Blackmail & Threaten/Disclose Images (389A/24)
Request
Could you provide me with the number of blackmail crimes, in each of the past three financial years (April 1 to March 31 – 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23) and the current financial year to date (April 1 2023 to date), where a webcam has been involved in some way, i.e. where either webcam, web cam, video or social media are mentioned in the summary of the report.
Could you provide a summary of each report, including outcome, and state whether the alleged victim was aged under 16, 16 to 18 or over 18.
Please could you also provide me with a count of the number of crimes recorded as threatening to/disclosing private images in each of the past three financial years (April 1 to March 31 – 2020/21, 2021/22 and 2022/23) and the current financial year to date (April 1 2023 to date). Again, please provide information about outcomes for these and a breakdown by whether the alleged victim was aged under 16, 16 to 18 or over 18.
Response
Please find attached (389A_24_attachment.pdf)
Every effort is made to ensure that the figures presented are accurate and complete. However, it is important to note that these data have been extracted from a number of data sources used by forces for police purposes. The detail collected to respond specifically to your request is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. As a consequence, care should be taken to ensure data collection processes and their inevitable limitations are taken into account when interpreting those data.
The figures provided therefore are our best interpretation of relevance of data to your request, but you should be aware that the collation of figures for ad hoc requests may have limitations and this should be taken into account when those data are used.
If you decide to write an article / use the enclosed data we would ask you to take into consideration the factors highlighted in this document so as to not mislead members of the public or official bodies, or misrepresent the relevance of the whole or any part of this disclosed material.