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Prisons: Crimes of Violence

Answer

Measuring violence in prisons is imprecise. Acts of violence first have to be recognised as violence, secondly reported and thirdly recorded consistently. Different aspects of reported acts of violence can be counted in different ways, for example by reference to the act itself, the perpetrator, the victim, or the injury.The following tables contain the numbers requested. Although information on assault incidents has been collected since 1997, the emphasis initially was on reporting more serious incidents and most fights tended not to be reported on the Incident Reporting System. However, all assaults including fights are required to be reported, and due to significantly improved reporting, figures from 2002 are not directly comparable with those collected in earlier years. They are therefore presented separately.

Table 1: Assaults 1997 to 2001
Type of assault	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001
Apparent homicides	2	4	—	3	—
Prisoner on prisoner sexual assaults	45	62	76	82	69
Prisoner on prisoner assaults	2,441	3,813	5,458	7,188	7,939
Prisoner on officer sexual assaults	23	13	15	15	11
Prisoner on officer assaults	1,710	1,589	1,867	1,931	2,378

Table 2: Assaults 2002-06
Type of assault	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006
Apparent homicides	—	1	2	3	—
Prisoner on prisoner sexual assaults	112	92	102	87	93
Prisoner on prisoner assaults	8,699	8,955	9,410	10,887	11,520
Prisoner on officer sexual assaults	14	18	20	22	27
Prisoner on officer assaults	2,503	2,522	2,761	3,091	3,123

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

158338; 465 c1149-50W

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Crimes of violence Prisons

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk