§ Lord Hoosonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have figures setting out the age groups of the victims of all kinds of physical and sexual assault crime in England and Wales for the years 1980 to 1993.
§ Baroness BlatchInformation about the age of adult victims of physical assault is available from the British Crime Survey. This interviews a sample of individuals aged 16 and over about their experiences of crime over the previous year, whether or not such incidents were reported to the police. Separate sweeps of the survey were carried out in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1992 and 1994. Table A as follows shows the age distribution of victims of violent incidents across all five sweeps of the survey. Generally, about eight out of 10 violent incidents involved victims under 40. The proportion is slightly lower in the most recent 1994 survey, but it is too early to say whether this constitutes part of a longer-term trend.
The British Crime Survey also asks women about their experience of sexual assaults, but the survey count is likely to be a gross under-estimate of the actual number of sexual incidents. For various reasons, women may be reluctant to talk about such experiences to the interviewer. The resulting survey count is too small to provide reliable information on the age of female victims of sexual assault.
Recorded crime figures are offence-based, but some information on victims is available from a series of ad 153WA hoc surveys of police forces carried out between 1984 and 1989. These surveys collected information on the age of victims of violence against the person and of sexual offences. For violence against the person offences, the age distribution of victims was broadly similar between 1984 and 1989 and between males and females. Roughly 10 per cent. were aged 10–15, 70 per cent. aged 16–39, 15 per cent. aged 40 and over and in 5 per cent. of cases ages were not recorded. There was
Table A: Age distribution of victims of violent incidents: 1982, 1984, 1988,1992 and 1994 Information from the British Crime Survey Percentage of incidents involving victims aged: 1981 Per cent. 1983 Per cent. 1987 Per cent. 1991 Per cent. 1993 Per cent. 16–39 85 84 87 82 77 40–59 10 14 10 15 21 60+ 5 2 3 3 2 Notes:
1. "Violence" comprises wounding, common assault and mugging.
2. Source: 1982, 1984, 1988, 1922 and 1994 British Crime Survey (weighted data); inciden-based analyses.
Table B: Age distribution of victims of rape1 offences; results from ad hoc surveys of police forces, 1984–1989 Percentage of recorded offences involving victims aged: 1984 Per cent. 1985 Per cent. 1986 Per cent. 1987 Per cent. 1988 cent. 1989 Per cent. 0–9 2 6 4 6 7 6 10–15 18 17 23 19 21 26 16–24 45 44 47 45 46 39 25–39 22 22 19 22 19 22 40–59 5 8 3 6 5 5 60 and over 2 2 1 1 1 2 Not recorded 5 2 3 1 1 1 1 Number of police forces providing data: 18/1984, 14/1985–1989 (same forces each year).
Table C: Age distribution of victims of offences of indecent assault on a female1; results from ad hoc surveys of police forces, 1984–1989 Percentage of recorded offences involving victims aged: 1984 Per cent. 1985 Per cent. 1986 Per cent. 1987 Per cent. 1988 Per cent. 1989 Per cent. 0–9 12 11 12 14 14 13 10–15 28 22 23 25 22 20 16–24 21 19 18 16 17 17 25–39 8 8 7 6 7 7 40–59 3 2 2 2 2 2 60 and over 1 1 0 1 1 1 Not recorded 27 37 37 37 38 40 1 Number of police forces providing data: 18/1984, 12/1985–1989 (same forces each year). 154WA
Table D: Age distribution of victims of buggery offences1; results from ad hoc surveys of police forces, 1984–1989 Percentage of recorded offences involving victims aged: 1984 Per cent. 1985 Per cent. 1986 Per cent. 1987 Per cent. 1988 Per cent. 1989 Per cent. 0–9 — 15 12 22 15 19 10–15 — 41 37 40 34 26 16–24 — 31 41 27 27 29 25–39 — 9 5 8 12 11 40–59 — 1 2 2 1 3 60 and over — 0 0 0 2 4 Not recorded — 4 3 2 10 8 1 Number of police forces providing data: 18/1984. 11/1985–1989 (same forces each year). an increase in the proportion of victims aged 25–39 (from 27 per cent. in 1984 to 33 per cent. in 1989) with a decrease in the proportion of victims aged 16–24 (from 38 per cent. in 1984 to 34 per cent. in 1989). The results from the surveys on the age distribution of victims of rape, indecent assault on a female, buggery and indecent assault on a male are shown in the following tables.
Table E: Age distribution of victims of offences of indecent assault on a male1; results from ad hoc surveys of police forces, 1984–1989 Percentage of recorded offences involving victims aged: 1984 Per cent. 1985 Per cent. 1986 Per cent. 1987 Per cent. 1988 Per cent. 1989 Per cent. 0–9 — 30 31 33 36 38 10–15 — 55 56 50 49 45 16–24 — 11 9 12 12 10 25–39 — 1 1 3 2 3 40–59 — 0 0 0 0 1 60 and over — 0 1 1 0 2 Not recorded — 2 2 1 1 1 1 Number of police forces providing data: 18/1984, 11/1985–1989 (same forces each year).