Offenders
Offending in England and Wales: first results from the 2003 Crime and Justice Survey
The 2003 Crime and Justice Survey (C&JS) is a new self-report offending survey of the general household population aged 10 to 65 in England and Wales. The survey provides a unique picture of the extent and nature of offending across this age range.
Title: Offending in England and Wales: first results from the 2003 Crime and Justice Survey
Author: Tracey Budd and Clare Sharp (Home Office)
Series: Findings 255
Date published: January 2005
Number of pages: 4
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This report presents the key results on the 20 'core' offences. It also differentiates serious and prolific offenders. Serious offenders are defined as those committing theft of a vehicle, burglary, robbery, theft from the person, assault with injury, or the selling of Class A drugs. Prolific offenders are those who committed six or more offences in the last year.
Key Points
41% of 10- to 65-year-olds had committed at least one of the 20 core offences at some time in their lives, offending in the last year was less common (10%).
Males are most likely to be active ('last year') offenders.
52% of males had committed at least one offence compared to 30% of females
Miscellaneous thefts (e.g. from work, school and shops) were most common, followed by assaults, split fairly evenly between injury and no-injury incidents.
About 2 in 10 people had committed a serious offence of either domestic burglary, commercial burglary, thefts of vehicles, thefts from person, robbery of an individual or business with injury, and selling class A drugs.
Serious and prolific offending in the last year is less common still. Again it is concentrated among teenagers. Around a quarter of 14- to 17-year-old males were classified as serious or prolific offenders (13% for females).
Among juveniles (10- to 17-year-olds), violent offences account for 58% of incidents. Among those aged 26–65, 62% of incidents were property offences. For 18 to 25-year-olds, drug selling was almost as common as property crimes (38% and 40%).
The C&JS estimate that there were 3.8 million active offenders in England and Wales. Research has also shown that offending is highly concentrated among a small minority of prolific offenders. Just 2% of the whole sample (26% of active offenders) accounted for 82% of all offences measured.
The C&JS confirm that most offences are not formally sanctioned. However, a substantial minority of offenders are, particularly the most serious. A third of those who had committed a serious offence in their lifetime had been arrested at some point.
The most common reasons given for ceasing to offend were that 'I knew it was wrong' and 'I grew up/settled down', suggesting a natural maturing process. However, for some offences, a substantial minority gave being caught by the police or fear that this could happen as reasons for stopping.
Drug use is rarely a factor when it comes to offending in the general population. Just 2% of incidents were committed because the offender was under the influence of drugs and only 1% of current drug users said they had committed a crime to buy drugs.
Last update: 28 January 2005