The United Kingdom's key measure of "total" crime excludes rape, sexual assault and other offenses that disproprotionately affect women. The Office for National Statistics that tracks and reports such data says it is challenging to collect accurate data on these kinds of crimes. The current Conservative-led Government has celebrated a drop in the incidence of "total" crime, but critics say the exclusion of rape and other sexual offenses understates the reality of crimes against women, and say that sexual assaults have nearly doubled since 2014.
Compiled from: Robert Cuffe, "Key crime stat excludes rape and other sexual offences," BBC, Jan. 25, 2024.