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UK records significant rise in violent crime in England, Wales

File photo shows a police officer near a cordon in an area in south England.

The number of violent crimes recorded by police in England and Wales in the year ending in September 2018 rose by 19 percent, according to data released by the Home Office.

Figures released on Thursday showed that the number of homicides recorded in the two British territories rose by 14 percent over the same period, the highest record for murder and manslaughter since 2007.

The ministry cited data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), saying that robbery cases also rose by 17 percent while there were more sexual offenses. It said that there was a huge surge, about 41 percent, in the number of stalking and harassment offenses in England and Wale.

The ONS figures showed that public order offenses went up by 24 percent to 427,134, while adding that the overall crime rate in England and Wales rose by seven percent to reach a whopping figure of 5,723,182 offenses.

The new data comes amid disputes over government’s inability to fund police and other emergency forces to deal with the general rise in crime in the UK, especially in violent assaults on the streets. The capital London and other large cities reported decade-long records in the number of homicides, especially those involving knife crime, last year.

The government has denied its austerity programs, which have been in place since 2010, have had any role in the surge in violent crimes. However, police departments have said they have been unable to fill many vacancies which have been created as a result of retirement of staff or other forms of leave.

An official spokesman of Prime Minister Theresa may said the government admitted that violent crimes had increased but he said that people needed not to worry as they had a low chance of becoming a victim of crimes in general.

“These statistics show that your chance of being a victim of crime remains low, but we recognize that certain crimes - particularly violent crime - have increased, and we are taking action to address this,” said May’s spokesman.  


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