Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')
As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.
You asked:
- The number of recorded sexual offences against children aged under 18, for the period 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020, broken down by age and gender of victims (by individual year of age where possible)
- The number of recorded sexual offences against under 18s for the above time frame that had a cyber flag attached.
Please note, we are aware that changes to recording practice mean police are now able to flag offences where children have been sexually abused, however as the ONS notes "the data quality for these figures is variable across police forces" we would still like to be sent the actual number of sexual offences against children under 18 based on your records.
We are also aware that some data is published by the ONS about child sexual offences with a cyber flag. However this data only includes flags relating to specific offence codes, whereas we are interested in all sexual offences against under 18 year olds with a cyber flag.
In Response:
Following receipt of your request, searches were conducted with the Corporate Development Department of Northumbria Police. I can confirm that the information you have requested is held by Northumbria Police.
I am able to disclose the located information to you as follows with the caveat below noted.
In the event that the offence is against a victim under the age of 18 (eg, as stated by the offence description) however the age is not clear, this has been noted as "Unknown."
This data does include historic offences and as such the information logged may be less accurate than a more recently reported crime.
This data covers all cases wherein the victim age is under 18 or the offence description mandates a victim under this age.
In either case, this is the number of such crimes that appear on the force systems as being sexual offences wherein the victim is or was under 18.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.
With all the above noted – see below.
- Overall
|
Age |
F |
M |
Unknown |
|
Unknown |
100 |
40 |
2 |
|
0 |
4 |
7 |
2 |
|
1 |
8 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
12 |
6 |
|
|
3 |
38 |
9 |
1 |
|
4 |
36 |
11 |
|
|
5 |
45 |
22 |
2 |
|
6 |
44 |
27 |
1 |
|
7 |
44 |
24 |
|
|
8 |
48 |
23 |
|
|
9 |
49 |
22 |
|
|
10 |
72 |
30 |
|
|
11 |
140 |
41 |
|
|
12 |
177 |
58 |
|
|
13 |
272 |
46 |
|
|
14 |
262 |
41 |
|
|
15 |
264 |
30 |
1 |
|
16 |
115 |
14 |
|
|
17 |
120 |
15 |
|
2. Including "Cyber" flag
|
Age |
F |
M |
Unknown |
|
Unknown |
9 |
1 |
|
|
3 |
2 |
|
|
|
6 |
|
1 |
|
|
7 |
3 |
|
|
|
8 |
5 |
3 |
|
|
9 |
17 |
3 |
|
|
10 |
27 |
4 |
|
|
11 |
71 |
13 |
|
|
12 |
80 |
23 |
|
|
13 |
102 |
20 |
|
|
14 |
74 |
9 |
|
|
15 |
62 |
9 |
|
|
16 |
4 |
1 |
|
