The most recent figures Dorset Police have released show that violence and sexual offences have risen in the last few months.
But compared with the number of offences this summer, these crimes seem to be going down.
Dorset Police Crime Statistics
A nation wide issue?
How are sexual offences dealt with?
The Office for National Statistics 2018 report on sexual offences highlights many issues with reporting sexual offences.
Most victims of sexual assault don’t report it, this is mainly because victims feel embarrassed, they think the police would not help them and that it would be a humiliating process.
The ONS also reported that sexual offences take longer than other crimes to have an outcome.
Some sexual offences do not get recorder by the police, and in the year ending March 2018, 69,901 rape incidents and crimes were reported to the police in England and Wales.
11,913 (17%) of these were not recorded as crimes but incidents.
