British Crime Survey Stable While Total Recorded Crime Continues to Fall
Sunday, 04 November, 2007
Crime in England and Wales remains stable according to the British Crime Survey (BCS) and has fallen by seven per cent according to the police recorded crime statistics quarterly report.
For the crime types it covers, the BCS provides a more reliable measure of trends in crime as it has a consistent methodology and is unaffected by changes in levels of reporting to the police, recording practice or police activity.
Whilst the BCS interviews in the year to June 2007 showed violent crime as stable, there were nearly 21,000 fewer violent crimes recorded by police in the quarter April to June 2007 compared with the same quarter in 2006. The greatest fall occurred in 'other violence against the person with injury' (down 15,500 offences).
In the year to June 2007 there was a six per cent decrease in firearms offences according to provisional statistics. That equates to 639 fewer offences bringing the annual total down to 9,712. Serious and slight injuries from firearms fell by 11 and seven per cent, respectively. Firearms offences resulting in fatalities increased from 53 to 56.
The BCS in the year to June 2007 showed overall levels of anti-social behaviour and worry of crime to be stable compared with the previous year, but confidence in the criminal justice system (CJS) fell in five of the seven different aspects of the CJS.
Statistics from the BCS interviews for the year ending June 2007 show:
• Levels of all BCS crime stable at 11 million crimes
• Violent crime stable
• Domestic burglary stable
• Vehicle-related thefts stable
• Theft from the person stable
• Vandalism stable
• Personal acquisitive crime decreased by 10 per cent
• Household acquisitive crime stable
• Risk of crime stable at 24 per cent
The recorded crime quarterly update to June 2007 shows:
• Total recorded crime down seven per cent
• Domestic burglary down three per cent
• Offences against vehicles down 12 per cent
• Violence against the person down eight per cent
• Robbery down nine per cent
• Drug offences up 14 per cent
