FOI 535/25 Sexual Assaults in under 18s
Date: 05/06/25
Enquiry Reference: 535-25
I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request. Below is your request and our response.
How many sexual assaults and rapes were reported where both the alleged victim and perpetrator were under 18 in 2024?
Below are the volume of crimes validated between 01st January 2024 and 31st December 2024 in the other sexual offences or rape crime category.
The count is for those crimes with both the victim and suspect aged under 18 at the time of the offence.
|
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
Other Sexual Offences |
25 |
43 |
34 |
24 |
30 |
34 |
30 |
22 |
30 |
26 |
38 |
17 |
|
Rape |
7 |
17 |
8 |
13 |
13 |
13 |
9 |
7 |
11 |
13 |
12 |
18 |
How many reported incidents of sexual assault including rape took place on school property in 2024?
This table contains a count of the crimes as above which have the MO location description of ‘education’ and ‘school’.
|
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
Other Sexual Offences |
6 |
7 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
6 |
6 |
1 |
2 |
8 |
5 |
3 |
|
Rape |
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
1 |
How many reports were there of coercive control with an alleged victim aged under 20 in 2024?
The below table includes the volume of validated crimes per month of 008/67 when the victim is aged under 20 at the time of the offence.
|
|
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
|
008/67 - Engage in controlling/coercive behaviour in an intimate / family relationship |
2 |
4 |
1 |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
3 |
How many reports of rape specifically from people taking off a condom without consent (also known as stealthing) in 2024?
Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1 (1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
Having made enquiries within the Force we can not answer this question due to the nature of our recording systems. The information requested, if held, is not in an easily retrievable format. Our information retrieval process generally relies on a computer ran report which captures any information recorded upon the surface of a record. Where relevant information is held deeper in a record a manual assessment is usually required to retrieve that information. In this instance reports of rape specifically from people taking off a condom without consent are not held at the case management system level therefore to determine such detail would require a manual search through all the records.
The cost of providing you with the information is above the amount to which we are legally required to respond and this falls under the exemption of 'Compliance exceeding the appropriate limit' covered by Section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such this work could not be undertaken.
Therefore, please treat this as a refusal notice under S17(1) of the Freedom of information Act.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act we have a duty to provide advice and assistance however on this occasion we cannot offer any suggestion on how you could refine this part of your request.
As a gesture of goodwill and outside of the Act we are providing you with the information above which was retrieved before the it was realised that this would take in excess of the time stipulated.
The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.
If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice
Yours sincerely
Information Rights Decision Maker