Measuring Crime And Crime Statistics

Measuring Crime and Crime Statistics.

The statistics show that the rates of crime in the U.K. were low until the 1950s where there was a steady increase which peaked in the mid 1990s – since then there has been a steady decline. However the figures gathered by the social actors (police, courts, justice system, government etc.) are not reconciled by the figures garnered by the victimisation study carried out by CSEW.

Latest CSEW figures estimate there were 6.8 million crimes against households and resident adults (16 years and over), a drop of 7% from 7.3 million in the previous year. Reflecting the continuing downward trend reflected by OCS. CSEW started collecting information on crimes against young people in 2009 and have been collecting figures for this category annually; they recorded an estimated 709,000 crimes against young people (10 -15 years) during the same time period. This was of no relevant change to the previous year.

The police recorded 3.8 million offences for the same time period, which reflects a rise in crime levels according to their published figures. This reflects an increase in crime mainly driven by rises in the volume of violence against the person offences. There is a marked disparity between the number of police recorded crime and those experienced by the population – there is a difference of 3 million crimes!