Victims have been dealt a "real insult" by official statistics showing less than half of recorded violent crimes in England and Wales were solved by the police last year, the Tories have said.
Data supplied by Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to her opposite number, shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve, indicated the detection rate for offences of violence against the person fell to 49% in 2007/8.
The Home Office said the figure was being pushed down because forces were no longer able to count as many cases where no further action was taken as "solved" crimes.
But Mr Grieve said: "It is bad enough that so much violent crime is being committed. It is a real insult to victims that over half of perpetrators are getting away with it.
"This is a direct result of Labour's target culture, which has incentivised the police to pursue minor crimes over serious violent ones, and the reams of red tape that tie officers to their desks when the public wants them out on the street."
He spoke out after the publication at the weekend of a leaked document in which the Home Office's top civil servant admitted that serious violent crime had been allowed to rise due to a focus on targets.
In a 101-page briefing paper for new Home Office ministers last month, permanent secretary Sir David Normington suggested that because police had been given incentives to tackle less serious offences in a bid to reduce crime figures, they were less able to combat violent incidents.
The Government's strategy would now focus on violent crime, he said.
A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Overall crime is down by 6% and fewer people are being injured as a result of violence. As demonstrated by the Policing Green Paper, we are always looking for new ways to further reduce bureaucracy - freeing up officers for frontline duties and building an even more efficient police service."
The present rate could not be directly compared with the 71% recorded a decade ago because of changes to the way crimes were recorded, the Home Office said.
Read More
MORE ABOUT