Family and Friends Forum

Hopelesscared

Member since
November 2023

68 posts

Posted Thu May 2, 2024 5:43pmReport post

When my partner was arrested, I was told by the officer that only 1-2% of arrests in these cases lead to charges and conviction. However, what I've seen, NFA is very rare. Are there any real statistics on this?

Confusedwife

Member since
October 2022

169 posts

Posted Thu May 2, 2024 7:31pmReport post

Hi, my husband recently received a NFA after almost 2 years, Iv seen a few NFAs on here but not many. We found out afterwards the reason he was arrested was because of 1 alert from an email address, no actual evidence!! not sure of the actual statistics though.

Distressed and pregnant

Member since
November 2020

1001 posts

Posted Thu May 2, 2024 11:33pmReport post

Hi,

that sounds almost the opposite to what we see on here. I think there would be public uproar if the police had a 2% conviction rate in these types of crimes. They are a public service and their budget comes from the public purse. It seems like they gave you false information or perhaps meant it the other way around. I haven't done much research on the statistics of arrests that lead to convictions but I feel like someone has and posted similar on here before (maybe edel). I hope you find the answer you're looking for xxx

Hopelesscared

Member since
November 2023

68 posts

Posted Fri May 3, 2024 6:44amReport post

Hi distressed and pregnant



It would make sense if they had meant it the other way round but I was crying and asking if he'll go to prison. The officer told me that I shouldn't even think about it yet as these things take so long and only 1-2% end up charged in the first place so it's not something for me to worry.

Scaredmumof3

Member since
July 2023

100 posts

Posted Fri May 3, 2024 10:18amReport post

Maybe he also ment the chances of him going to prision is very low (for images).

edel2020

Member since
March 2022

375 posts

Posted Fri May 3, 2024 10:51amReport post

Perhaps they were talking about young people? The police don't want to criminalise children for sexting, so they take a different approach to those cases. If the person is over 18, then a prosecution is much more likely.

The statistics do reveal something, which is that only about half of those arrested go to court and also its around half of those arrested who are under 18, which would suggest that lots of children are being arrested and then not prosecuted.

Rough figures are 10,000 arrests per year and 5,000 convictions per year. Now, if we assume that half of the 10k are people over 18, that would explain both the discrepancy between the number of arrests and number of convictions, plus it would also explain the 1-2% figure quoted by the police.

In other words, only a very small percentage of under 18s will be prosecuted. Its certainly not impossible for a 14 or 15 year old to be taken to court, but statistically unlikely.

Ocean13

Member since
April 2024

54 posts

Posted Fri May 3, 2024 3:00pmReport post

Hi there,

I have been wondering this myself and have had a hell of a time trying to find information on it. I found this to be somewhat helpful but these cases seem to be a lot more complex than I'd ever imagined:



https://www.stuartmillersolicitors.co.uk/indecent-images-cases-dropped-uk/

Xx

edel2020

Member since
March 2022

375 posts

Posted Sat May 4, 2024 10:57amReport post

Ocean

Thanks for sharing that, although I have a few issues with the article. It doesn't mention under 18s at all for example and there was a Guardian article last year which used FOI requests to show that over 50% of all the arrests are boys aged under 18.

The numbers convicted seems quite low compared to the number of prosecutions, and from what we read on here, it appears that most men plead guilty. So I'm wondering if the ones that didn't proceed were dropped because the person was a child and it was decided that it would not be in the public interest to prosecute, or if they were dropped because no images were found on the person's devices.