More than 800,000 - or one in five - of all crimes reported to the police each year are not being recorded by officers, a report suggests. The problem is greatest for victims of violent crime, with a third going unrecorded. Of sexual offences, 26% are not recorded. An HM Inspectorate of Constabulary report looked at more than 8,000 reports of crime in England and Wales. The watchdog said the failure to record crime properly was ‘indefensible’. Home Secretary Theresa May described the findings as ‘utterly unacceptable’, but police representatives said the situation had improved since the study. An unrecorded crime is classed as one that is reported to the police but not recorded as an offence. It means an investigation into the alleged crime is unlikely to happen.