New data reveals significant year on year increase in theft and fraud offences across England and Wales

New data reveals significant year on year increase in theft and fraud offences across England and Wales: The latest release of the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has highlighted a significant increase in the number of fraud and theft offences experienced by individuals and households across 2024 compared to the previous year. The rise in these specific categories is cited as the main driver behind the 14% increase in the total estimated incidents of headline crime for the survey year, up from 8.4 million in 2023 to 9.6 million in 2024.

 

The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) is conducted by the ONS and provides comprehensive insight into crime trends by surveying household residents (aged 16 and over) about their personal experience of victim-based crime over the previous 12 months. The survey is conducted through face-to-face interviews with over 31,000 household residents, with findings released on a quarterly basis. The latest results, released in April, revealed statistically significant increases in incidents of fraud, up 33% to 4.1 million and theft offences, up 13% to 2.9 million.

 

Digging deeper into these most increased categories, the data shows upward trends across all types of recorded fraud and theft. Within fraud, cases of consumer and retail fraud saw the highest increase of 35% (up 1.1 million). The report shows that three quarters of total fraud offences (c.3 million) resulted in a loss, with just over two thirds (2.1 million) receiving full return of their lost assets. Within types of theft there was a 50% increase in incidences of ‘theft from the person’ (to 483,000) and the highest figure for shoplifting offences since police record practices began in 2023, rising by 20% to over 500,000 cases.

 

In contrast to theft and fraud, a downturn was evident across some other crime types. Computer misuse offences saw a decline of 23% and incidents of unauthorised access to personal information fell by 29%. Although the violent crime category saw a minor total increase of 3% year on year, the number of homicides decreased by 5% to 535 offences – the lowest in a decade. Personal experience of domestic abuse amongst people aged 16 and over remained statistically unchanged year on year, equating to 4.2% of respondents and an estimated 2 million victims annually.

 

This latest release of the CSEW survey indicates the growing prominence of non-violent offences across England and Wales and as the crime landscape continues to evolve, future findings will remain important to help shape effective policy and targeted crime prevention strategies to tackle both violent and non-violent victim-based crime.

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