Figures obtained by Sexual Abuse Compensation Advice have revealed that only 5% of reported rape and sexual offences have led to a charge or summons by North Yorkshire in the past year.
In the UK, there was an 11% increase in police recorded sexual offences in the past year compared to the previous year, largely due to improvements in police recording practices.
Yet, according to the Daily Mail, the number of rape victims pulling out of prosecutions has reached an all-time high.
Policy Advisor at The Survivors Trust, Lucy Duckworth, said:
“I think that some victims do not want to report offences or be involved in prosecutions because they are seeing the trauma of reporting.
“Of the 15% of offences that are reported, only 1.6% will result in a prosecution. This isn’t a system that needs reforming, but rather one that simply isn’t working and isn’t delivering for victims.”
In 2022, 1,909 rape and sexual offences were reported to North Yorkshire Police, before this number dropped to 1,660 a year later.
Over the past year, the force has seen a decrease in reported offences, with the total standing at 1,510.
Between January and March this year, a total of 98 rape prosecutions were abandoned across the country.
Official CPS figures have seen the number of rape prosecutions being ditched rose from 160 in 2020/21 to 608 in 2024/25.
A recent inspection into the CPS concluded that too much focus is being put on ‘victim credibility’ instead of on the suspect.
Coinciding with the increased number of recorded offences, North Yorkshire Police has seen a year-on-year drop in the number of offenders charged, from 197 charges two years ago to 68 in the past year.
Sexual Abuse Compensation Advice also gathered figures from the force on where the most sexual offences took place within their area of remit over the past three years.
The highest number of offences occurred in Scarborough and Ryedale with 2,408, followed by York, where 2,364 offences were reported.
Lucy Duckworth said:
“I think we need a huge cultural and societal shift, such as making it mandatory for all police and frontline staff to have training in working with survivors of sexual violence, because we are now looking at around 14 million adult survivors in this country.
“A lot of this comes down to the ‘victim-blaming’ culture that exists within our society, which, of course, puts people off.
“One of the main problems is that we intervene once the offence has already happened, we have got to stop trying to address the symptoms of abuse rather than the actual abuse itself.”
Police in the UK record a range of sexual offences into specific categories such as rape, sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Data is collected in this manner to enable action against offenders and provide support to victims.
Since 2022, the most common type of sexual offence reported to North Yorkshire Police was sexual assault on a female aged 13 and over, totalling 2,552 offences.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) revealed that there had been 14,665 sexual assault/abuse applications in 2024/25, representing a steady increase from the 10,309 submitted two years earlier.
Despite the gradual rise in applications, the number of settled claims, as well as the compensation paid out by the CICA, has dropped year-on-year.
There were 5,703 settled claims in 2022/23, which resulted in a total compensation sum of £65,275,451. While some remaining cases are still under assessment, in 2024/25, these figures dwindled further to only 2,217 settled claims and £23,482,590 in compensation.
Sexual Abuse Compensation Advice provides expert claim and legal advice services for sexual abuse claims.
They operate a 24-hour helpline and an online claim form, which can be accessed on their website.
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