Crime continues to fall in Britain

London: Crime levels are continuing to fall steadily, according to the latest statistics, with offences recorded by the police in England and Wales dropping by 5 per cent over the past year.

Latest responses to the annual crime survey the other official measure of offending, based on interviews rather than police figures — show an even greater decline of 7 per cent. to a level that is less than half its peak in 1995.

Within that overall pattern, however, there are significant exceptions: muggings have risen sharply by 8 per cent and sexual offences are up by 9 per cent over the past 12 months. Fraud is up 21 per cent.

The increases in sex offences may be due, according to the Office for National Statistics, to a ‘Yewtree effect’ following the police operation investigating allegations against Jimmy Savile and other historic sex offences. The publicity is thought to have encouraged more victims to come forward.

The rise in muggings, which comes under the category of ‘theft from the person’, is likely to reflect the fact that more people are carrying expensive mobile phones and electronic gadgets, which makes them easy street targets.

The increase in fraud is partially attributed to more centralised recording of dishonesty offences by the police. In the year ending June 2013, 230,335 fraud offences were recorded.

The figures show that there were 3.7 million crimes recorded by police to the year ending June 2013, making it the lowest level since the current method of recording offences was begun in 2002-03.

The higher figure of 8.5 million crimes, detailed in the Crime Survey for England and Wales from the past year, is the lowest level since the series of interviews began in 1981. The survey traditionally produces different statistics from police figures because not all crimes are reported to police.

The survey showed that as many as 800,000 children aged between 10 and 15 experienced crimes.

There were an additional 1m offences dealt with by the courts in the year ending March 2013 (the latest period for which figures are available), which are not included in the police recorded crime figures. These cover less serious crimes such as speeding offences, which are dealt with by magistrates courts.

Welcoming new crime statistics for the year to June 2013, crime prevention minister Norman Baker said: “Police reform is working and crime is falling. Recorded crime has dropped yet again, by more than 10per 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 while cutting crime and delivering a better service to the public.”

— Guardian News & Media Ltd