FOI ref: FOI/2022/4409
You asked
With particular focus on female gangs.
I am contacting you as I would like to make a freedom of information request in relation to gang related crime in England and Wales.
Would it be possible to obtain the following statistics from you please for a time period of January 2019 to January 2022:
- Gang related offence/charge - Including gun and knife crime.
- Gender
- Area
- Race
- Religion
- Sentence
- Reoffending rates
We said
Thank you for your request.
Unfortunately, we do not hold the information that you have requested.
We do publish police recorded crime data on firearms and knives and sharp instrument offences as part of our quarterly bulletin's Other related tables, which include some of the data you have requested, however we are unable to disaggregate data pertaining to gangs.
The Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) does collect some information on the proportion of children aged 10 to 15 and adults aged 16 to 29 who are a member of a street gang, however it does not collect information on crimes relating to street gangs. We are unable to provide a further breakdown as the sample size is insufficient for this level of detailed analysis.
These questions were asked in the CSEW survey years 2013/14 to 2019/20. We have published limited information pertaining to these questions, and the data can be found here.
If you would like to conduct the analysis yourself on these questions, it is possible for researchers to access record-level data from the CSEW. The ONS has an established route for accessing this microdata, through our Secure Research Service (SRS). To access microdata, researchers will need to submit a request for access that gives details about the project that they would like to carry out. Please note that CSEW data up to the year ending March 2020 is available.
The Office for National Statistics does not hold data relating to sentencing or reoffending. This data is collected and published by the Ministry of Justice, who may be able to assist you further with this part of your request. They can be contacted via EDS@justice.gov.uk.
In addition, while we publish police recorded crime data on knives and firearms, this is supplied to us by the Home Office who are responsible for collating this data. They might be able to provide further information on these offences and can be contacted at crimeandpolicestats@homeoffice.gov.uk.