Information showing the number of offenders cautioned for offences of rape and attempted rape in England and Wales, from 2005 to 2007 (latest available) can be viewed in the table.
Data for 2008 are planned for publication at the end of January 2010.
The Ministry of Justice cannot separately identify domestic violence offences from other offences of assault and violence against the person. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) advise that domestic violence cases have to be referred by the police to a prosecutor for a charging decision in accordance with the Director's Guidance on Charging. A report of domestic violence to the police is unlikely to have been the first incident, and for that reason cautions should be rarely administered in these cases. If there is sufficient evidence of an offence, the public interest will usually mean that the decision is taken to prosecute the case in the courts.
The number of domestic violence prosecutions undertaken by the CPS has increased from 34,839 in 2004-05 to 67,094 in 2008-9. The proportion of successful cases has also risen from 55 per cent. in March 2005 to 71.9 per cent. in September 2009.
Offence description 2005 2006 2007 Rape 20 19 32 Attempted rape 2 5 2 Total 22 24 34 1 The cautions statistics relate to persons for whom these offences were the principal offences for which they were dealt with. When a defendant has been cautioned for two or more offences at the same time the principal offence is the more serious offence. 2 From 1 June 2000 the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 came into force nationally and removed the use of cautions for persons under 18 and replaced them with reprimands and warnings. These figures have been included in the totals. 3 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 police forces. 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. (Data given includes rape/attempted rape of male and female. Source: Justice Statistics Analytical Services - Ministry of Justice
The information requested is not available. It is not possible to identify offences involving domestic violence using the department's extract from the police national computer, which is the source of data on previous offences; domestic violence offences cannot be distinguished from other violent offences.