Crime figures at variance on trend in violence

Friday January 27, 2006
The Guardian

Robberies rose by 11% as part of a general 4% rise in violent incidents in England and Wales over the past 12 months, according to crime figures recorded by the police released yesterday.
But this partial picture contrasted sharply with results from the British Crime Survey - seen by criminologists as more authoritative - which measures people's experience of crime. These showed that violent crime fell by 5% over the same period and overall crime, including burglary and car theft, was down by 2%. The latest quarterly police figures also suggest a 1% fall in overall crime in the same period - the 12 months to September 2005.

Discrepancies between the two sets of crime data prompted the home secretary, Charles Clarke, to announce a cross-party group of experts to look at ways of increasing public confidence in the crime figures. "Despite the fact that most crime categories are falling, fear of crime is still too high and public perception is often at odds with reality," said Mr Clarke.

"I want to get to a situation, on a cross-party basis, where we all agree on how crime in this country is going to be measured and are produced in a way that commands public credibility."

He acknowledged that the 11% rise in robberies recorded by the police to 92,000 incidents in England and Wales caused the most concern among the public but insisted that it followed reductions thanks to the recent street crime initiative. Educational packs are going to schools warning teenagers to protect personal possessions, including mobiles and MP3 players.

Police recorded crime figures also show drug offences up by 19% over the year to September, but continuing falls in burglary (down 7%) and car crime (down 4%).

The BCS results, which are based on interviews with 46,000 people over 16, show the risk of being a victim of crime, at 23%, is the lowest since the survey started in 1981. The long-term trend shows that crime in England and Wales rose between 1981 and 1995 and has been falling every year since. The BCS estimates that violent crime has fallen by 43% in the last decade.

The latest murder figures show that there were 839 homicides in England and Wales - a fall of 20 over the previous year. Gun crime rose by 1% from 10,950 to 11,110 incidents, with about 4,000 of them resulting in physical injury.

Home Office research published yesterday showed that the deployment of 6,000 community support officers has made the public feel safer but found no evidence that they were having any impact on levels of crime and disorder.

Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and senior police officers welcomed the cross-party review. But Tory MP Nick Herbert said the figures showed that the government was continuing to fail on gun crime and violent crime.