Under 18 crimes 871/2024

FOI Reference: 871/2024

Request:

1. The number of crimes involving individuals under the age of 18, either as suspects or victims in the last three years?  [Between April 6 - April 5 2021/22, 2022/23, 2023,24]  Can the figures be broken down by year and separated by the number of victims and the number of suspects. 

1a) Of those, how many pertain to violent crimes? Broken down by year and separated by victim / suspect. 

*By violent crimes, I refer to any act that physically harms or threatens to harm another person,  or includes the use of a weapon. Such as assault, gun/knife crimes, sexual violence etc. 

2. For the last year alone [Between April 6- April 5 2023/24], can you provide the 10 most common crimes/offences involving under 18s (as either suspects or victims). Can you include the name of the offence and the number of offences. 

Clarification Q:

1. Are you referring to incidents or crimes? Please note an incident is different from a crime.  An incident is a record of contact made to a police force by an individual/member of public (usually via a 999 or 101 call) and a crime is where the threshold has been met for the police force to deem that a criminal offence has occurred as defined by law.

Clarification A:

Can you please provide information pertaining to incidents rather than crimes.

Response 1:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Crimes involving victims under 18:

2021/22 – 4,604 (3,142 violent crimes involving victims under 18)

2022/23 – 5,517 (3,734 violent crimes involving victims under 18)

2023/24 – 5024 (3424 violent crimes involving victims under 18)

Crimes involving suspects under 18:

2021/22 – 3630 (1913 violent crimes involving suspects under 18)

2022/23 – 4176 (2216 violent crimes involving suspects under 18)

2023/24 – 3344 (1818 violent crimes involving suspects under 18)

Response 2:

I can confirm that Dyfed-Powys Police does hold the information requested, as outlined below.

Crimes involving victims under 18:

2023-24 crimes involving suspects under 18:

It should be noted that as a result of the systems adopted by Dyfed-Powys Police in relation to the recording of such information that the information released may or may not be accurate.

Furthermore, it should also be noted that Police forces in the United Kingdom are routinely required to provide crime statistics to government bodies and the recording criteria is set nationally. However, the systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the crime data. It should be noted that for these reasons this force's response to your questions should not be used for comparison purposes with any other response you may receive.

(This is a response under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and disclosed on 09/10/2024)