Homicide in the UK
How common is murder in the UK?
Murder is a rare crime in the UK.
Is there a difference between murder and homicide?
The term ‘homicide’ covers the offences of
murder, manslaughter and infanticide. Murder and manslaughter are
common law offences that have never been defined by statute
(although they have been modified by statute).
The offence of infanticide was created by the Infanticide Act 1922
How does the criminal justice system respond to homicide?
Home Office figures indicate that the vast majority of murders are solved, and the those who commit the murders are brought to to justice. While unsolved cases do occasionally occur, but they are a small minority of overall homicides.
What is the Homicide Index?
The Home Office Homicide Index (HI) is the
key source of official information on
homicide in
How many homicides are there?
In 2008/09, 670 deaths were initially recorded as homicide, a decrease of 14 per cent on the previous year.
How does this compare with the homicide rate for our European neighbours, and the homicide rate in the U.S.A.?
Find out here.
What happens when an offence is recorded as homicide?
When the police record an offence as homicide it remains classified unless the police or courts decide later that a lesser offence, or no offence, took place.
So offences sometimes do not remain recorded as homicide?
According to Home Office figures issued in 2010, of the total of 670 offences first recorded in 2008/09, 19 were no longer recorded as homicide by 24 November 2009.
Is the homicide rate going up or down?
The 651 offences currently recorded as homicide
in 2008/09 compares with 753 for 2007/08, a decrease of 14 per cent.
Home figures indicate that this is the lowest number of
currently recorded homicides since 1998/99 (when
642 homicides were recorded).
Are men or women most likely to be the victims of murder?
Men are more likely
to be a victim of homicide than women. In
2008/09, 459 victims were
In 2008/09, 170 males (37% of all male victims) and 23 females (12% of all female victims) were killed by strangers
. Over the previous five years, the proportion of female victims killed by a stranger was 19 per cent, compared with 40 per cent of male victims.
While the numbers are
accurate, we need to exercise care in any conclusions that we draw
from our consideration of homicide statistics. The statistics are
drawn from the year in which offences are recorded by the
police rather than the year in which the
Also, where several people are killed
by the
As in earlier years, the most common method of killing in 2008/09 was by a sharp instrument
5 (255 homicides). Shootings accounted for 39 homicides in 2008/09, compared with 53 in 2007/08.