Crimes involving individuals under the age of 18

Request

1.The number of crimes involving individuals under the age of 18, either as suspects or victims in the last three years? [Between April 6 - April 5 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023,24] Can the figures be broken down by year and separated by the number of victims and the number of suspects.

1a) Of those, how many pertain to violent crimes? Broken down by year and separated by victim / suspect. *By violent crimes, I refer to any act that physically harms or threatens to harm another person, or includes the use of a weapon. Such as assault, gun/knife crimes, sexual violence etc.

2.For the last year alone [Between April 6- April 5 2023/24], can you provide the 10 most common crimes/offences involving under 18s (as either suspects or victims). Can you include the name of the offence and the number of offences.

Response

I approached our Performance Review Unit for assistance with your request. An analyst within this unit has conducted a search of our Crime Management System - Connect which records complaints or allegations of those matters, which the Home Office specify should be recorded as 'crimes'. All our systems are designed and used first and foremost for Policing Purposes and have limited search capability. They provided me with the below search criteria:

Q1

Criteria Used - Criteria Used - Incident Created Date is between 06/04/2021 and 05/04/2024, SYP & crime only filter, Person Role is equal to SUSPECT, SUSPECT (ELIMINATED), SUSPECT (INSUFFICIENT TO PROCEED), SUSPECT (INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (NO ACTION) EVIDENTIAL DIFF., SUSPECT (NO ACTION) TIME LIMIT EXPIRED, SUSPECT (NOT INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (PROSECUTION PREVENTED), SUSPECT PRE ATHENA, VICTIM, Age At Incident is less than 18

Q1a

Criteria Used - Incident Created Date is between 06/04/2021 and 05/04/2024, SYP & crime only filter, Person Role is equal to SUSPECT, SUSPECT (ELIMINATED), SUSPECT (INSUFFICIENT TO PROCEED), SUSPECT (INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (NO ACTION) EVIDENTIAL DIFF., SUSPECT (NO ACTION) TIME LIMIT EXPIRED, SUSPECT (NOT INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (PROSECUTION PREVENTED), SUSPECT PRE ATHENA, VICTIM, Age At Incident is less than 18, HO Sub Group Name is equal to HOMICIDE, OTHER SEXUAL OFFENCES,VIOLENCE WITH INJURY, RAPE, VIOLEN DISORDER

Q2

Criteria Used - Incident Created Date is between 06/04/2023 and 05/04/2024, SYP & crime only filter, Person Role is equal to SUSPECT, SUSPECT (ELIMINATED), SUSPECT (INSUFFICIENT TO PROCEED), SUSPECT (INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (NO ACTION) EVIDENTIAL DIFF., SUSPECT (NO ACTION) TIME LIMIT EXPIRED, SUSPECT (NOT INTERVIEWED), SUSPECT (PROSECUTION PREVENTED), SUSPECT PRE ATHENA, VICTIM, Age At Incident is less than 18

Q1

Count of Person 

Q1A

Count of Person

Q2

Please note, every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete.
However, it is important to note that data has been extracted from data sources used by this force for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the
inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording systems and information assets.

The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures/data for any requests may have limitations, and this should be taken into account when those data are used.

Police forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures for capturing the data. For these
reasons this response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with responses you may receive from other police forces.