Crimes against children and young people

Question 

I would like to get a breakdown of crimes against children and young people (to age 18) of any nature for the last five years by category and district

How many occurrences have there been where people have been charged to court for crimes against children and young people by category and district Do you hold any information on whether these charges resulted in a conviction? If so, can you please provide it?

Answer

Breakdown of crimes against children and young people (to age 18) of any nature for the last five years by category and district.

Statistics Branch publish the number of crimes recorded by the police where the victim was under 18 at the time the offence occurred, by crime classification and also by policing district (https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-and-reports/official-statistics/police-recorded-crime-statistics).

Statistics by age, crime type and policing district are published in the spreadsheet accompanying the bulletin Annual Trends in Police Recorded Crime – ‘Pivot Table-Victim Gender_Age’ and ‘Pivot Table-Victim Age by Distr’. The currently published annual bulletin provides financial years 1998/99 to 2023/24 and is due to be updated towards the end this year to include the latest financial year 2024/25.

More up-to-date figures where victim age is under 18 by crime type are published in the police recorded crime monthly updates (same web link as provided above) with the Financial year update, period ending 31 March 2025 providing the latest two financial years 2023/24 and 2024/25 and the latest Monthly update, period ending 31 July 2025 covering the 12 month periods August 2023-July 2024 and August 2024-July 2025. These monthly updates to not include a breakdown of victim age by policing district.

Table 1 Police recorded crime by crime type where victim aged under 18 at time of crime
Please note: the figures provided below relate to those crimes where there was a person victim. State-based crimes, crimes where there was a non-person victim (eg business, council, organisation) and crimes where the victim was a police officer on duty are not included.

                                                                     Number of crimes recorded(2)
 

1 Malicious communications offences were recorded for the first time in Northern Ireland from 1st April 2017. A Home Office change introduced in April 2018 required harassment to be recorded in addition to the most serious additional victim based offence. In May 2023 the Home Office reversed the requirement to record the most serious additional victim-based offence. This latest change has the greatest impact on malicious communications offences, with fewer such offences required to be recorded. Both of these changes in recording practice should be considered in relation to any changes in levels recorded in the overall harassment classification.

2 Figures for 2020/21 to 2022/23 are sourced from the Annual Trends in Police Recorded Crime 1998/99 to 2023/24 Pivot Table 

3. Figures for 2023/24 and 2024/25 are sourced from the Financial Year update period ending 31 March 2025 Pivot Table 2;
please note that figures for 2023/24 in the financial year update to 31 March 2025 have been revised since their publication in the Annual Trends. https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-and-reports/official-statistics/police-recorded-crime-statistics

Table 2 Police recorded crime by policing district where victim aged under 18 at time of crime
Please note: the figures provided below relate to those crimes where there was a person victim. State-based crimes, crimes where there was a non-person victim (eg business, council, organisation) and crimes where the victim was a police officer on duty are not included.        

                                                          Number of crimes recorded(1)
              

1 Figures for 2020/21 to 2022/23 are sourced from the Annual Trends in Police Recorded Crime 1998/99 to 2023/24 Pivot Table 4 https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-and-reports/official-statistics/police-recorded-crime-statistics.

The latest revised figures for 2023/24 (that match with those provided in Table 1) and figures for 2024/25 are not published by policing district in the financial year update – these figures will next be published in the Annual Trends bulletin covering each financial year 1998/99 to 2024/25, where revisions will also be applied to previous financial years.

Number of occurrences where people have been charged to court for crimes against children and young people by category and district.

The figures below represent the number of charge/summons outcomes administered by police based on the date the outcome was administered to the crime and regardless of when the crime was recorded. Please note that each crime can only have one outcome assigned, regardless of the number of suspects identified in relation to that crime. Therefore, as crime outcomes are counted on the basis of crimes rather than suspects or offenders, these outcome figures cannot be used to provide information on suspects or offenders.

Charge/summons outcomes administered by police to crimes where the victim was aged under 18, by crime type.

The figures below represent the number of charge/summons outcomes administered by police based on the date the outcome was administered to the crime and regardless of when the crime was recorded. Please note that each crime can only have one outcome assigned, regardless of the number of suspects identified in relation to that crime. Therefore, as crime outcomes are counted on the basis of crimes rather than suspects or offenders, these outcome figures cannot be used to provide information on suspects or offenders.

Charge/summons outcomes administered by police to crimes where the victim was aged under 18, by crime type. 

            Number of crimes detected by means of charge/summons                                         

Charge/summons outcomes administered by police to crimes where the victim was aged under 18, by policing district
 

             Number of crimes detected by means of charge/summons                          

Charges resulting in conviction Prosecution and conviction statistics fall within the remit of Department of Justice and are published on the Department of Justice website (https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/topics/prosecution-and-conviction-statistics).

Dr Kate Laverty