UK crime rate doubles once all online crimes are taken into account

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed the true scale of online crime in England and Wales, and it is high enough to effectively double the overall crime rate. The previous estimate about the number of online crimes was 3.8 million, but the latest figures show that it is in fact over 5.8 million.

The ONS says that a tenth of adults have fallen victim to online crime, and incidents are not specific to particular areas or social classes. The statistics take into account virus attacks, online fraud, phishing attacks and the like, with 3.8 million of the overall 5.8 million incidents accounted for by various sorts of fraud.

The latest figures mean that online and offline crime have almost reached parity. The 5.8 million incidents of online crime compares to 6.3 million offline offenses. 2 million of the online crimes relate to 'computer misuse', a term that covers everything from hacking to virus attacks.

While online crime appears to have increased, offline crime has dropped by around 6 percent over 12 months. But the ONS is quick to point out that there has not actually been a two-fold increase in crime overall:

It would be misleading to conclude that this means actual crime levels has doubled, since the survey previously did not cover these offenses.

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