What percentage of serious crime i.e. murder, rape etc is solved (UK)?

Question

I would have thought it was quite high, but i could be wrong.

Answer 1

George Bush is currently having two genocides inflicted upon innocent and defenseless peoples, soon to be a third in Iran, and he will never be punished.

Answer 2

The best way to find out about detection rates is to look at the latest data (2006/7) on the Home Office web site (see below). It is dangerous to just quote a headline figure out of context, so I suggest you have a browse yourself.  

Answer 3

It depends what you mean by the term "solved."

In the UK very, very, very few murders go undetected because the Police throw all possible resources at such serious crime to identify the offender and bring them to justice.

Murders tend to get more witnesses coming forward because the offence is so serious.

Once you know the offender in a murder forensic evidence is often a major factor in securing a conviction.  

Rapes are treated in a similar fashion by the Police. They are a very high priority and the arrest rate of offenders is very high. However because of the nature of rape there is generally only the victim and the offender present, no witnesses. This makes proving a case more difficult. Often the legal argument is not if the deed was done but an issue of if consent was given or not. This means that although offenders are usually arrested the conviction rate in rape case is lower than in murder cases.

In both cases the percentage arrest rate is significantly higher than lesser offences. The detection rate is also higher but the figures vary from Police Force to Police Force.