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Outcome classification used by data.police.uk

Source: R/classifications.R
lamp_outcome_types.Rd

The outcome categories that appear in the Outcome type column of the outcomes files and the Last outcome category column of the street files, with the police.uk API code and a package-defined grouping into six classes.

Usage

lamp_outcome_types()

Value

A tibble with columns outcome_type, api_name, code, group (factor with the six levels above) and is_court_outcome.

Details

The grouping is the package's own:

  • charged_or_summonsed: the suspect was charged or summonsed, including every subsequent court outcome supplied by the Ministry of Justice and offences taken into consideration (Suspect charged as part of another case).

  • out_of_court: cautions, drugs possession warnings, penalty notices and community (local) resolutions.

  • no_suspect: investigation complete with no suspect identified.

  • evidential_difficulties: a suspect was identified but the police were unable to prosecute.

  • other: action not in the public interest or taken by another body.

  • unknown: still under investigation or no status update available.

is_court_outcome marks the categories that come from court records rather than from the police. data.police.uk reports that court outcomes from June 2019 onwards are unavailable, so these categories are sparse after that date and charged_or_summonsed should be read as the charge stage.

The category list was verified against the police.uk API documentation and against archive files on 2026-09-16. outcome_type is the string written in the archive CSV files; where the API documentation names a category differently (Offender given penalty notice appears there as Offender given a penalty notice) the API name is kept in api_name and lamp_read_outcomes() accepts either.

See also

lamp_crime_types()

Other bundled data: lamp_area_lookup(), lamp_bank_holidays(), lamp_crime_types(), lamp_deprivation(), lamp_forces(), lamp_lsoa_lookup(), lamp_sample_panel(), lamp_shocks()

Examples

lamp_outcome_types()
#> # A tibble: 28 × 5
#>    outcome_type                            api_name code  group is_court_outcome
#>    <chr>                                   <chr>    <chr> <fct> <lgl>           
#>  1 Awaiting court outcome                  Awaitin… awai… char… TRUE            
#>  2 Court result unavailable                Court r… cour… char… TRUE            
#>  3 Court case unable to proceed            Court c… unab… char… TRUE            
#>  4 Local resolution                        Local r… loca… out_… FALSE           
#>  5 Investigation complete; no suspect ide… Investi… no-f… no_s… FALSE           
#>  6 Offender deprived of property           Offende… depr… char… TRUE            
#>  7 Offender fined                          Offende… fined char… TRUE            
#>  8 Offender given absolute discharge       Offende… abso… char… TRUE            
#>  9 Offender given a caution                Offende… caut… out_… FALSE           
#> 10 Offender given a drugs possession warn… Offende… drug… out_… FALSE           
#> # ℹ 18 more rows