FOI 673/25

REQUEST

1. How many sexual assaults and rapes were reported where both the alleged victim and suspect were under 18 in 2024?

 

2. How many reported incidents of sexual assault including rape took place on school property in 2024?

3. How many reports were there of coercive control with an alleged victim aged under 20 in 2024?

 

RESPONSE

 

We consulted with our Analysts who have provided the following information in relation to your request.

 

Question 1

 

A search has been conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) for all crimes under the ONS groups, ‘Rape’, ‘Sexual Offences’ and ‘Serious Sexual Offences’ where both the victim and suspect were under the age of 18 years.

 

This search yielded 464 crimes for the time frame specified.

 

Question 2

 

A search has been conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) for all crimes under the ONS groups, ‘Rape’, ‘Sexual Offences’ and ‘Serious Sexual Offences’ where the secondary address description was recorded as ‘education’ and the tertiary address recorded as Preparatory / First / Primary / Infant / Junior / Middle School ‘ and  ‘Secondary/High School’.

 

This search yielded  171 crimes for the time frame specified.

 

Please note that without interrogating every record we cannot be certain the reports  were made from a school or if the offence occurred outside school premises.

 

Question 3

 

A search has been conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) for all crimes under the ONS group ‘Stalking and Harassment’ with ADR Text ‘Controlling and coercive behaviour’.

 

This search yielded 44 crimes for the time frame specified.

 

Please also note that when our Analysts search for ‘suspect’ they search all categories in the table below. This is called an Offender broad search.

 

Please see table overleaf:

The results retrieved are dependent on how the information has been entered onto the system. As such, the information provided should not be considered statistically accurate and/or definitive and therefore, care should be taken when using this data for any further statistical, analytical or evaluative purposes.

 

The ability to react to incidents of abuse against children is of the highest priority for South Wales Police. We actively pursue every opportunity to identify children at risk, focussing our efforts in making sure victims are appropriately safeguarded through multi-agency involvement and offenders are brought to justice.

 

Every report of a rape or other sexual offence, is taken at face value and recorded on the force recording crime system, irrespective of the source of the report. This includes reports made by third parties, through partnership working or from other agencies. In addition, some victims do not support police action in terms of engagement in the judicial process, however a referral will still be made to partner agencies to ensure that a victim receives support.

 

Staff who deal with cases of this nature undertake a comprehensive training and accreditation process to ensure a professional investigation and the best outcome for victims.

 

South Wales Police has dedicated rape investigation teams, consisting of 114 staff through the force. South Wales Police were a pathfinder force for Operation Soteria and we remain committed to embedding the national operating model to improve our service to victims and judicial outcomes for suspects.