This publication reports on trends in violent crime across England and Wales for the year ending March 2020. This publication is largely unaffected by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic as it mainly relates to the period prior to the lockdown. It is important to note that these are not the latest figures on trends in violent crime. Headline figures covering later periods have been published in the Crime in England and Wales quarterly statistical bulletin but this release provides more detail on the nature and circumstances of violent crime.

Over the last two decades the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) has shown long-term reductions in estimates of violent crime:

• Victimisation rates have decreased from 4.7% of adults being a victim of violent crime in 1995 to 1.6% in the year ending March 2020; however, rates have remained fairly flat since the year ending March 2014.
• The total number of incidents has decreased 72% from a peak of 4.5 million incidents in 1995 to 1.2 million incidents in the year ending March 2020; although there was no significant change in the last year, the downward trend has continued in recent years with the number of incidents decreasing 28% compared with the year ending March 2015 (1.7 million incidents).
• The fall in total number of incidents since the year ending March 2015 was driven by a 41% reduction in repeat incidents, from 1.1 million incidents in the year ending March 2015 to 650,000 in the year ending March 2020.

While the overall level of CSEW violent crime showed no change compared with the previous year, there were increases in police recorded violence against the person, with offences 6% higher in the year ending March 2020 compared with the year ending March 2019. This included:

• A 7% rise in homicide offences (to 695 offences); this figure includes the Grays lorry incident with 39 homicide victims, if this incident is excluded, homicide showed a 1% increase overall .
• A 6% rise in offences involving a knife or sharp instrument (to 50,019 offences); this is in contrast to a decrease in hospital admissions for assault by a sharp object (an 8% decrease to 4,674 admissions).