Sexual Assaults committed by under-18s on under-18s
Date of request: 13 June 2023
Reference: 775-23
Request
This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I would like the following information on sexual assaults by under-18s on under-18s. Information identical to this request has been disclosed previously in 2017. A report of the findings can be found here: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/09/child-on-child-sexual-assaults-soar-police-figures-reveal
I would like the following information from the force:
- The number of reports received of an alleged sexual assault committed by a person under-18 on a victim aged under 18. I would like this information broken down by year, covering 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.
- The number of reports covered in 1) that included an allegation of rape. I would like this information broken down by year, covering 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.
- The number of reports covered in 1) in which the alleged perpetrator was aged 10 or under. I would like this information broken down by year, covering 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.
- The number of reports covered in 1) that took place on school premises. I would like this information broken down by year, covering 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.
- The number of reports covered in 1) in which no further action was taken. I would like this information broken down by year, covering 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019.
Response
Q1 and 2.
In relation to questions one and two, please see below the total number of reported rape and sexual assault offences recorded with a victim and suspect aged under 18 at the time of the offence. This has been broken down by each year as requested.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Sum: | |||
| Crime | Sexual Offences | Rape | 115 | 104 | 169 | 206 | 594 |
| Crime | Sexual Offences | Sexual Assault | 152 | 116 | 276 | 325 | 869 |
In addition to the above, we have identified the following non-recordable offences:
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Sum: | |||
| Crime | Non Recordable | Rape Incident Report – offence committed in another force area | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 9 |
| Crime | Non Recordable | Rape Incident Report – victim (or third party acting on their behalf) has not confirmed the offence or cannot be traced | 1 | 1 | 7 | 5 | 14 |
Q3.
The following table shows the number of individuals aged under 10 at the time of the offence who have been recorded as suspects in the requested time frames. Having reviewed a sample of these records, the age appears to have been accurately recorded in all those reviewed.
| Age | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Sum: |
| 4 | 1 | 1 | |||
| 5 | 1 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 | |
| 7 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 6 | |
| 8 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 10 |
| 9 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 17 |
| 10 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 26 |
| Sum: | 16 | 13 | 18 | 24 | 71 |
Q4.
Avon and Somerset Police holds information on the subject you have requested in this question, however, I have to advise you that on this occasion we will not be able to answer your request without exceeding the appropriate cost limit.
This is because whilst the location (address) in which a crime has occurred will be recorded, the location type (“school”) is not recorded in a way that would allow us to facilitate an electronic search. In order for us to provide you with the information you have requested, we would need to manually review all sexual offences which involve a victim and suspect under 18. As we have identified in excess of 1480 records of sexual offences for the time period specified in your request this would take significantly longer than 18 hours to complete.
Section 12 of the Act makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed the appropriate cost limit, which for police authorities is set at £450 or 18 staff hours. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending2.5 working days in determining whether the department holds the information, locating, retrieving and extracting it.
This serves as a refusal notice under section 17(1) of the FOI Act.
Due to the reasons set out above, I am unable to assist you, under our section 16 obligation, on this occasion in refining your request to fit within the cost and time limits set out within the Freedom of Information Act.
Q5.
The following table shows the recorded outcome of the offences in question 1 and 2 in the requested time frame.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | Sum: | |
| Filed – Incident Report OR CRI | 1 | 5 | 6 | 4 | 16 |
| New – Under Investigation | 3 | 22 | 84 | 109 | |
| OC01 – Charge/Summons | 8 | 5 | 6 | 19 | |
| OC02 – Caution – Youths | 3 | 1 | 4 | ||
| OC04 – TIC | 1 | 1 | |||
| OC08 – Community Resolution | 7 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 26 |
| OC09 – Not in Public Interest (CPS) | 1 | 2 | 3 | ||
| OC10 – Not in Public Interest (Pol) | 17 | 11 | 30 | 15 | 73 |
| OC11 – Offender Under Age | 8 | 6 | 12 | 14 | 40 |
| OC13 – Vict/Witness Dead/Ill | 1 | 1 | |||
| OC14 – No Sus / Victim Decline | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| OC15 – Sus/Insuff.Evidence | 88 | 47 | 86 | 57 | 278 |
| OC16 – Sus/Victim Declines | 112 | 120 | 254 | 282 | 768 |
| OC18 – No Sus / No Line Enq / Filed | 2 | 2 | 4 | ||
| OC20 – Transferred Other Agency | 10 | 9 | 15 | 29 | 63 |
| OC21 – Investig. not in Public Int. (Police) | 6 | 8 | 6 | 21 | 41 |
| OC22 – Diversionary, educational, intervention | 2 | 1 | 8 | 10 | 21 |
| [Blank] | 1 | 5 | 6 | ||
| Sum: | 269 | 225 | 455 | 536 | 1485 |