Crime statistics in England and Wales: quarterly update released

The Home Office Minister published the latest quarterly update to the end of December 2008 on April 23, 2009. The Home Office statistics are compiled using two methods to measure crime, actual incidents recorded by the police and figures from the British Crime Survey, a large-scale rolling programme which asks the public about their experiences of crime.

The key points of the quarterly update include:

• Based on the British Crime Survey (BCS) interviews in the year to December 2008, the overall level of crime is stable compared with the year ending December 2007. The apparent increases in household and personal crime were not statistically significant. The number of crimes recorded by the police fell by four per cent for the period October to December 2008 compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
• BCS interviews also showed the risk of being a victim of crime (23 per cent) is stable compared with the previous year. The risk of being a victim remains at a historically low level.
• Compared with the BCS year ending December 2007, most estimates of BCS crime categories (including violence, domestic burglary, vandalism and vehicle-related thefts) remained stable. The one exception was theft from the person which rose by 25 per cent. This rise is not reflected in other categories of BCS personal acquisitive crime or in the comparable category of police recorded crime.
• Police recorded violence against the person for October to December 2008 fell by six per cent compared with the same period in 2007. Police recorded robberies fell by two per cent overall, but robberies involving knives or sharp instruments increased by five per cent over the same period.
• For the period October to December 2008, both police recorded domestic burglaries and other burglaries rose by four per cent, while there were falls in recorded offences against vehicles (seven per cent) and criminal damage (nine per cent).
• There was a 16 per cent fall in firearm offences recorded by the police in October to December 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.
• BCS interviews in the year to December 2008 showed that 47 per cent of people agreed that the police and local agencies were dealing with the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that mattered in their area. There was no change in the proportion of people who perceived a high level of anti-social behaviour in their local area compared with the previous year (17 per cent).

The Home Office Statistical Bulletin, Crime in England & Wales: quarterly update to December 2008, is available at http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/ rds/pdfs09/hosb0609.pdf