"Figure 18: Police recorded sexual offences are at their highest volume since the introduction of the National Crime Recording Standard in 2002","" "England and Wales, year ending March 2003 to year ending September 2018","" "","" "Notes","1. Police recorded crime are not designated as National Statistics. 2. The Sexual Offences Act 2003, introduced in May 2004, altered the definition and coverage of sexual offences." "Unit","Number of offences " "","" "","Total sexual offences","Other sexual offences","Rape" "Mar 03","56652","44357","12295" "Mar 04","60412","47140","13272" "Mar 05","60924","46911","14013" "Mar 06","60287","45844","14443" "Mar 07","56042","42268","13774" "Mar 08","52166","39493","12673" "Mar 09","50185","37089","13096" "Mar 10","53006","37932","15074" "Mar 11","53940","38048","15892" "Mar 12","52760","36722","16038" "Mar 13","53599","37225","16374" "Mar 14","64232","43481","20751" "Mar 15","88521","59132","29389" "Mar 16","106391","70544","35847" "","","","" "Sep 17","138529","89572","48957" "Sep 18","158162","101464","56698"