Sexual Communication with a Child 2020 to 2023
Keywords
Sexual, Offences, Communication, Child, Children, Gender, Victim, Age, Group, Text, Message, Instagram, Whatsapp, Facebook, KIK, Snapchat, Twitter, Keyword, Search
Publication Number
PUB 1208
FOI Reference Number
18531
Request Title
Sexual Communication with a Child 01/04/2022-31/03/2023
Date Range
2022 to 2023
Information Requested
- Please tell me the number of recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, (Home Office recording code 71/17) recorded from (and including) April 1st 2022 until (and including) March 31st, 2023.
- Where possible I would like to know the age and gender of the victim, broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
- Please tell me the age and gender of the youngest victim.
- Please tell me all the forms of communication (eg. which social media or messaging platform such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, TikTok etc.) that have been recorded as having been used in connection with recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, from (and including) April 1st 2022 , until (and including) March 31st 2023.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full refusal with Section 12(1) exemption
Information Correct as at
16 June 2023
Date of Disclosure
16 June 2023
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 15672 Response
FOI Duty
First Duty – Essex Police holds some of the information relating to your request
Second Duty – See below
Fact - It is not possible to extract and verify all the data in your request
Exemption - Section 12(1)
Refusal - Section 17(5) of FOIA
Reasoning -
With regard to Question 4, Essex Police are unable to report on all the forms of communication used in the reported offences as this would require a manual review of each record to ascertain whether this information was recorded, extracting it and then assembling this information into a bespoke report. To do so would exceed the time and cost limits of an FOI request.
Duty to assist – When refusing a request on cost (Section 12(1)/12(2), outside of the act and in effort to assist we can provide the following
Essex Police can however, report as follows:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 16 June 2023
Notes:
- The total number of offences and total number of victims are not the same, as some victims have not been identified yet.
- Some Victim ages are recorded as 18 and Over, because the victim was a decoy, posing as a child.
- The form of communication has been identified using a filter on the 'incident summary' field and searching for the keywords: WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, TikTok. This presents limitations in the results, as it will not capture other types of communication/ lesser known platforms. However, to identify every form of communication would involve reading the incident summary for every offence, which would be too time consuming.
- The form of communication is not always specified in the Modus Operandi / incident summary, so this information is not captured for all offences.
- There are often multiple forms of communication for each offence (e.g. WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook were all used for one offence). In these cases, each has been counted.
- Please tell me the number of recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, (Home Office recording code 71/17) recorded from (and including) April 1st 2022 until (and including) March 31st, 2023.
Answer = 254 recorded offences
- Where possible I would like to know the age and gender of the victim, broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
|
Age Groups |
Female |
Male |
Unknown/ Not Stated |
Grand Total |
|
11 and Under |
30 |
5 |
8 |
43 |
|
12-15 |
78 |
17 |
0 |
95 |
|
16 and over |
10 |
2 |
0 |
12 |
|
Unknown/ Not stated |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
- Please tell me the age and gender of the youngest victim.
|
Age Group |
Gender |
|
11 and Under |
Female |
- Please tell me all the forms of communication (eg. which social media or messaging platform such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, TikTok etc.) that have been recorded as having been used in connection with recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, from (and including) April 1st 2022 , until (and including) March 31st 2023.
|
Method of communication |
Number |
|
|
18 |
|
|
25 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
25 |
|
Snapchat |
49 |
|
Kik |
15 |
|
TikTok |
2 |
|
Grand Total |
137 |
Essex Police will not provide any further breakdown or information as the exemptions under FOI Section 40(2) Personal Information and Section 44(1) information covered by Prohibitions on disclosure such as the Sexual Offences (amendment) act 1992 which provides anonymity to victims of sexual offences.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The following articles available via our publication scheme may also be of interest:
FOI Reference Number
15672
Request Title
Sexual Communication with a Child
Date Range
2020-2021
Information Requested
- Please tell me the number of recorded offences under S.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, (Home Office recording code 71/17) recorded from (and including) April 1st 2020 until (and including) March 31st, 2021.
