Crime in England and Wales 2007-08
This bulletin brings together statistics from the British Crime Survey (BCS) and crimes recorded by the police to provide a comprehensive account of patterns and trends in the main high volume crimes. The report includes data from the period April 2007 to March 2008. This year's reports shows the risk of being a victim of crime has fallen from 24% to 22%, the lowest level ever recorded since the BCS began in 1981.
Title: Crime in England and Wales 2007-08
Authors: Chris Kershaw, Sian Nicholas and Alison Walker
Series: Home Office Statistical Bulleting 07/08
Number of pages: 237
Date published: July 2008
Availability: Download full report 
PDF 1.85Mb
The BCS and police recorded crime differ in their coverage of crime, but both show that overall crime has fallen in the last year. All BCS crime has fallen by 10% and recorded crime by 9% compared with 2006/07; and most crime types have shown decreases.
BCS Crime
- All BCS crime down 10% to 10.1 million crimes
- Violent crime down 12%
- Domestic burglary - stable
- Vehicle-related theft down 11%
- Personal theft - stable
- Other household theft down 12%
- Vandalism down 10%
- Risk of being a victim of crime down from 24% to 22%
Police Recorded Crime
- All police recorded crime down 9% to almost 5.0 million crimes
- Violence against the person down 8%
- Most serious violence against the person down 12%
- Sexual offences down 7%
- Robbery down 16%
- Domestic burglary down 4%
- Offences against vehicles down 14%
- Criminal damage down 13%
- Drugs offences up 18%
Public Service Agreement 1 (PSA1)
The Home Office Public Service Agreement (PSA) 1 was to reduce crime by 15%, and further in high crime areas, by 2007/08. The overall crime reduction was measured by the BCS. Based on 2007/08 interviews, BCS crime has fallen 18% since 2002/03 (baseline), thus exceeding the target. The figures for high crime areas, based on police recorded crime, showed a reduction of 24% between 2003/04 and 2007/08 compared with 18% in the remaining areas, thus also exceeding the target.
Vernon Coaker, Minister of State for Crime Reduction, recorded the following message congratulating the crime reduction community on the achievement of PSA1
Getting a copy
Download Crime in England and Wales 2007-08 PDF 1.85Mb
Additional tables reporting statistics for individual Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, Local Authority areas and Basic Command Units are available, as are statistical tables in Excel format.
View local data and statistical tables as Excel spreadsheets
Last update: Thursday, July 17, 2008