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News Archives: Index

October 7, 2010: Probation Set For Industrial Action

October 5, 2010: Turning Prisoners Into Taxpayers

October 4, 2010: Murder Changes Now In Force

September 20, 2010: Probation Programmes Face Cuts

August 24, 2010: Victorian Poor Law Records Online

August 10, 2010: Justice Job Cuts

July 28, 2010: Prison Violence Growing

July 22, 2010: Police Numbers: Latest Figures

July 22, 2010: New Jurisdiction Rules

July 16, 2010: CCJS On Prison And Probation Spending Under Labour

July 15, 2010: Latest Statistics On Violent And Sexual Crime

July 15, 2010: Latest National Crime Figures

July 15, 2010: New Chief Prisons Inspector

July 14, 2010: Hard Times Ahead For Prisons: Anne Owers

July 14, 2010: Prison Does Not Work: Ken Clarke

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform: Sentencing and Rehabilitation

July 13, 2010: Criminal Justice Reform Priorities

July 12, 2010: What Price Public Protection, Asks Probation Chief Inspector

July 12, 2010: NOMS has failed, says Napo

July 10, 2010: IPCC To Investigate Death of Raoul Moat

July 9, 2010: Women In Prison: New Report

July 9, 2009: Unjust Deserts: Imprisonment for Public Protection

July 8, 2010: Police Search Powers Change

July 7, 2010: Make 'Legal High' Illegal, Says ACMD

July 2, 2010: Failing Children In Prison

July 2, 2010: Police Buried Under a Blizzard of Guidance: HMIC

July 1, 2010: Freedom To Change The Law?

June 30, 2010: A New Outlook On Penal Reform?

June 30, 2010: Revolving Door Of Offending Must Stop, Says Clarke

June 30, 2010: Ken Clarke: Speech on Criminal Justice Reform

June 29, 2010: No More Police Targets

June 26, 2010: Family Intervention Projects Questioned

June 25, 2010: Cutting Criminal Justice

June 24, 2010: Napo on Sex Offenders Report

June 23, 2010: Closing Courts: The Cuts Begin

June 23, 2010: Strategy To Tackle Gangs

June 15, 2010: Courts and Mentally Disordered Offenders

June 8, 2010: Working With Muslims in Prison

June 1, 2010: Your Chance To Nominate a QC

Is The Crime Rate Rising or Falling?

According to Home Office research:

  • about half of people (51%) think they live in a lower than average crime area

  •  39% think crime in their area is about average

  • 11% think they live in a higher than average crime area.

People tend to have less negative perceptions about crime in their local area than nationally

  • The proportion of people that perceive an increase in crime nationally (75%) is higher than those that perceive an increase in crime locally (36%)

This is evident across all crime types. But the evidence suggests that crime is generally falling, and the chance of being a victim is low in historical terms.

We have detailed statistics on crime. The British Crime Survey and police recorded crime differ in their coverage of crime. Overall, crime as measured by the BCS shows no change compared with the 2007/08 BCS. Police recorded crime show a 5 per cent decrease compared with 2007/08, with decreases in most crime types. The figures are as follows:

Crime Recorded by the British Crime Survey Crime Recorded by the Police

All BCS crime stable (10.7 million crimes in 2008/09)

All police recorded crime down 5% to 4.7 million crimes

Violent crime stable

Violence against the person down 6%

Domestic burglary stable

Domestic burglary up 1%

Vehicle-related theft stable

Offences against vehicles down 10%

Theft from the person up 25%

Theft from the person down 12%

Vandalism stable

Criminal damage down 10%

Risk of being a victim of crime up from 22% to 23%

Robbery down 5%

 

Drugs offences up 6%


Source: Home Office(2010): Crime in England and Wales 2008/09

Have crime rates changed over the longer term?

Long-term trends show that BCS crime rose steadily from 1981 through to the early 1990s, peaking in 1995.

Home Office statistics confirm that, overall, crime then fell, making 1995 a significant turning point. The fall was substantial until 2004/05.

Since then, BCS crime has shown little overall change with the exception of a statistically significant reduction of 10 per cent in 2007/08 (the lowest ever level since the first results in 1981).