Statistics
Crime in England & Wales 2004
The 2004 annual statistics for crime show a mixed picture. The British Crime Survey shows an overall drop in crime, especially vehicle crime, whereas the recorded crime figures show a rise, especially in violent crime.
Title: Crime in England & Wales
Authors: Tricia Dodd, Sian Nicholas, David Povey, Alison
Walker
Series: Home Office Statistical Bulletin 10/04
Number of pages: 159
Date published: July 2004
Key findings
Recorded Crime Figures
This section of the report covers all crime that have been reported to - and recorded by - the police. The figures are often lower than those suggested by the British Crime Survey as a precentage of crimes go unreported - ranging from an estimated 5% of vehicle thefts being unreported to 69% of vandalism.
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Rises have been seen in violent crime - both violence against the person and violence against property (criminal damage). The authors consider this to be most likely to be due to continued improvements in recording practices introduced in 2002. The proportion of reported violent crime that was recorded by the police continued to rise from 52% in the year to September 2002 to 62% in the year to September 2003.
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Property crime continues to fall, with significant drops in robbery, burglary and vehicle crime.
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The most frequently mentioned reason for not reporting incidents was that victims perceived them to be too trivial, there was no loss or they believed that the police would or could not do much about them (71% of incidents). In nearly a quarter of cases (24%), the victim felt the incident was a private matter to be dealt with themselves.
British Crime Survey
The British Crime Survey (BCS) asks randomly selected adults in private households about their experience of victimisation in the previous year. As well as the main crime counting element, a number of other crime-related issues are covered.
The headline findings from BCS 2003-04 are given below
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Overall crime has fallen by 5% according to the BCS. There has been an increase of 1% in the number of crimes recorded by the police in 2003/04 compared with 2002/03.
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Since 1995 BCS crime has fallen by 39%, with vehicle crime and burglary falling by roughly half and violent crime falling by over a third during this period.
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The risk of becoming a victim of crime has fallen from 40% in 1995 to 26% according to BCS interviews in 2003/04, the lowest level recorded since the BCS began in 1981.
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Property crime accounts for the majority (78%) of both BCS and recorded crime.
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According to the BCS, the proportion of people believing that crime has increased over the past two years, both in their local area and in the country as a whole, has fallen compared with the previous year.
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Levels of worry about the main crime types have fallen compared with the previous year, as has the level of perceived anti-social behaviour.
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Levels of confidence in most aspects of the criminal justice system (CJS) have improved compared with the previous year.
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29% of victims of vandalism and common assault (which includes violence with minimal or no injury) were victimised more than once according to 2003/04 BCS interviews, compared with just 7% of victims of theft from the person.
Getting a copy
View Crime in England & Wales 2004 on the Home Office RDS website.
Last update: 22 July 2004