Violence against Women and Girls Crime report contents

acquittals account for the majority of unsuccessful outcomes, this fall may, in part, be a result of a
greater focus since 2014-15 on the presentation of cases at court and awareness raising campaigns –
further details are provided below.
Out of all unsuccessful outcomes, those due to victim issues remained steady at 17.1% in 2015-16
(17% in 2014-15); of which 10.7% was due to victim retraction. Out of all rape flagged cases
prosecuted, the proportion that was unsuccessful due to victim issues 99 has fallen slightly from 7.3%
in 2014-15 to 7.2% in 2015-16.
Compared to the previous year, the data indicates that within the rise in prosecutions, there was a
slight increase in defendants pleading guilty, meaning fewer cases were going to a full trial and, of
those, more convictions were being secured with fewer jury acquittals.
Table 4 provides data on contested cases 100 since 2010-11 to supplement the data provided above
based on prosecutions and unsuccessful outcomes. One measure of the appropriateness of the cases
taken to court is the low level of judge directed acquittals (JDAs) 101 . The proportion of JDAs remains
low as indicated in table 4.
Table 4: Crown Court Contests exclusive of mixed pleas 102
2010 - 11 2011-12 2012 - 13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
Conviction after trial 793 854 849 936 1,016 1,032
% Conviction after trial 46.6% 52.3% 51.5% 49.2% 44.5% 45.4%
Judge directed
acquittal
72 45 35 38 41 43
% JDA 4.2% 2.8% 2.1% 2.0% 1.8% 1.9%
Jury Acquittal 838 733 763 930 1,225 1,199
% Jury Acquittal 49.2% 44.9% 46.3% 48.8% 53.7% 52.7%
Total Acquittal after
trial
910 778 798 968 1,266 1,242
% Total Acquittal 53.4% 47.7% 48.5% 50.8% 55.5% 54.6%
TOTAL Contests 1,703 1,632 1,647 1,904 2,282 2,274
Table 4 above provides a different way of looking at jury acquittals – focusing on the proportion of
contested cases, to supplement the previous data on the proportion of unsuccessful cases. Acquittals
fell slightly from the previous year from 53.7% to 52.7%.
98 Falls in jury acquittals in 2015-16 reported in the following eight Areas: Eastern, London, North East, North
West, South East, South West, Thames and Chiltern and Wessex.
99 Unsuccessful cases due to victim issues includes those due to victim retraction; non-attendance or where the
victim’s evidence does not support the case.
100 The data related to contests in the Crown Court excludes any contests heard and completed in magistrates’
courts.
101 Judge directed acquittals are cases where at the close of the prosecution putting forward the case against
the defendant, a successful submission of ‘no case’ or ‘unsafe’ is made on behalf of the defendant, and the
judge directs an acquittal rather than allowing the case to be determined by the jury.
102 Exclusive of mixed pleas are defendant cases where only ‘not guilty’ pleas are entered to all charges and a
trial ensues.
50