Rape Figures Spike in Britain Even as Crime Falls

London: The number of rapes recorded by British police has soared by nearly a third even as overall crime reports dropped to their lowest level in over three decades, figures showed on Thursday.

Experts attribute the spike in part to an increased willingness of victims to come forward following a police investigation into late DJ and sexual predator Jimmy Savile.

A total of 22,116 incidents of rape were recorded in the year to June 2014, a rise of 29 per cent from the previous year, according to the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

The figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed that police-recorded rape is now at its highest level since the National Crime Recording Standard was introduced in 2002/03.

"If the increase in reporting of rape to the police is due to survivors feeling more able to come forward and report what has happened to them, then that is positive," said Liz McKean, co-director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition.

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"We still have a very long way to go to change the harmful attitudes and behaviours that underline men's violence towards women and girls," she said.

Overall crime figures, however, dropped over the year.

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There were an estimated 7.1 million incidents -- a 16-percent fall from the previous year and the lowest figure since the crime survey reports began in 1981.

Violent crime was down 23 percent and criminal damage dropped by 20 percent. But hate crime increased by five per cent to 44,480 incidents and fraud jumped by eight percent.