The number of people (a) prosecuted and (b) convicted of charges related to having sexual intercourse with an underage person can be viewed in the following table.
Court proceedings data for 2006 will be available in the autumn of 2007.
Prosecuted Found guilty Force 2003 2004 2005 2003 2004 2005 Avon and Somerset 166 115 108 70 76 47 Bedfordshire 34 54 60 28 25 28 Cambridgeshire 50 58 58 24 35 34 Cheshire 88 79 79 42 48 44 City of London — — 2 — — 1 Cleveland 42 41 49 23 35 26 Cumbria 39 50 40 30 27 25 Derbyshire 104 99 113 57 69 48 Devon and Cornwall 65 68 74 64 79 78 Dorset 37 38 42 27 13 27 Durham 69 65 74 41 47 40 Essex 84 96 65 42 48 46 Gloucestershire 38 39 40 23 15 22 Greater Manchester 301 268 257 172 144 166 Hampshire 205 205 149 98 104 86 Hertfordshire 64 87 69 31 48 30 Humberside 78 85 76 49 55 54 Kent 104 102 80 76 57 71 Lancashire 149 171 165 82 103 82 Leicestershire 84 97 88 52 59 48 Lincolnshire 51 86 64 .29 38 32 Merseyside 89 107 73 58 75 53 Metropolitan Police 540 442 462 219 217 176 Norfolk 38 53 54 37 36 45 North Yorkshire 52 52 44 33 42 26 Northamptonshire 47 43 36 37 39 26 Northumbria 128 101 96 78 75 56 Nottinghamshire 120 146 111 59 73 63 South Yorkshire 98 97 96 78 77 72 Staffordshire 127 121 91 63 67 51 Suffolk 51 47 58 24 30 41 Surrey 59 40 63 26 29 16 Sussex 103 82 94 56 46 41 Thames Valley 109 103 138 58 61 60 Warwickshire 29 28 35 22 19 21 West Mercia 97 112 120 65 74 80 West Midlands 339 330 224 168 188 137 West Yorkshire 226 234 188 103 160 130 Wiltshire 52 51 53 37 37 19 England 4,156 4,092 3,788 2,281 2,470 2,148 Dyfed-Powys 34 53 29 19 20 24 Gwent 66 85 86 38 47 37 North Wales 50 74 58 29 25 25 South Wales 129 151 84 68 68 50 Wales 279 363 257 154 160 136 England and Wales 4,435 4,455 4,045 2,435 2,630 2,284
Force 2003 2004 2005 2003 2004 2005 Avon and Somerset 66 69 65 38.9 48.8 35.7 Bedfordshire 79 89 68 32.5 41.7 40.7 Cambridgeshire 64 74 65 31 29.9 37.6 Cheshire 68 64 68 40.7 52.1 49.8 City of London — — — — — — Cleveland 77 66 72 55.7 47 59.3 Cumbria 79 78 57 32.5 34 42.3 Derbyshire 67 68 63 43.2 35.9 42.6 Devon and Cornwall 56 78 65 55.3 37.8 41.3 Dorset 70 69 78 43.7 37.6 29 Durham 50 55 55 28.4 35.5 43.7 Essex 74 65 73 33.6 37 30.7 Gloucestershire 70 63 65 40.9 43.7 25.3 Greater Manchester 62 56 66 39.3 38 38.1 Hampshire 64 64 67 32.6 36 48.2 Hertfordshire 87 69 87 45.6 30.1 45.1 Humberside 63 65 68 34.6 39.8 41.8 Kent 70 72 71 33.6 37.8 42.2 Lancashire 78 71 73 31.1 38.8 50.4 Leicestershire 63 57 61 50.8 45 38.5 Lincolnshire 45 59 69 44.4 38.2 46.7 Merseyside 61 78 76 35.7 43.9 55.2 Metropolitan Police 72 72 74 43.5 46.1 44.1 Norfolk 86 81 77 40.8 31.4 34.1 North Yorkshire 56 74 81 33.2 48.3 51.1 Northamptonshire 84 73 77 44.8 49.2 41.9 Northumbria 50 56 63 48.8 42.5 35 Nottinghamshire 67 58 61 43 39.4 46.1 South Yorkshire 62 74 60 46.3 45.1 61.1 Staffordshire 73 51 55 41.5 35.2 44.2 Suffolk 74 71 67 48.1 35 38.8 Surrey 52 52 63 26.1 20.8 28.5 Sussex 75 78 73 44.4 51.3 41.8 Thames Valley 66 68 69 42.4 41.6 45.8 Warwickshire 54 44 82 39 41 48.2 West Mercia 65 60 61 34.2 27.7 25.6 West Midlands 56 52 64 38.8 39.4 51.4 West Yorkshire 49 63 63 34.3 44.8 43.8 Wiltshire 60 64 72 42.8 49.7 22.8 England 65 65 67 39.9 40.5 42.9 Dyfed-Powys 50 65 74 31.6 57.8 39.9 Gwent 62 60 72 51.7 42.6 32.1 North Wales 48 73 68 38.6 39.3 37.2 South Wales 75 70 60 41.3 56 43 Wales 64 67 67 94.3 118.4 104.1 England and Wales 65 65 67 40.1 41.2 42.7 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 data 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. 3 Includes data from the Sexual Offences Act 2003, which came into force on 1 May 2003. 4 Data includes those offences where there has been unlawful sexual intercourse and the age of the victim has been specified as being under 16 years of age in the offence description. 5 Care should be taken when using the immediate custody and average sentence length data, as in a number of instances force data is based on less than 100 cases. Immediate custody data includes those offenders given life sentences etc. (and may include indeterminate sentences). Average sentence length (months) does not include life sentences and indeterminate sentence lengths. Source: RDS—Office for Criminal Justice Reform—Ministry of Justice