- Where possible I would like to know the age and gender of the victim, broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
- Please tell me the age and gender of the youngest victim.
- Please tell me all the forms of communication (eg. which social media or messaging platform such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik etc.) that have been recorded as having been used in connection with recorded offences under s.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, sexual communication with a child, from (and including) April 1st 2020 , until (and including) March 31st 2021.
Disclosure with Exemptions
Full Disclosure
Information Correct as at
26 May 2021
Date of Disclosure
02 June 2021
Related Documents/Links
N/A
FOI 15672 Response
Having completed enquiries within Essex Police in respect of Section 1(1)(a), Essex Police does hold information relating to your request, Essex Police can confirm in respect of Section 1(1)(b) the following data:
Caveat: The data is correct as at 26 May 2021.
Volume of Offences - Engage in Sexual Communication with a Child (HO Classification 71/17) between (and including) 01 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.
Where a victim has been recorded: Gender and age at time of the event of victim broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
The total number of offences and total number of victims are not the same, an individual can be the victim of more than one offence.
A keyword search has been undertaken in the Modus Operandi (MO) Field for the following terms; "TEXT", "MESSAGE", "INSTAGRAM", "WHATSAPP", "FACEBOOK", "KIK", "SNAPCHAT", "TWITTER". Please note that any keyword search may not be entirely accurate and any results would not necessarily answer your submission, and, therefore, could be highly inaccurate and misleading. Where message is used as a method of communication, this is where the MO Field contains the word “message” or “messages” with no context as to what platform was used.
- Please tell me the number of recorded offences under S.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, Sexual Communication with a Child, (Home Office recording code 71/17) recorded from (and including) 01 April 2020 until (and including) 31 March 31 2021.
|
Total Volume |
|
266 |
- Where possible I would like to know the age and gender of the victim, broken down into age groups: 11 and under, 12-15, 16 and over.
|
Age Groups |
Female |
Male |
(blank) |
Grand Total |
|
11 and under |
33 |
10 |
1 |
44 |
|
12-15 |
98 |
27 |
1 |
126 |
|
16 and over |
14 |
3 |
0 |
17 |
- Please tell me the age and gender of the youngest victim.
|
Age Group |
Gender |
|
11 and under |
Male |
- Please tell me all the forms of communication (eg. which social media or messaging platform such as Whatsapp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Kik etc.) that have been recorded as having been used in connection with recorded offences under S.15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, Sexual Communication with a Child, from (and including) 01 April 2020 , until (and including) 31 March 2021.
|
Method of Communication |
Volume |
|
Text |
2 |
|
Message |
21 |
|
|
6 |
|
|
12 |
|
|
0 |
|
|
31 |
|
Snapchat |
16 |
|
Kik |
0 |
|
PlayStation |
1 |
|
Other Message App |
3 |
Essex Police will not provide any further breakdown or information as the exemptions under FOI Section 40(2) Personal Information and Section 44(1) information covered by Prohibitions on disclosure such as the Sexual Offences (amendment) act 1992 which provides anonymity to victims of sexual offences.
Every effort is made to ensure that the data provided by Essex Police is accurate and complete. However, Essex Police systems are designed primarily for the management of individual cases and not for the purposes of providing data to answer specific FOI enquiries. Please note although data can be extracted from a number of sources via database queries, the results may be subject to inaccuracies. Care should be taken to understand our return when considering the interpretation or further use of the data.
The Force Information Management Board, chaired by the Deputy Chief Constable has oversight of the Force wide programme of work to improve the quality of Force data. This work has identified data quality leads in all key areas of the business including the Crime and Public Protection Command. Liaison between the Force Data Quality Team and the Crime and Public Protection Command lead for data quality will identify and resolve issues through a variety of mechanisms to ensure regular and appropriate supervisory oversight.