Rising levels of violence and theft are behind the largest annual increase in crime recorded by police in a decade, figures show.
The number of crimes recorded by police in England and Wales was nearly five million in the year to March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
It marks a 10% rise compared with the same 12-month period a year earlier.
The data was released on the day a Home Office report said police officer numbers have fallen to the lowest level in more than 30 years.
Police recorded 458,021 more offences, which the ONS said was partly driven by a rise in violence against the person, which soared 18% to 175,060 offences.
A long-term decline in the rate of theft was also reversed, rising 7% to 118,774, while public order offences jumped 39% to 78,697.
Sexual offences rose 14% to the highest level since new recording standards were introduced in 2002, although the year-on-year rate of increase has slowed.
John Flatley, head of crime statistics for the ONS, said: "The latest figures show the largest annual rise in crimes recorded by the police in a decade.
"While ongoing improvements to recording practices are driving this volume rise, we believe actual increases in crime are also a factor in a number of categories."
Violence with injury jumped by 8% and violence without injury rose by a quarter, including an increase in assaults without injury.
Knife and gun crime rose by more than a fifth, with 5,800 more offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, and an increase of 1,200 involving a firearm.
The use of handguns in firearms offences rose 24%, the ONS said.
There were also increases in the assault without injury category that includes modern slavery, which rose by 1,385 offences, and stalking, up 1,135.
There were 723 homicides, an increase of 1,489 on the previous year, but this includes the 96 victims of the Hillsborough disaster, the ONS said. When those cases are excluded, homicides rose by 9%.
Robbery was up 16%, or around 8,000 offences.
In a different measure, there were about 11 million offences covered by the Crime Survey of England and Wales (CSEW), including new experimental figures of fraud and cyber crimes.
But the ONS said there was an overall 7% reduction recorded by the CSEW when fraud and cyber crimes were excluded - falling from 6.3 million to 5.9 million.
The CSEW asks victims about experiences of a range of crimes but does not include the exact types measured by police figures, such as shoplifting, public order offences and possession of weapons.
Some 35,000 households are questioned for the CSEW and the response rate is 73%.
Mr Flatley said: "The Crime Survey is a good measure of the population of the crimes that it covers but it doesn't cover all crime and it doesn't cover all victims.
"It's an effective measure of the crimes it was designed to measure but it was never designed to be a measure of total crime."
Downing Street said the CSEW - previously known as the British Crime Survey - was the "more reliable" measure.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said: "There is a 7% fall in the British Crime Survey, which the ONS says is a statistically significant fall from the previous year. The ONS do say that the more reliable of the two measures is the British Crime Survey."
Rachel Almeida, Victim Support's head of policy, said the rising figures are "a great cause for concern, especially given the increase in recorded violent crimes, threatening behaviour and theft".
She added: "These types of crime in particular can cause deep emotional, physical and psychological effects on victims.
"We must ensure that victims have the support and help they deserve to enable them to move beyond their ordeal and begin to rebuild their lives."
Policing and Fire Minister Nick Hurd said: "Our police officers and staff do a fantastic job every day to keep us safe, and they have played a key role in today's news that crimes traditionally measured by the Independent Crime Survey for England and Wales are down by well over a third since 2010 and down by 69% since its 1995 peak.
"We recognise that crime is changing and we are determined to get ahead of new and emerging threats to the safety and security of our families and communities.
"Our latest action, announced in the past week, includes urgent work to bear down on acid attacks and proposals to strengthen the law to get knives off our streets."