CRIME figures will rise sharply in April following changes in how police forces record offences.
The purpose of the change is to make the rules governing crime recording simpler and more logical - presenting a truer picture of the extent of crime.
Police forces are indicating that crime figures will rise significantly because of two changes including an expansion of the list of notifiable offences and a revision of the rules that determine how many crimes are counted, following the principle of one victim, one crime.
The changes will affect how sexual offences are recorded and will now include soliciting, obscene publications and procuration.
Other violence will include neglect of children, assaulting a police constable, common assault and other wounding. Fraud and forgery offences will include tampering with vehicle driver records, and false accounting.
Other offences will include drugs possession, harrassment under the Public Order Act 1986, dangerous driving and indecent exposure.
There will be minor changes to theft offences to include interference with a motor vehicle and theft of a pedal cycle and criminal damage charges will include damage under £20.
Figures for murder, house burglary and burglaries in business premises, robbery, theft from motor vehicles and handling stolen goods will not be affected.
Increases in the crime total brought about as a result of these changes do not represent increased offending.
By bringing these offences into the official crime figures, the definition of crime is being widened and given a more rational basis which will, in time, allow for more accurate measurement.
West Yorkshire Chief Constable Graham Moore said: "For the next 12 months it will be difficult to separate increases attributable to this technical change from those arising from real changes in offending patterns.
"Every attempt will be made to separate the real from the technical changes in the crime figures, however, the change will be so profound that, from April 1998, it will be impossible to make direct comparisons with those of any previous year," he added
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