not feature in the recorded crime data series.
The British Crime Survey (BCS) provides information on the number of violent incidents where the offender was thought to be under the influence of alcohol.
According to the latest BCS (2005-06) there were 1,029,000 violent incidents in England and Wales where the offender was thought to be under the influence of alcohol (see the following table for numbers since 2001-02 BCS). The numbers of alcohol-related violent incidents are not broken down by police force area or basic command unit.
This information was published by the Home Office in the Crime in England and Wales 2005-06 publication. This information is available in the Library, and via Home Office website:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/crimeew0506.html.
Number of offences (thousand)1 2001-02 1,251 2002-03 1,190 2003-04 1,302 2004-05 1,112 2005-06 1,029 1 BCS