Violence against Women and Girls Crime report contents

Table 5: Completed sexual offence prosecutions by outcome
2009 - 10 2010 - 11 2011 - 12 2012 - 13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
Volume % Volume % Volume % Volume % Volume % Volume % Volume %
Convictions 6,060 76.0 6,588 74.3 6,308 75.7 5,971 76.8 6,756 79.0 7,591 77.5 9,351 78.0
Unsuccessful 1,912 24.0 2,274 25.7 2,026 24.3 1,800 23.2 1,798 21.0 2,198 22.5 2,644 22.0
Total 7,972 8,862 8,334 7,771 8,554 9,789 11,995
In 2015-16 there was the highest volume ever recorded of convictions (9,351) a rise of 1,760 (23.2%)
from 7,591 in 2014-15, against a slight rise in the proportion (78%), as in Graphs 14 and 15 and Table
5.
Graph 14: Sexual offences (excluding rape) volumes 2009-10 to 2015-16
The proportion of guilty pleas out of all prosecutions rose slightly to 66%, against the highest volume
of guilty pleas ever recorded. 84.7% of all successful outcomes were guilty pleas. The volume of
convictions secured after trial, rose to 1,422 the highest volume ever recorded, this was 11.9%, out of
all sexual offence (excluding rape) prosecutions, and 48.8% out of all sexual offence (excluding rape)
prosecutions contested at trial (excluding mixed pleas 115 ). Attrition due to victim issues fell from
16.3% in 2014-15 to 14.6% in 2015-16 and, over the same period, prosecutions dropped fell from
9.2% to 8.9%.
115 ‘Exclusive of mixed pleas’ are defendant cases where only ‘not guilty’ pleas are entered to all charges and a
trial ensues.
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