Research > Crime & property
Handling stolen goods: Findings from British Crime Survey and Offending,
The British Crime Survey (BCS) and Offending, Crime & Justice Survey (OCJS) are the first large-scale national surveys to examine the buying and selling of stolen goods and related issues in England and Wales. Together they provide a fuller picture than administrative statistics because they include incidents that do not come to the attention of the authorities. The BCS additionally provides insight into issues related to handling stolen goods, such as perceptions of stolen goods ownership.
Title: Handling stolen goods: Findings from British Crime Survey 2002/03 and 2003 Offending, Crime & Justice Survey
Authors: Andrea Finney & Debbie Wilson, with assistance from Mike Levi, Mike Sutton & Sarah Forest
Series: Home Office On-line report 38/05
Number of pages: 56
Date published: October 2005
Availability: Download full report 
PDF 298Kb
The report looks at:
being offered stolen goods
buying stolen goods (including buying stolen mobile phones)
selling stolen goods
perceptions of stolen goods ownership
Key points
The 2002/03 BCS estimates that about one in ten adults (11%) had been offered stolen goods in the previous 12 months, similar to the finding of the 1994 BCS. However, the overwhelming majority had not bought stolen goods; only 2% of adults had actually bought stolen goods in the same period. The 2003 OCJS found that less than 3% of adults admitted to selling stolen goods in the past 12 months. The surveys show that young males are among those most likely to have been offered, to have bought and to have sold stolen goods. Buyers and sellers of stolen goods were also more likely to have committed other type of offences, particularly fraudulent offences (OCJS).
Being offered stolen goods
1 in 5 people (21%) had been offered stolen goods in the last five years, and 11% had been offered stolen goods in the previous 12 months (BCS).
Among those most likely to have been offered stolen goods in the previous 12 months were younger males, people living in areas of relatively high physical disorder, frequent pub goers, and people holding less favourable attitudes towards the criminal justice system.
Buying stolen goods
The BCS shows that less than 2% of people had bought stolen goods in the previous 12 months. 5% admitted to buying stolen goods in the last 5 years, lower than found by the 1994 BCS (11%).
1 in 5 (20%) people who had been offered stolen goods on more than one occasion had bought stolen goods in the last 12 months compared with 1 in 10 (9%) people who had been offered only once (BCS). People who had bought stolen goods in the last 5 years were more likely to be offered stolen goods in the past 12 months than those who had not, which could indicate that people who are known to have bought in the past are targeted by would-be sellers or that buyers and sellers move in the same circles.
The OCJS found that only a small proportion (1%) of people aged from 10 to 65 reported buying a stolen mobile phone in the previous 12 months.
The BCS and OCJS identified similar groups who were more likely to have bought stolen goods, which are similar to those more likely to be offered stolen goods. The OCJS additionally showed that those who admitted to buying stolen goods were more likely to have committed other offence types, particularly fraudulent offending.
Selling stolen goods
Previous research on stolen goods markets has mainly focused on the buyers of stolen goods and the factors driving the demand for them. The OCJS was the first national general population survey to ask about knowingly selling stolen goods. Nearly 3% of OCJS respondents admitted to having sold stolen goods in the last 12 months.
Young males were again among those most likely to admit to selling stolen goods as were people living in areas with relatively high levels of deprivation. Respondents with no educational qualifications and those from a White background were also among those more likely to admit to selling stolen goods.
As was the case for buying stolen goods, selling stolen goods was most strongly associated to fraudulent offending.
Overall 7% of the OCJS respondents (aged 18 to 65) had been involved in either buying or selling stolen goods in the last 12 months. This is much higher than the proportion committing mainstream offences such as violence and theft offences.
Perceptions of stolen goods ownership
The BCS asked respondents how many people in their local area they thought had stolen goods in their homes. Overall 1 in 5 (21%) people thought that a lot or quite a few people in the local area had stolen goods in their homes, similar to the 1994 BCS (21%).
The type of area in which people live and personal experience of being offered stolen goods are especially associated with perceptions of local stolen goods ownership. The findings suggest that perceptions of stolen goods ownership are likely to reflect reality at the local level.
Last update: Monday, September 11, 2006