The Coalition has hailed falls in quarterly crime statistics for the year to June 2013, but reported crime against shops has risen – and the statisticians admit that their survey does not cover businesses.
Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimate that there were 8.5 million crimes experienced by households and resident adults in the previous 12 months.
The CSEW does not cover crimes against businesses and police recorded crime can only provide a partial picture.
The headline estimate for crimes against households and resident adults was down 7 per cent compared with the previous year’s survey. This is the lowest over the history of the survey, which began in 1981, and is now less than half its peak level in 1995.
In the year ending June 2013, 230,335 fraud offences were recorded. This represents a volume increase of 21 per cent compared with the previous year. According to the authorities, this should be seen in the context of a move towards the centralised recording of fraud by the police, through the Action Fraud reporting line.
Shoplifting accounts for 8 per cent of all police recorded crime. The police recorded 307,652 shoplifting offences in the year ending June 2013, a 1pc increase compared with the previous year. The volume of shoplifting offences has remained fairly stable since 2002-03. Also the report admits a surge in metal theft over the years 2009-12, which corresponds with a spike in metal prices, making stolen and resold metal more attractive to criminals.
Survey in brief
The CSEW has a nationally representative sample of around 35,000 adults and 3,500 children (aged ten to 15) per year. The response rates for the survey in 2012/13 were 73 per cent and 67pc respectively.
The police recorded3 3.7 million offences in the year ending June 2013, a decrease of 5pc compared with the previous year. Police recorded crime figures continue to show year-on-year reductions and the latest figures are 38pc lower than 2002/03.
A source of information about incidents involving serious violence is provided by NHS hospital admission statistics. Admissions for assault with a sharp instrument peaked at 5,720 in 2006-07. Admissions have declined since that year, and in the year ending March 2013 there were 3,834 admissions, a 15 per cent decrease on the previous year. Admissions for assault with a sharp instrument are now lower than those shown in 2002-03.
Welcoming the new stats, the new, Liberal Democrat, Crime Prevention Minister Norman Baker said: “Police reform is working and crime is falling. Recorded crime has dropped yet again, by more than ten per cent under the coalition government and the crime survey says that crime has more than halved since its peak in 1995. This is really positive news. Forces are rising to the challenge of making savings whilst cutting crime and delivering a better service to the public.
“England and Wales are safer than they have been for decades but we will continue to deliver measures which keep pace with the changing nature of crime and improve our ability to combat emerging issues. That is why we have recently launched the National Crime Agency to tackle the growing threat of serious and organised criminality. The agency also incorporates the new National Cyber Crime Unit to relentlessly pursue cyber criminals.”
And speaking for ACPO, National Policing Lead for Crime and Statistics, Temporary Chief Constable Jeff Farrar, said: “It is pleasing that the number of crimes reported to the British Crime Survey have fallen by seven per cent this year. Together with the five per cent fall in police recorded crime it begins to paint a picture that crime is genuinely falling across the country thanks to the joint efforts of our criminal justice partners and the refusal by the public to accept criminal behaviour.
“It also represents a small but welcome step toward the convergence of the number of crimes being reported to the BCS and to police, indicating that the number of reported crimes is more accurately reflecting the actual number of crimes being committed across the country.
“Criminals are continually adopting more sophisticated tactics and moving towards online-based crime; with the police service introducing of a more efficient centralised crime recording system, enabling the forces to focus resources on tackling fraud more effectively. This move to centralised recording is likely to be responsible in part for the 21 per cent increase in fraud offences recorded during the year ending June 2013 compared to the same period in 2012
“We’ve also seen a nine per cent rise in sexual offences, many of these being historic offences having been recorded in the wake of the last year’s revelations about Jimmy Savile, but not all related. While it is awful that victims have suffered in silence for so long, it is encouraging that so many people now feel confident enough to come forward. We would encourage anyone who has suffered abuse as a child to report it, if anything to have their voice heard, to have it on record and to be offered support for what they have been through.
“Chief officers around the country continue to do more with less while faced with further reductions to their budgets. We accept however, that there is always room for improvement and it is through the dedication of officers across the forces in England and Wales that we strive to continue lowering these figures year on year.
“Tributes should be especially paid to frontline officers and support staff who work relentlessly to bring offenders to justice and keep communities safe from those who would cause them harm.”
