Data obtained from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) shows that the percentage of court cases that lead to a conviction have increased by over a third on average across the UK in the last 10 years. Wales, which has historically had stronger conviction rates than the UK average, has also increased its rates since 2008-2009. However positive this may sound, it in fact indicates that only the strongest cases are reaching the court rooms while many alledged victims drop cases due to technology-related pressures.
In the 2008-2009 financial year around half of all court cases led to convictions, with shockingly low rates for homicide, robbery and sexual offences. Today many of those rates have increased from around half to over 90%. The biggest increase in conviction rate per crime type has been drug offences and thefts.
Across England and Wales the conviction rates for homicide cases have shot up from under half across the UK, to an average of almost 80%. Wales has seen a rise in homicide convictions to over 90%.
Conviction rates in Wales have gone down in some cases, with a noticeable drop in robbery-related crimes going down by over 11% as Wales’ least convicted crime contradicting the UK’s sexual offences rates.
The rates, however, cannot be taken to imply that crime on the whole is being convicted more regularly. It is reported by the Independent that approximately 8% of crimes are prosecuted in England and Wales due to many cases not making it to court.
The increase in conviction rates across the UK suggests that only the strongest cases are making it to the court rooms, hence the increase in court conviction rates of sexual offences despite the sexual offence crimes reported-to-conviction rate in total being at an all time low. Reports of demands for victims’ digital information combined with cross-examination on any material could be to blame for the high number of cases dropped due to the reason “victim does not support action.”
Glitch!