Police dealings with violent crime 'concerning'

More than 10,000 serious violent crimes were dealt with informally last year, despite guidelines to the contrary.

Police used "community resolutions", which can include an apology or compensation to the victim, instead of prosecutions and cautions.

The Association of Chief Police Officers says resolutions should only be used for low-level crime.

The data came from 33 police forces in England and Wales which responded to a Freedom of Information request.

Speaking to Today presenter John Humphrys, Peter Neyroud, the former chief constable of Thames Valley, and a member of the commission on the future of policing set up by the Labour party, said that the concerning thing "is the level of some of the offences that appear in these statistics and the fact they appear to be used, the resolutions appear to [be] being used in domestic violence quite widely and that was never the intention.

"There are real concerns about the genuineness of consent in domestic violence cases," he added.

Garry Shewan, assistant chief constable of Greater Manchester Police, said that among other factors "we have to think very carefully about what the victim would want" and emphasised that each case that should be dealt with separately and subjectively, according to the case.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday 30 April 2013.