Crimes in a place of worship
Freedom of Information (FOI) Act request ref: 01/FOI/26/009613/V
Version Date: 19/03/2026
The Performance & Analysis Department has provided the following information:
Timeframe: 1 January 2018 to 23 February 2026
Data Source:
Crime information system – UNIFI
Crime information system – Niche
Data Processing:
Offence Group: Exclude Non-Notifiable
Venue - Level 1: PLACE OF WORSHIP
Deduplication Crime & Outcomes and UNIFI - Crime Lists - Specific Years by UNIFI Crime Ref.
Date Caveats/Limitations :
Due to a change in Crime Record Management System, records prior to the 15 November 2022 could have been subject to redaction and/or alteration due to migration challenges.
In the UNIFI Data there is one repeated UNIFI reference of Criminal Damage in a church and a chapel - these have both been included in the figures below.
If there are duplicate references across the UNIFI and Niche data, the figures are shown in the UNIFI data, as it allows for the breakdown of Religious Site.
Records recorded in Niche are not broken down by type of religious site, but the location specifically in/on the religious building, therefore it has not been broken down by the type of religious site.
Offence groups are recorded differently across UNIFI and Niche data; therefore, the figures are shown separately.
To ascertain the type of religious site for the Niche records, each of the 482 records would have to be reviewed, which would make this request over the 18-hour fee limit. Allowing four minutes per record it would take approximately 32 hours to complete. The breakdown has been included for the UNIFI data.
For the timeframe 01/01/2021 - 23/02/2026, of the 568,867 crime records on Niche, 140,558 have an MO Location of Not Recorded.
For the timeframe 01/01/2018 - 14/11/2022, of the 521,837 crime records in on UNIFI, 70,070 have a Main Venue Category of either "-" or blank.
The above figures are not deduplicated, so there will be crossover of records record on both Niche and UNIFI.
The data is entirely reliant on the crime location being completed accurately on the record. Any with blanks have been excluded.
The number of recorded crimes in your force area from 1 January 2018 to present where the location was a place of religious worship (church, mosque, synagogue, temple, gurdwara, or other).
See tables below.- If available, please break down these figures by type of religious site and by crime category (e.g., criminal damage, arson, burglary, hate crime, assault).
Crime date is provided in the tables below. - If your force does not hold records that identify crimes at places of religious worship, please provide a justification for this. For example:
- The location type is not available to record on your reporting system
- It has never been recorded in this level of detail
- Officers are instructed not to record that particular location type
- Other reasons (please specify)
Not applicable. - Please confirm whether your crime recording system (e.g., Niche, Athena, or other) has a field for "location type" and whether "religious site" is an available option.
UNIFI data has the fields 'Venue Main Category' & 'Venue Sub Category', which breaks up the type of location across two different fields,
Niche data has the field 'MO Location', which breaks up the type of location into 3 levels of specifity in one field seperated with "-".
- Please state whether there are any plans to improve recording granularity for crimes against religious sites.
There are no current plans to improve the granularity of data reporting on Niche.
UNIFI Data
|
Count of Crimes |
Type of Religious Site |
Grand Total |
||||||||
|
Offence Group |
Abbey |
Cathedral |
Chapel |
Church |
Mosque |
Synagogue |
Temple |
Vicarage |
Unknown |
|
|
Arson |
0 |
2 |
2 |
12 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
18 |
|
Bicycle Theft |
0 |
0 |
1 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
|
Burglary Dwelling |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
|
Burglary Non-Dwelling |
1 |
4 |
10 |
135 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
156 |
|
Criminal Damage |
2 |
15 |
6 |
255 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
13 |
298 |
|
Other Offences |
0 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
|
Other Sexual Offences |
0 |
1 |
0 |
20 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
22 |
|
All Other Theft Offences |
1 |
3 |
4 |
188 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
8 |
204 |
|
Possession of Drugs |
0 |
1 |
0 |
21 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
23 |
|
Possession of Weapons |
0 |
1 |
0 |
9 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
|
Public Order Offences |
2 |
19 |
0 |
54 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
84 |
|
Rape |
0 |
0 |
0 |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
11 |
|
Robbery |
0 |
1 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
|
Stalking and Harassment |
0 |
1 |
0 |
11 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
14 |
|
Theft from the Person |
0 |
2 |
0 |
11 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
|
Trafficking of Drugs |
0 |
0 |
0 |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
6 |
|
Vehicle Offences |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
4 |
|
Violence with Injury |
0 |
4 |
0 |
38 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
48 |
|
Violence without Injury |
0 |
5 |
2 |
32 |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
4 |
46 |
|
Grand Total |
6 |
60 |
25 |
828 |
14 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
43 |
985 |
Niche Data
|
Offence Groups |
Count of Crimes |
|
Arson |
6 |
|
Bicycle Theft |
3 |
|
Burglary - Business and Community |
75 |
|
Burglary - Residential |
1 |
|
Criminal Damage |
143 |
|
Miscellaneous Crimes Against Society |
5 |
|
Other Sexual Offences |
24 |
|
Other Theft |
88 |
|
Possession of Drugs |
4 |
|
Possession of Weapons |
2 |
|
Public Order Offences |
31 |
|
Rape |
7 |
|
Robbery |
4 |
|
Stalking and Harassment |
24 |
|
Theft from the Person |
8 |
|
Trafficking of Drugs |
1 |
|
Vehicle Offences |
3 |
|
Violence with Injury |
16 |
|
Violence without Injury |
37 |
|
Grand Total |
482 |