Recorded crime jumps 13% in year with 225,706 offences

CRIME has soared in Wales – with robbery, sex attacks, and violent crime seeing the biggest increases.

Recorded crime in Wales has risen by more than a tenth (13%) in just a year, from 199,589 in 2016 to 225,706 in 2017, a rise of 26,117 crimes.

The size of the rise has varied between forces, with Gwent seeing the biggest rise, up 19%, with an 18% rise in North Wales, a 10% rise in Dyfed-Powys and a 9% rise in South NUMBER of offences recorded in Wales in 2017, with percentage change on 2016. Fraud offences not included.

Dyfed-Powys 25,114 ......................... +10% Gwent 46,903 ...................................... +19% North Wales 48,022 ........................... +18% South Wales 105,667 .......................... +9%

Wales. Among the types of crime seeing a big rise was violence against the person, up 21% in 2017. Police recorded 71,597 violent crimes in 2017, 11,743 more than in 2016.

Within this, Welsh police forces saw a 37% rise in cases of stalking and harassment. North Wales police recorded an 88% rise in stalking and harassment cases. The force has also seen reports of sexual offences soar, with a 30% rise between 2016 and 2017, with a total of 7,842 sex offences reported last year.

In Gwent, sex offences were up 48%, one of the biggest rises, with a 1,228 reported last year.

Possession of weapons offences were down, with a 13% fall in 2017, with 1,142 reported, with a rise also reported in robberies, up by 39% between 2016 and 2017, one of the biggest rises in Wales and England, with North Wales seeing the biggest rise, up 47%, and South Wales close behind with a 46% increase.

Theft offences were also up, by 7% in 2017, with a 2% rise in burglary. As well as this, drug offences were falling, down 4% in a year.

Alexa Bradley, Crime Statistics and Analysis, Office for National Statistics said: “These figures show that, for most types of offence, the picture of crime has been fairly stable, with levels much lower than the peak seen in the mid-1990s. Eight in ten adults had not experienced any of the crimes asked about in our survey in the latest year.

“However, we have seen an increase in the relatively rare, but ‘high-harm’ violent offences such as homicide, knife crime and gun crime, a trend that has been emerging over the previous two years. We have also seen evidence that increases in some types of theft have continued, in particular vehicle-related theft and burglary.”

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